Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Three Cheers for Upper Hutt!!!

Some time back Tim Stretton wised me up to the usefulness of Google Alerts: Just drop in the search terms and Google will send you e-mail whenever something new turns up. You'll never have to Google yourself (which, as we all know, can give you hair on your palms) again. So I put my name and "Shock and Awe" together in an alert, and ego-surfed no more.

My latest Alert is the most interesting to date: It's my card catalogue entry for the Upper Hutt City Library in Upper Hutt, New Zealand. It had been ages since I'd seen a catalogue card; sort of made me nostalgic for my misspent youth:

Shock and awe/David Isaak
by Isaak, David
Basingstoke : Macmillan New Writing, 2007.

Subjects
  • Nuclear terrorism -- Fiction.
  • Intelligence officers -- United States -- Fiction
  • Undercover operations -- Fiction
  • Suspense fiction

I also learn that it is presently checked out (though due back on December 12), and that there are five requests pending for it.

I've been to New Zealand a few times and love the place (though Wellington didn't used to be a good place to find yourself on a Wednesday night)--but I've never been to Upper Hutt. I regret this gap in my travels, as I now realize that folks in Upper Hutt are the most discerning and intelligent of their countrymen (and women), and you can bet the next time I visit NZ, Upper Hutt will be on my itinerary.

4 comments:

Tim Stretton said...

Magnificent!

I will have to trim my ego; I cannot consider I have arrived until there is a queue of borrowers for The Dog of the North in Upper Hutt...

Jamie Ford said...

Wow, that's very cool. Surreal too. Whenever my book hits the shelves I'm sure I'll be getting alerts from Barrow, Alaska where people are deftly checking out my book to be used as heating material.

Jake Jesson said...

ahahahahaha. That is so cool.

Ninjauthor said...

Hi David

Can't say I've stayed in the Hutt Valley myself, though I have taken a coach ride through it from Taupo to Wellington. Looked quite lovely too.

But then most of New Zealand is - I'd love to have a second home there, but Sarah would insist we live in Nelson on the South Island!

Matt