Yup! It's Link Day Again!

As per the norm, I'm overloaded with linkage.  It just piles up. They reproduce like bunnies, filling my bookmarks bar and inbox with baby links just begging to be shared.  What is a girl to do?  In my ever present need to not be considered a hoarder, or a collector, for that matter, I just keep them moving.  

• We'll start with this oldie from Flavorwire:  10 of the Most Cryptic Texts in the World.  So, the first one kind of reminds me of the books in Deborah Harkness's Discovery of Witches trilogy. I always want to find and understand books like that. However, I totally think that James Joyce's Ulysses fits the bill here.  And, the author of this piece, Alison Nastasi includes the crazy coded messages of the Zodiac Killer.  I read Robert Graysmith's book about it. That's the one they made the movie from with Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey, Jr. I found it pretty amazing that they published the message in the newspaper and some regular guy solved it like it was one of those cryptoquizzes they print up on the comics page, next to the daily jumble.  
• Staying with the visual for a moment here, we've got Alison Peter's post over at Book Riot.  It's called Creative Book Marketing: Awesome  Bookstore Signage Edition and it includes photos of signs posted in a Perth bookstore.  This place should sell out daily, with the incredibly clever signs posted by Adam Peter Scott, the store's assistant manager. Every book is a TARDIS! How cool is that?
• Buzzfeed fellow, Adam Ellis posts an article, 14 Books That Traumatized  You as a Kid.  Some of these are "gimmes", some of these are right on the money and some of them make me wonder, just how much of a wimp Mr. Ellis thinks we all are/were. I made the mistake of listening to Where The Red Fern Grows on audio in the car recently.  Don't do that. No one should be on display like that when they are crying their freaking eyes out.
• No one disputes that the Harry Potter books were wonderful, or that the movies were pure genius, the way they brought life, so faithfully to JK Rowling's stories. They made it seem easy.  Everyone must have figured that it really could be done... and then so very many of them failed, miserably.  Flavorwire's Sarah Fonder discusses 8 Children's Film Franchises That Tried -- and Failed  -- To Be the Next Harry Potter.  She's right. None of these managed to do it.  I still believe it can be done and that plenty of people are trying very hard to make it happen.  I don't know that this is a matter of bottling lightning. The next great adaptation is out there, I just know it.
• Last month, Brain Pickings was talking about Charles Osgood's Funny Letters From Famous People.  You've probably seen quite a few of the letters posted elsewhere on the internet.  Maria Popova at Brain Pickings posted, back in September, another of these fascinating finds. This one, where James Joyce discusses the mythology of James Joyce..  Funny how much stuff people make up about other people. Well, I guess, unless it happens to be you they are making stuff up about. In that case, I guess it wouldn't be quite so funny.
• Emily Temple at Flavorwire brought October to a close with these, 13 of the Best Literary Quotes About Beer. I've never given much thought to discussion of beer in literature (if you don't count all the times Virgil Flowers cracks open a Leinie's). I am content to take Ms. Temple's word for it here.
• Here, in New Jersey, same sex marriage is recognized and legal (it's about time, too).  In honor of the married and soon to be married same sex couples I happen to be extremely fond of, here's Flavorwire's article entitled 10 Famous Works of Literature with Queer Subtexts.  Face it, folks, they're everywhere, time to learn to accept all of your fellow humans.
• I'll close out today with this article from Huff Post Books, the 17 Most Screwed Up Relationships  in Books.. These are doozies!

That's going to do it for the moment.  I'll be back with the next litter of links, far too soon.


Oh, and P.S.:  On the Clean Out Your E-Reader Challenge, I have begun my first book, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.  I'm so envious of all the bloggers with their organized thoughts who came up with their lists.  You guys are my heroes!  I can't wait to see what it looks like when people make lists AND can stick to them.  I'm going to learn a lot from this challenge... and clean out some of those freebie books I can't stop myself from downloading!