Starting a Blog

All journeys start with a single step.

I guess the same is true of blogs. You just put one foot in front of the other.

As I type this entry, my printer is squeaking away, producing copies of my print mystery 'zine, The Vorpal Blade. Named for a weapon used by a beamish boy to defeat a Jabberwock in Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem, The Vorpal Blade is dedicated to sharing my own nonsense about book collecting, religion, politics, or whatever else I care to wave the blade about.

LIBRARY THINGism

I've been using whatever spare time I don't have to enter the books on my shelves into a LibraryThing catalog. For those who aren't familiar with it. . .

LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth.

So far, I've plugged 2,976 of my books into the system. You can take a peek at my books here. 2,425 of the books are tagged as Mysteries (including crime, suspense, etc.). 141 volumes of short stories, 117 Dell Mapbacks, 85 Doubleday Crime Club editions. 225 books are tagged as signed, although I didn't start checking for signatures until I was halfway through my hardcovers.

112 books were written by Ellery Queen (Dannay and Lee) or edited by Ellery Queen (Dannay). 54 books are by John Dickson Carr (aka Carter Dickson). There are 34 Erle Stanley Gardners and 57 Ed McBains (including books written under his name, Evan Hunter, as well as a few as by Richard Marsten).

A cornerstone of my collection is the section of books by Lawrence Block. I have 132 volumes, but haven't catalogued them yet. Stay tuned.