Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

My ex-housemate Mel is visiting Oxford this weekend, which will make me very happy.  It's not the same city without her, and we'll paint the town red this weekend (or, more likely, play Scrabble.)   This might mean no post on Monday - forewarned is forearmed, and I'm sure you'll get through the day!  But for now, a link, a blog post, and a whole mound of books.

1.) The link - is a free library!  "The only rule is that there are no rules" - books can be borrowed for any length of time, or even kept.  The man running this, from his home, wisely says "As a book caretaker, you become a full man."  Take note, OV and OVW.   Oh, and it's in one my very favourite cities, Manila in the Philippines.  (WHY didn't I visit when I was there?)  Read more here.  I know a few of you live in Manila - have you ever been?

2.) The book - comes from beautiful Folio Books (thank you!) - a rather lovely edition of The Wind in the Willows, which I haven't read since I was about 12.  I'll probably have a re-read soon, and will post more then, but I promised Ozal a link to Folio's page on the book asap. 

3.) The blog post - is Victoria/Litlove's fascinating discussion-opener on writing blog reviews.  She also includes links to other posts, which will send you off into one of those link-blog-link-blog spirals that could be gloriously unending.  Well, that's what it did for me.  Victoria's post also acts as LitCrit 101 for those who sometimes feel out of their depth in that area - and there's also a really interesting set of comments which are worth reading.

4.) The ebooks - *washes mouth out with soap*  Yes, I'm going to talk about ebooks.  The lovely people at Bloomsbury Reader got in touch to ask whether I'd like one of their Ivy Compton-Burnett ebook reprints (can one reprint an ebook?)  Obviously I couldn't accept, but I did offer to do a 'shout-out'.  So, for those of you who are yet to try Dame Ivy, Bloomsbury Reader have quite a few available as ebooks: A Heritage and Its History, Elders and Betters, Two Worlds and Their Ways, The Present and The Past, The Last and the First, A Family and a Fortune, Men and Wives, Parents and Children and even her first, disowned, novel Dolores.  The only one of those I've read is Parents and Children, which is great - and I imagine all the others are great too!  (Some are available as print-on-demand paperbacks, but at twice the price of the ebooks, and rather more than you can find the books for secondhand.)  Let me know if you try any!