Carnivalesque

The current issue of Carnivalesque (Ancient/Medieval Edition) is up at A Corner of Tenth Century Europe. Carnivalesque is a monthly Blog Carnival devoted, on a bi-montly basis, to either Early Modern topics, or to Ancient and Medieval topics concurrently. Jonathan has organised the carnival into handy blocks- 'the ancients'; 'in the ground'; 'death; 'sex'; and 'medievalists looking back'. If any of these tickle your procrastinatory fancy, head on over and check it out.

Jonathan was kind enough to give me *two* plugs :) Although he did suggest that my blogging over at The Naked Philologist remains 'more eccentric than naked'. How's he to know what state I blog in, I ask you? Furthermore, in the 'sex' section, he seems to think that I might not invest in the strictest safety measures when getting tied up in scandalous middle english subtext. I feel my honour has been slighted.

That aside, Jonathan is an excellent bloke, who defines blog success in these terms:

You see, this is success, this is. I started this blog about eighteen months ago, it struggled in obscurity for a while, and then recently it’s netted me two invitations to submit papers and praise from bloggers generally at Kalamazoo and now I have erudite women cracking bondage gags—er, jokes—in my comments.

So far, there's only JLJ and I holding up that last standard. If you have conference invitations, praise, or bondage jokes to add to the mix, I'm sure he'd be delighted.

Bookstores

It's a fine line between “used book store” and “mosh pit.”

Dean Dad shares tales of his bookshopping adventures, including the discovery of a fabulous-sounding title, 'American Nerd: the story of my people'.

This makes me excited, because I have agreed to participate in a new sport, devised by areyoustrange, who can't be trusted to look the same the second time you meet her.
The rules:

Basically, you round up a group of your bibliophilic friends, get them tipsy-but-not-drunk, and go to the biggest secondhand book shop you can find. Everyone has fifteen minutes to find the most hysterical book title they can manage, bonus points for a funny cover, and at the end the losers pitch in to buy the winning title.

Play it in a bookstore near you.