Want to talk about MASTER AND COMMANDER?

Chat about Patrick O'Brian with me today at 4:30 PM EST (3:30 CST, 1:30PST, 11:30AM Hawaii time, 10:30PM CET -- is that everybody?). Look for the link over here.

(This is what my copy looks like, displaying the episode in the book where the "Sophie" is menaced by Russell Crowe's ginormous head and epic seriousface.)

January Unbookening got it all wrong

An inauspicious beginning to the new year:

Checked 18 out from the library
Got 13 to review
Bookmooched 1 (Patrick O'Brian's MASTER AND COMMANDER, for Wrapped Up in Books)
32 in

Returned 14 to the library
Donated 8
Lent 2
Gave 2
26 out

Ouch! I didn't even buy anything! (But not for lack of trying; I hit a few bookstores over the weekend looking for WINTER'S TALE, without success.)

The reasonable explanation for this is that at the end of December my cache of review books was pretty empty, and then starting in January books for the next few months flooded in. But I knew that was going to happen, and I could have made more room. Well, better luck next month.

Not counted on either list: the e-book I checked out from the NYPL (yep, I'm getting back on that horse!) or the book I finished on the Kindle. I'm not sure how digital books should factor in given that the original goal of this enterprise was to reduce or manage my physical book collection. At the same time, buying or borrowing a lot of e-books also creates a kind of clutter. What do you think?