Today’s Booking Through Thursday:

What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”

I can do you one better—one of my whole favorite authors, not just a single book. Many of the people I talk with about books have heard of most of my favorite authors, at least in passing: Anne Bishop, Garth Nix, Tobias Buckell. However, almost no one has heard of Thomas Ligotti. He has a very loyal cult following among a very small number of people because he writes extremely unusual, bizarre fiction. It’s absolutely captivating. I highly recommend his Noctuary, with Songs of a Dead Dreamer coming in a close second:

When all the landscape is dying, descending fragrantly to earth, we alone rise up. After light and warmth have passed from the world, when everyone stands melancholy at the graveside of nature, we alone return to keep them company. This is our season to be reborn.

I could also list Bettie Sharpe among my little-known faves, but that’s only because she’s just barely started publishing.

Edited to add: I went and found Ligotti’s website for folks interested in exploring his work.

And, a handful of links:

• Mercury in sushi—I mourn.
• Free Fall by Isaac Marion—weird and beautiful fiction.
• Loud Neighbors—another weird and fascinating Isaac Marion story.
• Best source for specialty cooking stuff EVER: King Arthur Flour Company.
• The most bizarre item we’ve ever sold through Cafepress, and I’ll tell you right now that we’ve sold more than one: Level 70 Hottie Thong. Yes, you read that right—thong.

I missed last week’s BTT, so this time I’m doing two weeks in one!

This week:

Do you use any of the online book-cataloguing sites, like Library Thing or Shelfari? Why or why not? (Or . . . do you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking to?? (grin))

If not an online catalog, do you use any other method to catalog your book collection? Excel spreadsheets, index cards, a notebook, anything?

I’ve tried to use cataloging software once or twice, but a couple of things prevent me from actually making it work. I lack enough shelves for my books, making it impossible to dig them all up/keep track of them all, so inputting the massive amount of current ones would be prohibitive. To make it an even halfway reasonable task I’d need a barcode scanner and more bookshelves.

However, that wouldn’t make up for the fact that I’m scatterbrained and forgetful, which means that I’d soon start forgetting to input new books, and then the catalog wouldn’t be at all accurate, and I’d give up.

Last week:

This week’s question is suggested by Island Editions:

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like to see become available again? (I have several…)

Absolutely. I mourn the fact that Word Painting apparently went out of… hey wait a minute. It’s back in print!

WOOHOO! No more telling people they should track down a used copy!

Ahem. Okay. The second-most-often mourned out-of-print book in this household would be Janice Henderson’s White Chocolate cookbook.

While I’m posting, time to update on reviews. I’ve posted my third annual gift recommendations for cooks (mostly awesome cookbooks), and a review of the Baker’s Edge Pan.