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

Michelle Styles sent me a link to this hilarity that is a celebrity-laden video promoting the Year of Reading. Michelle’s (and my) favorite is the “bloke in a bar reading from a Harlequin Presents.”

Michelle tells me that as part of the Year of Reading, she is going to be the Writer in Residence for Northumberland, which is so very, very cool.

I’d like to suggest a similar program here in the US of A, wherein we all take a year off, just for reading. Anyone...? Anyone...? No?

Bollocks.

The only thing sexier than a funny skinny nerd...are two funny skinny nerds who love cats.

Watch for the Corporal Cuddling and the noises the cats make. I think I ruptured something with my giggling.

Quick update for you:

Harlan Ellison ranted in fiery fashion with a full verbal body slam about payment for writers as part of the upcoming feature documentary on Harlan Ellison, “DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH.  Check it out: *note: CUSSING! And yelling! Be warned!*

And! Thanks to a savvy reader, I have a link to Chekov’s Mistress Laura Kinsale’s response to Ellison’s rant:

Personally, I will not write novels anymore if they have to be supported by advertising. It just breaks the bond between me and the reader. There is a bond, with a print book, with something that is bought and paid for. There’s more than exchange of filthy lucre. There’s an exchange of effort, even if it’s just the effort of lugging a book home from the library. Come to think of it, maybe this is why readers become so irrationally infuriated when a book doesn’t live up to their expectations. It’s an insult to more than their pocketbooks. It’s an insult to =them=, to their self-worth. I the author have asked for their time and their mind, and I failed them.

Conversely, if the reader takes what I wrote for free, they take my time and my mind for free. They get the fun, or fulfillment, or just something to wonder about, and I get zip. This is a deeper violation than just a monetary one. I think it’s the real source of Ellison’s outrage.

And here’s your quote of the week from Ellison: “It’s the amateurs who make it tough for the professionals. If people acted professional....”

There are no words. Thanks to Shea.

What? No embedding? Damn. Watch it here. Thanks Esri Rose for the link.

Going with last week’s Japanese theme, this week’s Friday videos involve Japanese girls exercising their wrists while learning English phrases for breaking up.

The video on assault is even better.

Ennnn-joy.

If you search for “Zuiikin girls” on Youtube, you’ll find a fuckton of these, with an assortment of indispensable English phrases taught by Japanese girls in bitchin’ spandex and a mean twirly wrist workout.

You can thank me later.