The Lynnertic

Borrowing eBooks

In the 90s my husband and I used to describe the World Wide Web to newbies as “The world’s biggest library with the pages strewn about the floor.”

My blogroll lists two sites offering impressive collections of free e-Books and scanned versions of printed books.

The Burgomeister’s Books

Of course, we’re talking about ebooks… my ebooks. My personal backups.
But since you’ve dropped by, I’m happy to lend them to you.
Naturally you’ll delete these books when you’ve finished - your way of returning them.

Download and enjoy five truly free e-books on loan from my library!

Captain Marginal’s Digital Library Aiwazzsaying offers up rare and esoteric works.

Explore other online resources through your local (brick-and-mortar) library - many offer their card holders free access to e-books, journal archives, and online news archives. Ask your reference librarian for help.

All these eBooks can be read on a 3-pound, 8-inch wide netbook that I can fit in my purse. Mine will show up in the mail any day now.

Are you a Comic Con Girl?

Blogger heloise of Jezebel.com objects to the hypersexual stereotyping of women comics fans. Her rant is pretty funny:

“The Girl’s Guide To Comic Con”: Headdesk Powers, Activate!

Is it so hard, in 2009, to accept the fact that women enjoy comic books/sci-fi novels/television programs/films/video games/etc. not because of the “studs” who appear on the screen or on the page but because of the actual content? I know it may be hard for some people to believe, but women do have interests that go beyond shoes and eating poop-inducing yogurt. “The Girls Guide To Comic Con” isn’t a guide at all, but a rundown of the “hotties” who will be appearing in some form or another at the convention. Because, as the tipster who sent this article in notes (sarcastically, of course) “Oh, us GIRLZ, all we want are to look at those handsome menfolk and vampires!”

Come on, LA Times. If you really want to write a Girl’s Guide To Comic Con (and I’m not sure it’s necessary to split Comic Con into gender specific guides, but that’s another story altogether) you could have at least had women who know what they’re talking about write the piece. Like, say, the awesome ladies of io9, for example, who would probably have much more to say about the convention than “Women will be rushing the stage, offering to do star Jake Gyllenhaal’s laundry on those washboard abs that he acquired for the film, since he spends much of it fighting, shirtless or both.” Blargh.

The Girls’ Guide To Comic Con [LATimes]

My suspicion is that the Girl’s Guide to Comic Con was actually written for boys, who may be drawn to an event teeming with girls on the prowl.

It’s more likely that “a rundown of hotties” was the only way the subject could be covered as a photo slideshow in the LATimes’ Entertainment section. What else would they show photos of, Princess Leah pillow fights?

It’s Star Wars Day

May the Fourth Be With You…

Star Wars was released when I was a kid and it captivated my entire generation. For years afterward most of our play-acting revolved around the series’ theme and characters.

Of course, every girl wanted to be Princess Leah.

Slave Leah Pillowfight is from DragonCon 2006

Sometimes competition for the role got a little out of hand. In that case, it was acceptable for a girl to take on the role of a robot or android instead. In what may have been a bit of foreshadowing, I played the part of the obnoxious know-it-all linguist C-3PO more often than not.

Some thirty-two years later, my little nieces have many different heroic characters to emulate in their games. But the character of Princess Leah was the first empowered woman I encountered in mass media.

By the way, if the Force is a space-age religion, wouldn’t she be a jihadist?