Pinterest!

My newest online obsession. At first I thought, "Pff. Why in the world would anyone spend their time flipping through someone else's photo album?" I don't consider myself especially visually oriented, so I dismissed the idea.

After I'd heard about it a dozen times, though, I registered. On a whim. And have subsequently lost hours.

HOURS of my life that I'll never get back. Hours I consider, if not well spent, then at least charmingly entertained.

I've giggled at the funnies, had tears start in my eyes at the touching, been awed by the breathtaking, and followed all kinds of links to new and unusual places.

For those of you who are woefully behind the times, Pinterest is a site where people can make their own public albums of things they've seen around the web that catch their eye. If you had a big pinboard at home where you tack up all the pictures that you've cut out of magazines, or ideas for things you always mean to do or get, that's basically what Pinterest is about. It's a giant, virtual pinboard. The best part is that you get to see what everyone else is pinning, too! So you end up following their pinboards because they find the coolest stuff for you to pin onto your own board. Then you follow the pinboards that *they're* pinning and so on and so on until it turns into a giant Pinterest Prell commercial. (If you're too young to get that reference, I don't want to know.)

I started out with two boards of my own. One for my covers because, hey, that's part of my job description, and one for everything else.

Last night, I had to add two more boards, bringing my total up to ... ok, I went to see how many boards I had and got lost for half an hour. Thirteen boards.

Libraries - pictures of bookshelves, bookstores, book collections, and yes, libraries.

Keep Calm - my collection of "Keep Calm and ..." sayings and posters.

Books Worth Reading - covers of my favorite classics and keepers.

Bookfessions - sayings about reading, literature, readers and books.

Readers - pictures of readers, famous and not. Who knew that Marilyn Monroe was an avid reader?

Steampunk - duh. Of course I have a Steampunk file.

Writer Gear - sayings and doodads about and for the writer's life.

Myths That Move Me - anything that reminds me of a story I once heard, including mythology, folklore and fairytales.

Picturesque - at first, this was my catchall for things that caught my eye for their beauty. Now, I'm trying to keep it to photos of nature.

Random Great Stuff - funnies and Sherlock and Nathan Fillion.

My covers - I can't tell you how thrilled I was when someone repinned one of my covers!

And my two newest boards, Beautiful Fashions - because people keep pinning gorgeous dresses and stunning jewelry - and Luscious Noms - because people keep pinning pictures of food and my keyboard is getting all drooly.

It's actually been a great way to get to know people, too. Who knew that some of my friends were such fashionistas? Or that they had an abiding interest in cakes or trees or astronomy or all kinds of cool stuff? Sure, I could be writing or folding laundry instead of surfing Pinterest, but let's get real. The world needs more pictures of Nathan Fillion.

Want to see my pretties? Check out my Pinterest boards!