As long as movies are on people's minds, I've added several of those silly movie lists to the sidebar. I'm trying to get the NYT 1000 up there, but geocities isn't taking it. I'll have to split it, I think.

We went to the Brandeis Book Sale Thursday night. As you may remember, I'm always amused by the one or two books that have seemingly fallen out of everyone's favor and are still lingering come half-price day. Last year's dubious winner was The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Going in, I thought this would be the year Dan Brown took the tumble -- if not DaVinci Code, then certainly his excrable first effort, Digital Fortress.

But no, this year's champs were:
nonfiction: The Perfect Storm is still to be had for a song. Jon Krakauer's works follow closely behind.
fiction: It looked like Primary Colors was roaring back to the lead, but the 2005 BUBS champ is the unheralded Wild Animus by Rich Shapero. Some background on this book: If you've clicked on my wife's link at left, then you're familiar with the Bookcrossing phenomenon. In a word-of-mouth campaign that seemed good at the time, some deal was reached where each BXer received a free copy of this book, to register and cross somewhere. Thing is, everybody HATED the book. I have a feeling Mr. Shapero will dominate the bargain-day tables for years to come. Look at the book's Amazon entry--lots of people selling new & used copies for the princely sum of one penny.