NOTCOT.org strikes again — this time alerting me to the hottest piece of watch I’ve seen in ages… this new Philippe Starck from Fossil’s Philippe Starck Collection. It’s a men’s watch. It’s called “Veiled”. I want it. This watch is seriously cool. I mean,

“The crystal is specially electroplated to mimic the breaks in the bracelet, and the sides of the case continue the effect with carefully etched details for design continuity. The crown is a case-back pusher to continue the uncluttered elegance of this style. The shiny stainless steel bracelet is designed to remain thin and comfortable wtih hidden links.”

My surgery wrist is still swollen and all my women’s watches are sort of tight, so a men’s watch might not be a horrible idea. I don’t know if they could take out a link or two from the back since the design seems to be pretty tight… but I could always ask. Just look at it!

I shall now go through the other new items in my Google Reader tab and see what’s going on in this big old world. One I’m definitely going to look at more closely is this one from the Freakonomics blog entitled, “If Public Libraries Didn’t Exist, Could You Start One Today?” Dubner caught my eye with his numbered list (all italics mine):

…you could argue that, in the long run, libraries augment overall book sales along at least a few channels:

1. Libraries help train young people to be readers; when those readers are older, they buy books.

Absolutely… my habit of hoarding books was fostered and supported early in life (9, 10, 11 years old) by librarians who would cheer me on when I asked if I was allowed to take out 18 books at a time… and again when I came back a few days later for more!

2. Libraries expose readers to works by authors they wouldn’t have otherwise read; readers may then buy other works by the same author, or even the same book to have in their collection.

Well, not so much anymore, but it is how it started. Even in college, I would spend the hours between classes in the Bobst Library at NYU, hanging out on the humanities and literature floors, checking out authors I knew and then just looking at the surrounding books and picking up anything that caught my eye. Sometimes I read entire books right there in those hours between classes, and sometimes I’d go to my bookstore job later that night or that weekend and purchase the book I’d enjoyed reading at the library. Could I have done that at a bookstore? To some extent, yes… but a bookstore will generally carry books that will SELL - the independent, academic or small press is far more likely to have a shelf presence in a library than in a bookstore.

3. Libraries help foster a general culture of reading; without it, there would be less discussion, criticism, and coverage of books in general, which would result in fewer book sales.

I can’t speak on that with personal experience, but I’m sure there is truth to it as well. Partially because of the greater availability of information, but also because there are communities where libraries function as meeting places for clubs and groups - reading and otherwise. That’s not the case in my life, but I’m not a particularly social butterfly.

Back to reading those feeds.