If you want to get some odd looks on public transit, read Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson. The title is so suggestive that I’ve been getting second looks and stares. It probably doesn’t help that I keep trying to suppress giggles because the book is often funny.
I discovered a really cool database today. The Mind is a Metaphor, is a free online database that currently contains 8,758 eighteenth-century metaphors of mind. It is great fun to browse and you can filter by author’s gender, nationality, occupation, politics and religion as well as by genre. You can also search by publication year. Have fun!
Via the American Library Association newsletter I found a really cool picture of the Minneapolis Public Library circa 1900. The building was in the Romanesque Revival style and built in 1884. It no longer exists which is a shame. If you scroll down the page, you can see photos of the library that was built a couple years ago. People are saying the new library reminds them of an Ikea bookshelf. That made me laugh because, well, it kinda does have that look and I never thought of it before. It’s appropriate though since so many Scandinavians–or Scandihoovians as I’ve heard said here many times–settled in the area. Heck, we’ve got a Swedish Institute here and Swedish Heritage Days celebrations. I think the Norwegians have something too. As a person of mostly German ancestry, I find it all a bit surreal but very entertaining.
Off to do some homework. Class this quarter just might be the end of me. I am very behind on blog reading and comments. Please forgive me. I hope to catch up, and then fall behind again, in the next day or so.
Assuredly, that is a very sexy-sounding title!
I also got some strange looks on the bus the other day.
Mind you, I happened to be reading, at the time, a book about 18th-Century bestiality, entitled –> Sexy, But Hairy.
By Claude N. Lovingitt.
Rabble rouser.
The old library sounds wonderful.
I can only imagine the looks you got. The Mind is a Metaphor is a great find. I’m definitely going to spend a lot of time playing around that site.
You’re a brave woman to read that book on the bus!
And now I really want to know of St. Augustine thought the mind and body were like a centaur or a team of horses!
I must get my copy of Sexing the Cherry out. So glad you are enjoying it – I loved it the first time around and am looking forward to the second. Great link to the metaphors of the mind site, too. Oh and Scandihoovians made me laugh!
You’re doing such a good job keeping up the blog while working full-time (in a new job!) and taking classes — it’s perfectly understandable if you fall behind a bit or take some time off! It should be an interesting discussion about Winterson. She’s not my favorite author, but I’m not particularly happy that I feel this way …
“I hope to catch up, and then fall behind again, in the next day or so.” — I can so relate to that statement
This weekend I’m planning to go hang out at the bookstore cafe with my copy of Sexing the Cherry. I can’t wait for the odd looks. haha…
Wow, Stephanie. Thanks for the link to The Mind is a Metaphor. What a great site/resource.
Cipriano, yes the title is interesting, no clue that it is actually referring to cherry trees! But I think your book title has got mine beat!
Carrie, heh, that’s me!
Diana, at first I didn’t notice them but when I did I was torn between feeling creeped out and laughing.
Sylvia, ah, the problems caused by the digital age when can ferret out the conflicting metaphors of great thinkers.
Litlove, I didn’t realize you had read Sexy the Cherry before. I am interested to know what you think of the second reading of it. Visit Minnesota sometime and you’ll get lots of laughs. Scandihoovians is just the tip of the iceberg!
Dorothy, aw, you are so nice! Winterson should make for a very interesting discussion, especially since you have me curious about why you are not happy she is not a favorite.
Iliana, be sure to try reading in different sections of the bookstore and report back if you got different looks based on what genre you were reading near
Qugrainne, glad you like the Mind if a Metaphor! I had a hard time pulling myself away from it.
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I’ll be taking my book on the bus tomorrow. Actually I think it is back to Dickens in the morning and Sexing the Cherry for the rest of the day (I wonder what my evening bus companion–the lady shocked to see me with TWO books will say–I’ll make sure to hold it up high so she can get a good view–LOL). Love the old library, by the way–older architecture is sometimes so much more interesting than some of the stuff they build these days. And good luck getting caught up on blog reading. That’s what I was going to do tonight….but ….
Huh. Reminds me of a few years ago when I was reading Jennifer Wiener’s Good in Bed while riding the exercise bike at the gym. Thanks for the Mind is a Metaphor site!