Horrible, Horrible Glee

This week, I'm cementing my position in at least the fourth circle of hell.

• I can't take credit for this list, but I wish I could: 50 Reasons No One Wants to Publish Your First Book, from Bookgasm. Especially numbers 6, 25 and 45. And 4, 5, and 50 deserve special mention as well. Mark this one with a star and hide it away to read at home, because it's so very, very NSFW. Tweeted by SmartBitches.
• You've heard of the Bulwer-Lytton award for bad writing, right? Seems they left out the Children's category this year. Fie upon you, gentlemen and ladies. Fie, I say! But never fear. From Cheryl Klein (by way of a Tweet from Gregory K. Pincus) comes this challenge to cook up your own awful children's writing. Can you compete with the utterly delicious submissions already in the comments?
• Well, okay, this one probably won't send me to hell, unless you believe that anything Harry-Potter-related consigns one to the flames. The blog Cake Wrecks marked the release of the Half-Blood Prince movie with a magical Sunday Sweets. I'm told there's some acrimony in the comments, but I just drooled over the cakes.
  
• Oh, lord, I almost forgot the TwiLOL. How did I survive before this existed in my life? (Answer: prty well akshuly.)
  

Varigated Glee

It's Friday again, which means that we need more glee!

• Jen Robinson Tweeted this one: You Know You're a Book Blogger When . . . Um. Guilty.
• Doubtless you've heard of the uproar over Francesca Lia Block's Baby Be-Bop and one Wisconsin group's determination to see it burn. A teen reacts, most marvelously. Thanks to Liz Burns for the informative Tweet.
• And it just wouldn't be a Friday Glee post without some manner of Twilight bashing. But this . . . is just fantabulous.

Admit It, You're Going to Ask For This Cake Now

Courtesy of Cake Wrecks: A Twilight Cake.

I hope it's at least chocolate. There's got to be something good about that cake.

And You Thought I Was Going to Leave Twilight Alone

Found this one via Fuse #8: the Twilight series in just sixteen panels. Laughed inordinately.

It also satisfied any lingering wisp of desire I ever had to read the second two books in the series. My favorite bit is Jacob's "Phooey." No, I'm not telling you the context. Click through already!

Like You Needed It . . .

. . . proof that I'm a gigantic dork: Pride and Prejudice told via Facebook updates.

Snrk.

I'm Ba-ack . . .

Boy, did I miss a lot of good stuff in the kidlitosphere over the past couple of weeks. The flap over Newberys in the Washington Post (or reflap, really, since the original Anita Silvey article is old news), various best-of lists, and all the stuff I'm still catching up on in my blog reader.

So what do I choose to post?

LOLHP from Maggie Stiefvater. Abso-freakin-lutely. Just what I needed to reestablish my reputation as a serious blogger who makes serious comments about the serious issues of the day. Seriously.

Thanks, Bookshelves of Doom!

The Ultimate Exception

So I was at Target today, and I had given myself strict instructions. Self, I said, you are not to buy anything that is not a container for packing things in. You are here for things in the Rubbermaid family. No cute shoes, no Christmas shirts, no makeup, no plants, no candles, none of that.

Yes, ma'am, I replied meekly.

Did anyone notice the one huge, towering weakness I subconsciously left out of my self-lecture? I went home with two not-really-but-close-enough Rubbermaid tubs and one copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Books are always an exception.

Also, this was waiting for me in Google Reader when I got home:


more animals

Heee.

More Twilight Bashing

Go see Hijinks Ensue from a few days ago and see why I laughed helplessly for about thirty seconds straight.

I am a bad, bad person.

Jeez, Edward, Buy a Brush

And after yesterday's thorny issues, today I just wanted a snicker. So here it is.

Lest ye forget, Pattinson and Stewart are Edward and Bella, respectively, in the upcoming Twilight movie. I think I would have liked the books better if scenes like this had been included.

From the Annals of Ludicrousity . . .

Harry Potter sock yarn.

Oh yes.

One presumes that actual socks knitted out of this actual yarn will never get lost, or at the very least, scream if they get too smelly. Or is that too much to hope for?

Thanks to Bookshelves of Doom for the link.

PS Does the word "annals" just sound dirty in itself to anybody else? No? Just me then.

The Fug Girls Are At It Again . . .

They're ragging on Twilight again, this time the theatrical poster. I need a sixty-second laugh-myself-silly break now.

Talk Like a Pirate Day is Here!

. . . for about four more hours, according to my clock. In honor of what's probably my favorite holiday, here's a hilarious little vid for y'all.



Thanks to Zooglobble for the heads-up. Arrrrr!

Further Evidence of My Extreme Dorkitude

This totally slays me. I mean, falling off the chair, lint in my hair, ribs-aching, slays me. It is so nerdy that it actually succumbs to Einsteinian physics and becomes cool.

Enjoy.

Today's Giggle . . .

. . . is brought to you by the ladies at Oops . . . Wrong Cookie.

I have to cast my vote for Jewel's masterpiece, which has the added bonus of being the most likely title on this whole list to actually be written, oh god, save us please.

Filled With Glee

I was just reminded about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and now I'm passing that on to you. What does this have to do with children's and YA lit?

Uh, well, it's helmed by Joss Whedon, whose iconic Buffy the Vampire Slayer was all about the experience of being a teenager and growing up . . . and, um, it's on the internet, and these kids today, they like this internet thing . . . and uh, it's a subversive pastiche of comic book paradigms and . . . and . . .

Oh, the heck with it. I don't even know what "pastiche" means (or "paradigms" for that matter). You guys, it's a supervillain musical written by Joss Whedon.

Let's go over that again.

Supervillain.

Musical.

Joss Whedon.

You can go now. But quick, because it's only up until July 20th. Me, I'm gonna go sing "Brand New Day" for sixteenth time.

Because God Knows There's Nothing to Watch on TV

Seriously, you guys, this made me want to become an astronaut.



There are various discussions on book trailers on various lists. Do they work, don't they, what are the components of a good book trailer, are they even worth the time. I like this one, although not having read Kitty, Kitty yet (sob!) I can't say yet whether it has much to do with the book in question.

ETA: because I'm a dork and didn't notice that the HTML for the videos was strangely truncated.

I Concur

. . . as I usually do with the Unshelved Book Club strips that concern books I've read. Today's is about everybody's favorite walking, talking, magical skeleton with a snarkalicious preteen sidekick, Skulduggery Pleasant, and the book thereof.

I know it seems like that's a pretty small category, but seriously, there are more of those than you'd think.

Another Game to Make You Smile

After spending close to 50 dollars to fill up my itty-bitty car, this game made me happy.

Happy-Making!

I have awake since about 4 am, a combination of stomach upset and stress from a work situation, both of which are enormous amounts of fun, I can assure you.

Since I was up anyway, I decided to watch all the links and videos on my Bloglines that I can't watch at work because a) the library computers don't have flash and b) for some reason people don't respect a librarian who is giggling like an idiot at the reference desk. Yeah, I don't get it either.

Anyway, here's a few happy-making things.

1. This book. Eeee!

2. Gallagher Girls 3 has a release date. True, it's in 2009 (June 9, to be exact), but it's only 363 days away!

3. You know you want to spend most of your morning playing this. You're welcome.

Kids' Lit in the Funny Pages.

Hehehe.