NanayNette on Shelfari

By the way, people, have you checked out Shelfari yet? It's quite cool, sort of like Facebook or MySpace but for bookworms. If you've got time and broadband, I do suggest you take a look round, see who else you know is a Shelfarian and perhaps even build your own bookshelf. If you're one of the ten people on this planet who reads my blogs, you might also be interested in looking at the books I've read or are currently on my reading list. Just right-click here to open in a new window.
I don't normally pay attention to casual invites to join online networks since I'm already having trouble remembering my various usernames and passwords, but Shelfari sounded different, so I joined up. It's nice to be connected to fellow booklovers and to get ideas on what books to read next. Sometimes I just dip into my friends' bookshelves and see what books they like, what books they recommend, what books we like in common. The whole concept behind Shelfari is so simple, I'm surprised no one thought of it before.

Autumn Rocks

Fall's coming, I can feel it.

I always know when Autumn is around the corner when the wind starts to nip my fingers and ears, and this morning, bright and early, it nipped. Autumn is coming, with Winter soon on its heels, and when it comes it will never be, to my mind, too late. I guess I never want Summer to end. Who does, right?

But having my birthday right bang in the middle of the Autumn Equinox is kinda cool, I think, as it signals a change in the seasons, a new beginning. Hasn't always been so. At first, for the past two years, I thought of it as depressing for my birthday to annually be the necessary herald of the stark frozen winter days to come, but now I think of it coming, not at the end of summer, but at the beginning of fall. The beginning of the most beautiful and colourfully awesome time of the year, when the leaves turn gold and yellow and orange in a bright rage of mature defiance. Not languishing for a raw spring or a green summer that's come and gone too quickly, but rejoicing in the rich, triumphant kaleidoscope which the passing seasons have brought quietly on.

All this is sort of like me at my time of life: the now-quiet, more-pensive, mellowed-down, middle-aged (!) thirtysomething Me I never thought I'd be. But truly, given a choice, I'd much rather be 36 than 16 or 26. So I'm determined to enjoy this stage of my life and revel in it, rejoice in it, embrace it, cherish it while it's here. Like everything around us, it too is fleeting.

Autumn rocks. I love it. It's so me.