Adil Zeshan 

RECENTLY I HAD the honour of being interviewed by the incomparable Tom Paine for the best Anglospheric podcast around: Shire Network News. It was about my intellectual journey back to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - in other words, my induction into the great Zionist Conspiracy.

When I was asked to appear on the show, I was delighted. I have been listening to Shire Network News for many months now and the quality of commentary is always excellent. The combination of scrutiny and occasional mockery is superb, but there is no analytical depth sacrificed in whatever subject matter is being discussed. It is very clear that the hosts know that their listeners are intelligent people; there is no oratory or polemic being hurled around anywhere. And as a listener, I certainly have never heard them address me as "You people".

Each SNN show is something truly rare, and I recommend the podcast highly. It's better than what I hear on radio, given that the podcast is a whole lot more fun and educational. How many shows can boast to have interviewed people like Andrew Roberts, Douglas Murray, Mark Steyn, Raphael Israeli, Robert Spencer, Walid Phares... and so on?

Shire Network News. It rocks.

(Oh, and Tom: about my Cosmic-Zionist-Conspiracy-inductee cheque - just why have I not received it yet, hmm?)

Adil Zeshan

ANTHONY DANIELS, a British doctor and famed writer, once wrote:

Whenever I enter someone’s house, I feel myself irresistibly (perhaps unresistingly would be a more honest way of putting it) drawn to his bookshelves. All flesh is grass, of course, but since Gutenberg at least, all mind is print. And absences from shelves are almost as telling as presences.

A few days ago, I clicked over to Martin Kramer's website, where I saw mention of a new tool called LibraryThing. LT is a rather savvy app that allows you to catalogue online what's on your bookshelves; each book can be assigned under multiple categories if needed, complete with ratings and commentary should one wish to add them.

It's also a tad addictive, surprisingly. I've much more to catalogue (nearly 450 books are online so far, which isn't a lot, really), as well as having to categorise and rate every item properly. Nonetheless, while logging each book, I've experienced the happy side-effect of physically re-organising my books in a much better fashion. I've also been able to identify, after having dredged up some considerable rubbish as well, what I really do need to get rid of once and for all.

What's also surprised me is how much I have of each category of book. I'd long assumed that the type of book I had most of fell under the rubric of evolutionary psychology. But it actually turns out that I have at least twice as many books on militant Islam - and I've not even finished cataloguing those particular shelves yet.

I'm confident that many in the blogosphere will take to LibraryThing quite easily, especially in view of the fact that LT identifies other folks who also catalogue similar books.

I've added a link to the sidebar. Meaning: I like it a lot.

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