Lipstick & Magazines #28: Item

Sometimes you just wanna scroll. Not too many bells and whistles, just interesting articles, product reviews, and, of course, pretty things.

Arts & Letters Daily has the look of a newspaper and the content of a hundred newspapers. You will find something to read here no matter what you're interested in. Promise. A great site for those moments when you are so sick of sitting in front of a computer and yet, you must sit there for awhile longer.

Shopping blog Mighty Goods has its style down pat. Photo of the item (99% of which I go, yeah, that is very cool, I do want that), a short, pithy description, and a direct link to buy. Done. Shopping fix satisfied.

Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired, has his Cool Tools, the geekier version of Mighty Goods.

And India Romeo, while not serving the same scroll-happy purpose of the last three, is just full of so many gorgeous handmade "lovely things for lovely people" that I must share. These bird mobiles are my fave - sure you could make your own, but she already made them for you!

Shop well.

Lipstick & Magazines #27: Recommend

I subscribe to a monthly Trend Watching newsletter that excels at creating new marketing buzz-words. My fave thus far has been "Twinsumer," which they descibe as "taste 'twins': fellow consumers somewhere in the world who think, react, enjoy and consume the way they do." I get this - it's really what blogs are all about, helping us find people "like us" who are weeding through what's out there and can help us narrow in on what we like and want.

A few blogs I've been devouring recently, in search of my perfect twinsumer:

Design Sponge - stellar taste, lots of unique home products recommended

San Francisco Gourmet - fascinatingly anal reviews of restaurants, restaurant reviewers, and more

LJCFYI - always cute, always fun

My Little Mochi - May be TOO cute for some - beware.

Also, Yelp.com, which is part high school yearbook, part review site, is quite entertaining- much more personality and spark than citysearch.com - especially if you like to put a face (or kitten face or pretty image) with a review. A handy source of lists (best SF brunch, good romantic restaurants, etc.)

Lipstick & Magazines #26: Book

OK, I will now let you all know (again for some - way too much for others) that I am currently working on a very cool program called One City One Book: San Francisco Reads, which is our readerly city's first attempt at a citywide book club, following in the well-shaped footsteps of Seattle, Chicago, and other cities.

If you're from these parts, please do me the honors of reading China Boy, taking part in a discussion or walking tour, and checking out "my" list of novels set in San Francisco - I was surprised that this wasn't all ready for me to use somewhere in Google-land - I had to put it together myself, with help from my librarian-friends of course.

Let me also put a plug in for the upcoming Big Book Sale, put on by the Friends of the SFPL. If you've never been to this, it's joyous madness. If you have, you already know what I'm talking about and I'll see ya there at the end of the month.

And finally, a recent read, The Myth of You and Me. Friendship lost novel meets literary mystery - I loved it.