Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Here’s a story that might bring out the most virulent argument this site has seen yet: a woman was arrested for failing to return two books to the library for over a year.

Somewhere, a librarian just stood up and cheered. As someone who always wants the book that someone else won’t return, I hear you, librarian, I hear you.

But handcuffs? Wow:

[Heidi] Dalibor did not respond to four notices from the library, two phone calls and two letters. The library forwarded the case to police, who issued a citation for Dalibor’s failure to return the materials or pay the fine. The citation included a court date, which Dalibor admits she ignored.

Which books? White Oleander and Angels & Demons.

Seriously?

Julia, who forwarded me the link, asked, “What books would you go to jail for? What about the SBTB readers? Are there books you’d go to prison over?”

I honestly have to say that in this specific circumstance, I’d give the library back its book and buy my own damn copy, because Dalibor looks kind of like, no, wait, exactly like an asshole for saying, “I still have the books and I don’t plan to return them because they’re paid for now.”

But are there books I’d go to jail before giving up? Sure. Are the police at the door? Crap, I better go look.

Got plans today? Kathryn gave me a heads up (or something) that today is Go Topless’s protest day around the US, where women will gather without shirts to protest the ridiculous standards which make it socially acceptable for men to go topless, but not women. The New York City gathering place is the Merchant’s Gate of Central Park, aka the Columbus Circle entrance across from the Time Warner center. Other cities hosting topless rallies include Bloomington, Chicago, Miami and Omaha. The Denver rally will be on the 26th to coincide with the start of the DNC (Welcome to Denver! Here are our boobs!)

I think this is just awesome, but I have one word of caution: women, please, trust me on this. Wear sunscreen. Especially on your nipples. I recommend SPF 45+ lip balm as a sunscreen for your nipples. It tends to stay on longer.

Happy topless day! Hope someone breastfeeds while this is going on because that would just underscore the awesome. 

To the members of the RWA Down Under - have a great conference! I hope it goes splendidly! 

If you get your books digital…

Gimme an E or I’ll…

OK, clearly my cold-medicine addled brain is not going to come up with something clever, but a recent kerfuffle online has revealed a rather interesting facet of the eBook revolution: once a devoted, glomming reader (such as myself) is introduced to the power and ease of the eBook, going back to paper is not as satisfactory.

It’s true. I know there are some die-hard paper-lovin’ folks out there, and I’m not knocking your preference, but I know that once I got hooked on having the Kindle-Ade with me all the time, with unlimited books at my fingertips, to say nothing of the wirelessly connected bookstore, carrying around a paper book seems so… heavy. And limiting.

Seems I’m not the only one who got herself hooked on the savvy, sexy ease of the e and wants more more more: Chris Meadows at the Teleread blog gives a synopsis of a kerfuffle at Tor‘s site/blog. Tor hyped the launch of their upcoming site with free ebooks. Oh, delicious free ebooks, how I love thee.

Tina sent me this column from MSN about the grammatical debate of “bad v. badly” and I just want to say, in utter truthfulness, I don’t just feel bad, or badly. I feel like crap. My personal feverishness aside, I also have to admit: I love that the internet makes room in publications for columns that explore the most nitliest of nitpicky grammar questions, because that stuff just fires up my brain in a good way (as opposed to the bad way I’ve got going on right now).

This link is as much a note to self as it is a link for y’all. I need a better cover for the Kindle, and M-Edge’s Leisure Jacket for the Amazon Kindle is pretty spiffy, except for the title. Leisure Jacket?! It’s a Kindle Condom! Seriously, who named that? Someone with no sense of humor? Yeah, baby, you wanna play with my Kindle? Let me slip it out of its leisure jacket....