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  • The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."
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February 16, 2005

IKEA. BILLY. $79 EACH.

We're settling in, thanks for asking.  Some photos will come once we uncover the cable that connects the camera to the PC but until it's probably enough for you to know that our books were unpacked before our clothing.

Promised posts on the Vermin on the Mount reading, as well as the LATBR Thumbnail for the week, are en route but delayed.  We plan to have them up around lunchtime today, so please do check back.

As for the move itself, the interesting thing that's come out of it is that the subject that seems to fascinate you all endlessly has nothing to do with the trenchant literary criticism or coverage of local events we provide.  It has to do with our bookshelves.  Nothing's gotten as many comments in the last few months as our empty bookcases.

So here's our big secret: Ikea, baby.  We kid you not.

Posted by TEV at 12:30 AM |

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Yup, IKEA's "Billy" here as well. Birch-look.

Posted by:Ms Bookish | February 16, 2005 at 02:04 AM

I use Billy at Beatrice HQ, too!

Posted by:Ron | February 16, 2005 at 07:37 AM

I knew those looked familiar. I've got Billy holding up my books as well.

A former roommate of mine once splurged and went for the "Markör" (which, I must admit, sounds way cooler than Billy). It's a far more formidable-looking item:

http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/07889_PE084566_S4.jpg

(his was about twice as wide as the one in the picture)

Posted by:Scott | February 16, 2005 at 10:17 AM

Billy gets quite a workout at Casa Pete Lit, too. Or, to be more accurate, the world headquarters of Stamping Online (http://www.stampingonline.com/).

Posted by:Pete | February 16, 2005 at 12:12 PM

I need a Billy extra shelf in 34-inch width, black-brown color. which is no longer available in the US in that width. Anyone in any other country have access to this - or perhaps an old extra shelf you could sell me?

Posted by:dov | March 18, 2005 at 09:51 AM

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