For the love of words

For those of you who feel as passionately about books as you do about breathing, take a look at these sites :

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/ : A University of Virginia site that stakes its claim to be the world's largest online library, the site has hundreds of e-books, on every subject and author, which you can either read online or download. I haven't had a chance to look at it thoroughly yet, but maybe you can and then let me know if it's any good.

www.cliff1976.com is a great site for bookcrossers who covet certain books! Bookcrossing, as regular visitors to this blog know, is a site that promotes sharing books with unsuspecting strangers. The idea is to leave books where other people, complete strangers will find them - on park benches, supermarket trollies, train seats or in airport lounges. It's a great way to get rid of the unread and old books cluttering your shelves without getting the raddiwalla involved. Anyway, back to the Cliff1976 site. Bookcrossers can generate a 'wishlist' here. Leave details of books you want or are looking for and hopefully someone somewhere will have it and would give it you just like that or in exchange for a book that you have. The latter concept I believe is called a 'relay'. Check the bookcrossing site for more on relays.

There are loads of other online libraries, but I haven't yet been to many, so can't verify them yet.

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I have discovered a whole new world of writing opportunities lately. Most magazines,ezines and newspapers here have writers guidelines for submission of articles and other matter for publication. It makes so much more sense to write for an audience in mind rather than write and then find a way to sell your work. I have been sending queries for articles all over the place and I hope (fingers crossed) that I get some replies back soon!! Although, like any other fledgling writer, I know that the rejection slips are likely to pile up first before I start getting published more seriously.

If you want to get an idea of the opportunities available, just type 'Writers Guidelines' into a search engine and take a look at what turns up. You might be surprised.

Do Indian magazines/newspapers have writers/submission guidelines? I'd like to know. If anybody has any info, do drop a line, please!

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Time to return some library books today. Besides 5 of Mr.R's books on music, I am returning 6 books : Marathon Running for Dummies, Writers and Artist's Yearbook (another great source of info for writing markets), A James Patterson book (Suzanne's diary for Nicholas - have a vague feeling that I have read it before, but obviously not a memorable book, so can't remember!). Then there's Easy Indian Cooking by Sushila Vaswani, a very well written book with simple, easy to follow recipes. And Stephen King's memoir 'On Writing' which I found to be very inspirational. There's also Runners World, a magazine on running.

I've also finished reading in the past week, Tony Parsons 'The Family Way' which is easily his most gripping book since 'Man and Boy'. And because one of the principal characters in the book works as a GP and goes through identical situations like Mr.R, it was so much easier to relate to it. A good, fast paced read.

Happy reading, everybody!