Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I've had several instances where my inner nerd squee'd with joy at things the rest of the world would sneer at or run away from crying, but few have measured up to this one.

Last week was my birthday, and my in-laws gave me a hardcover copy of The Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)! I was sooooo very excited. After I unwrapped it I immediately began flipping through it reading sections to my family (use 'bring' when it refers to an action toward you, and 'take' when the action is away from you! Cool, huh?). Their eyes all glazed over, but mine sparkled. I've been staring at it and stroking it ever since.

Anyone else have proof of their nerdhood?

I got giddy one time when I talked on the phone with legendary editor Nan Talese.

So, yeah...

Well, when I moved I realized that about fifteen of my boxes said "Books n Stuff".

I had a total of about 30 boxes.

This should tell you something.

I LIVE IN A FREAKIN' LIBRARY. And this is after having given away THREE boxes to GoodWill.

I sometimes wax wistful that one can't find a good pocket protector for one's pens anymore.

sierramcconnell wrote:Well, when I moved I realized that about fifteen of my boxes said "Books n Stuff".

I had a total of about 30 boxes.

This should tell you something.

I LIVE IN A FREAKIN' LIBRARY. And this is after having given away THREE boxes to GoodWill.

Hah. This is exactly the reason my friends hated me when I moved.
My brother: "All those boxes are books?"
Me: nod.
Brother: "You need to get rid of like half of them."
Me: "NO! They're my precious!"

Cookie wrote:

sierramcconnell wrote:Well, when I moved I realized that about fifteen of my boxes said "Books n Stuff".

I had a total of about 30 boxes.

This should tell you something.

I LIVE IN A FREAKIN' LIBRARY. And this is after having given away THREE boxes to GoodWill.

Hah. This is exactly the reason my friends hated me when I moved.
My brother: "All those boxes are books?"
Me: nod.
Brother: "You need to get rid of like half of them."
Me: "NO! They're my precious!"

"Why do you have to have books on [insert subject here]?"
"Research."
"I thought that was what the internet was for?"
[shakes head, sadly]

sierramcconnell wrote:
"Why do you have to have books on [insert subject here]?"
"Research."
"I thought that was what the internet was for?"
[shakes head, sadly]

Yea. *sigh* Yea.

Not exactly writerly, but I almost started hyperventilating after receiving an email from Markus Zusak (I had emailed about 6 months before he replied and he apologized several times for the slow response).

Netti wrote:Not exactly writerly, but I almost started hyperventilating after receiving an email from Markus Zusak (I had emailed about 6 months before he replied and he apologized several times for the slow response).

I thought I was cool and above fan-girling until author Carrie Ryan stopped by my blog to give me writing advice on a post I'd made. Then I spent an hour having on and off hysterics while my husband watched with growing alarm.

"Well, what did she say?"
"I don't know! When I start reading the words, I start hyperventilating!"
"I'm sure they are very good, useful words."
"OF COURSE THEY WERE IT'S CARRIE RYAN!"

I did that once after I wrote a fan letter to a translator on a manga. The fans were concerned about certain words she had used and since I ran a website, I was elected to write the letter. She wrote back by hand, and I was floored at how nice she was about it. They even corrected the mistakes in future issues. It was almost as nice as the postcard I got from the CEO of a publishing company (that's recently closing) when I didn't get my magazines I had paid for.

I still have them. XD I mean, wow.

I suppose meeting an author through his blog after I fell in love with his recent release, and then having him send me one of very few ARCs six months before the release would have made me squee, if I did that kind of thing.

Matthew MacNish wrote:I suppose meeting an author through his blog after I fell in love with his recent release, and then having him send me one of very few ARCs six months before the release would have made me squee, if I did that kind of thing.

You squeed didn't you? It's ok, you can tell us :-) We won't tell anyone.

I'm not techhie enough to be a nerd.
I guess I might be weird, though. I talk to my dog and she answers in a funny high-pitched voice that sounds a bit like those funny housewives on Monty Python.
Keeps me off the streets, I guess. And great, though limited, practice for dialog.

I started asking for blank journals, Roget's Thesaurus and Barlett's for Christmas when I was about 11 (pre-computers). When I got a desk set with a pocket dictionary and a condensed thesaurus a year or two later, I sat on my brothers' bedroom floor reading them synonyms, antonyms and definitions until we turned it into a game. They'd give me a word (usually something referring to a bodily function - not unexpected from 8- and 9-year-old boys) and I'd read the definition and the most interesting of the synonyms.

To this day, I'm fascinated by word origins and large reference books.

I had a writerly nerd moment when I discovered there was a dictionary of literary characters at the back of the 1970 unabridged dictionary our neighbor gave us. There are a lot of hidden treasures to be had from an unabridged dictionary, I tell you.