1. I have an AMTRAK reservation that needs to be altered.
2. Can you alter reservations via the website? Why, no.
3. I call the relevant phone number.
4. Friendly Computer Voice informs me that she has to transfer me to an actual human being.
5. I am put on hold.
6. Automated suggestion: given the wait time, why don't I visit the website?
7. See #2.
8. *headdesk*
Currently reading...
- Katy Darby: The Whore's Asylum
Personal favorites
- English Professors vs. Cats: A Serious Evaluation
- LP in the House
- "I never see those things"
- A Booke of Proofreading Magick
- Advice to Graduate Students on the Fine Art of Buying Books (Prompted by Several Hours of Moving Books Around)
- Christian History Redux
- Evangelical historiography: a Victorian popular example
- How to Write a CoHE "First Person" Essay: A Handy Multiple-Choice Guide
- I worked so hard
- James Malcolm Rymer meets Arthur Conan Doyle: The Hound of the Baskervilles; Or, the Bloody Curse at the Hall
- Kaleidoscopic and domestic
- L&O: Special Academic Unit
- Let Me Entertain You
- No Sex Please, We're Victorian: A Handy-Dandy Guide to Code Words
- On a slightly different literary note: Dick Delver
- Rules for Writing Neo-Victorian Novels
- Scholars & Students: A Compendium of Professorial Magic
- Star Trek XII: The Wrath of the Search for the Voyage of Finals Week
- Stardate 2378: A Starfleet Captain challenges a final grade
- The Little Professor: A behind-the-scenes look at the research process
- The Little Professor: A Sermon, on the Current Disputes Over Turning Off Cellphones in the British Library Reading Rooms; Delivered on June 20, 2006, in Islington
- The Little Professor: Victorian religious novel liveblogging, JFK layover edition: Truth without Fiction, and Religion without Disguise
- The Little Professor: Victorian religious novel liveblogging, MLA edition: Truth without Fiction, and Religion without Disguise
- The Little Professor: Victorian religious novel liveblogging, snowstorm edition: Truth without Fiction, and Religion without Disguise
- The Little Professor: Victorian religious novel liveblogging: Truth without Fiction, and Religion without Disguise
- The Little Professor: Victorian religious novel liveblogging: Truth without Fiction, and Religion without Disguise
- The Practical Applications of Gothic Fiction
- The prostitute's progress
- The Syllabus of the (Very Far) Future
- Words
Useful Links
-
The Oxford Text Archive
- A Celebration of Women Writers
- Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature
- American Libraries Before 1876 (Davies Project)
- Anesthesia and Pain History Resources on the Internet
- Anglo-American Legal Tradition
- Applause Southwest Theatre Archive
- Athelstane E-Texts
- Australian Common Reader
- Australian Studies Resources (SETIS)
- Author Pseudonyms (a.k.a.)
- Bartleby.com
- Bibliography of Nineteenth-Century Irish Literature
- Bibliography of Scottish Literature
- Bibliography of the History of Art
- Bibliography of Welsh Literature in English Translation
- Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads
- Book History Online
- Bookplate Registry
- Briggs Collection (Pre-1851 Educational Literature)
- British History Online
- Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project
- CARRIE: An Electronic LIbrary
- Centre for Editing Lives and Letters
- Chawton House Library and Study Centre
- Collective Biographies of Women
- COPAC Home Page: University Research Library Catalogue
- Cork Multitext Project
- Crime Broadsides Project, Harvard Law School Library
- Current Value of Old Money
- Dance Instruction Manuals: Late Eighteenth-Century Social Dance
- Davies Project at Princeton University (History of University Libraries)
- Dictionary of the History of Ideas
- Digital Library of Historical Directories (U. of Leicester)
- Early New Zealand Books
- East London Theatre Archive
- EDICTA: Early Dictionaries / Dictionnaires Anciens
- Electronic Enlightenment
- Electronic Text Center (University of Virginia)
- EMC - The Early Modern Center: Pepys Ballads
- English Prose Drama
- Esprit des livres. Catalogues de vente de bibliothèques conservés dans les biblitohèques parisiennes
- EuroDocs
- Find A Grave
- Friends of Devon's Archives Homepage
- Genesis (UK Women's History Collections)
- Glasgow Digital Library
- Guide to Literary and Critical Theory
- Hathi Trust Digital Library - Search
- History of the Book in Canada Project - Electronic Resources
- Home Economics Archive (HEARTH)
- I Remain (Digital Archive)
- Ian's English Calendar
- Intute: Arts and Humanities
- Irish History Online
- Irish Newspaper Archives
- John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera
- l9e.org
- Labouring-Class Writers (Bibliography)
- Les écrits féminins non-fictionnels du Moyen Âge au XVIIIe siècle
- Library History Database
- Literary Encyclopedia and Literary Dictionary
- Literary Heritage West Midlands
- Literary History
- Literary Resources on the Net (Lynch)
- Literature and Place
- Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database
- London Lives 1690 to 1800 ~ Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis
- Making of America Books
- Mapping the Republic of Letters
- Medieval and Modern Thought Text Digitization Project
- Medievalism in Australian Cultural Memory
- Miniature Book Collection (UNT)
- Murder Pamphlets Home Page
- Neo-Victorian Studies
- New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
- Orpheus
- Penn State Archive for the Eighteenth-Century
- Pictures of the Past - the 17th and 18th Centuries in Film.
- Playbills of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh
- Portcullis (Parliamentary Archives)
- Princess Grace Irish Library (EIRDATA)
- Project Gutenberg
- Publishers' Bindings Online
- Reading Experience Database
- Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe
- Renascence Editions
- Romantische Anthropologie
- Royal Historical Society Bibliography
- Scottish Book Trade Archive Inventory
- Scottish Book Trade Index
- Searc's Web Guide to Irish Writing
- Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation
- South Seas - Voyaging and Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Pacific
- St. Deiniol's Library
- Survey of Scottish Witchcraft
- The Archive for the Eighteenth-Century
- The British Book Trade Index
- The British Library
- The Camelot Project (University of Rochester)
- The Country House Database
- The Edwin C. Bolles Collection: History and Topography of London
- The Ex-Classics Web Site
- The Johnson Dictionary Project
- The Library of Congress
- The Map of Early Modern London
- The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | Wills
- The Nineteenth Century (microfiche database)
- The Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)
- The Online Medieval & Classical Library
- The Perdita Project (Early Modern Women's Manuscript Catalogue)
- The Philological Museum (Shakespeare Institute)
- The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674 to 1834
- The Reading Experience Database 1450-1945 (RED)
- The Records of Earls Colne
- Theoi Greek Mythology
- Théâtres de société
- Viva Database (Women's History)
- Voice of the Shuttle
- What Middletown Read
- Women Writers of Early Canada
- Women Writers Resource Project (Emory)
Victorian Studies
- 19 Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century
- 19th Century British Pamphlets Online
- 19th Century London Stage
- 9s NINES 9s
- A Vision of Britain through Time
- Aggravating Ladies: Being a List of Works Published under the Pseudonym "By a Lady" (1880)
- Annotated Bibliography of Chartism
- Arthur Lloyd - The Music Hall Site Dedicated to Arthur Lloyd 1839 - 1904
- Aspects of the Victorian Book
- At the Circulating Library
- Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies
- Catalogue of the Papers of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science
- Color Printing: Introduction
- Dictionary of Victorian London - Victorian History - 19th Century London - Social History
- Digitizing "Chinese Englishmen" | Representations of race and empire in the nineteenth century
- Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls
- Dressing Up Canada - Late Victorian Fancy Dress Balls
- E-Texts for Victorianists
- East London Theatre Archive
- Ellen Terry
- Factory Girls and Serving Maids: Victorian Working-Class Women Poets Archive
- Journal of Victorian Culture Online |
- Michael R Booth Theatre Collection
- Minor Victorian Poets and Authors
- Monuments and Dust: The Culture of Victorian London
- New Books in 19th Century British Studies
- Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies
- Nineteenth-Century Schoolbooks
- Nineteenth-Century Studies: Resources for an Interdisciplinary Curriculum
- PeoplePlay UK - 19th Century Drama
- Photographs of the Roxburghe Club, 1892
- Price One Penny - Cheap Literature from 1837-1860
- Punch Contributor Ledgers
- Queen Victoria Online Scrapbook
- R. M. Phillips Collection (Victorian Postage Stamps)
- RaVoN (Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net)
- Shakespeare and the Players
- Songs of the Victorians
- Studies in Scarlet: Marriage and Sexuality in the US & UK, 1815-1914
- The 1890s Hypermedia Archive
- The Adelphi Theatre Project
- The British Empire
- The City of the Jugglers
- The Darwin Correspondence Online Database
- The Golden Age of British Theatre
- The Hockliffe Project
- The Hyperlinked & Searchable Chambers' 1869 'The Book of Days'
- The John Murray Archive
- The London Stage 1800-1900 A Documentary Record and Calendar of Performances
- The Victorian Church
- The Victorian Plays Project
- The Victorian Sonnet
- The Victorian Web: An Overview
- The Victorian Women Writers Project
- The Victorian Women Writers' Letters Project
- UCL Bloomsbury Project
- Undergraduate Victorian Studies Online Teaching Anthology
- Victoria Research Web
- Victoria Research Web
- Victorian and Edwardian Collection (Launceston Reference Library)
- Victorian Bibliography Online
- Victorian Bookbinding (North Texas)
- Victorian Census Project
- Victorian Poetry Network
- Victorian Popular Novels
- Victorian Sensationalism Online
- Victorian Serial Novels
- Victorian Turkish Baths
- Victorian Web Sites
- Victorian Women Writers - A Guide to E-Texts
- Welcome | Legacies of British Slave-ownership
- Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
- Who's Who of Victorian Cinema
- Women in the Literary Marketplace
- Women's Travel Writing, 1830-1930
Romanticism
- British Women Playwrights around 1800
- British Women Romantic Poets Project
- Claire Clairmont, Mary Jane's Daughter: New Correspondence with Claire's Father
- Lay of the Last Minstrel
- Lyrical Ballads Bicentenary Project
- Playbills from Edinburghs Theatre Royal
- RC Blog
- Revolution and Romanticism
- Romantic-Era Songs
- Romantics Unbound
- The Journal of John Waldie Theatre Commentaries, 1799 - 1830
- THEA: The Haunted Curtain - Gothic Drama in the Romantic Age - Virtual Archive
Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Periodicals
- American Jewess Project
- Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers
- Athenaeum Index: 1872-1886
- Attributions of Authorship in the European Magazine
- Attributions of Authorship in the Gentleman's Magazine
- Australian Periodical Publications 1840-1845
- British Newspapers 1800-1900
- British periodicals at Minnesota
- CWC Database (Missionary Periodicals)
- Forget Me Not: A Hypertextual Archive
- Galactic Central (Database of Fiction Magazines)
- Georgian Newspaper Project
- Girl's Own Paper
- Godey's Lady's Book
- Ilustrated London News
- Internet Library of Early Journals
- Making of America Journals
- Nineteenth-Century American Children & What They Read: Magazines
- Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition
- Peeps into the Past
- Penny Magazine Online Home Page
- QR Electronic Texts (Quarterly Review)
- The Belfast Newsletter Index
- The Bijou Gift Book for 1828
- The British Colonist 1858-1910
- The Curran Index to Wellesley Index Revisions
- The Ladies
- The Occident and American Jewish Advocate
- The Quarterly Review Archive
- The Scotsman Archive
- The Spectator Text Project
- The Yellow Nineties Online
- UB Bielefeld: Zeitschriften der Aufklärung
Fiction
- A Guide to Irish Fiction, Digital Version
- A Taste of Horton - A selection of items from the Horton Collection of Children's Material
- Beyond Renault: Alexander the Great in fiction 1920 - Present
- British Fiction 1800-1829
- British Juvenile Story Papers and Pocket Libraries Index
- Chawton House Library: Novels-On-Line
- CHILDE project - Children's Historical Literature Disseminated throughout Europe
- Children's Literature Collection (University of Surrey Roehampton)
- Cotsen Children's Library, Princeton University
- Crime Thru Time
- Crimeculture
- Cyclopedia of Ghost Story Writers
- Early American Fiction, 1789-1875
- Early Canadiana Online
- Frankenstein Collation (1818 and 1831 editions)
- Gaslight
- Ghost Story Writers
- Gothic Labyrinth
- HistFiction.net
- Historische Romane über das alte Rom
- HorrorMasters
- House of Beadle and Adams (Dime Novels)
- Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase
- IU Lilly Library Chapbook collection
- KidPrint
- Literature for Children
- Nineteenth Century Novels Home Page
- Penny Dreadfuls
- Projekt "Historischer Roman" (German Historical Novels Project)
- Romantic Prose Fiction
- Shaping the Values of Youth: Sunday School Books in 19th Century America
- Tartarus Press Supernatural Fiction Database
- Text in Transit
- The Baldwin Project (children's fiction)
- The Detective and the Toga
- The English Novel, 1830-36
- The Gothic Literature Page
- The Historical Novel Society: The Place for New Historical Fiction, The Historical Novel Society: The Place for New Historical Fiction
- The Literary Gothic
- The Novel in Europe, 1670-1730
- The Street & Smith Dime Collection (Syracuse University)
- Uchronia: The Alternate History List
- Victorian Short Fiction Project
- Westminster Detective Library
- Women's Genre Fiction
- Wright American Fiction (1851-1875)
Poetry
- American Verse Project (University of Michigan)
- Attributions of Authorship in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1868: An Electronic Union List
- British Poetry 1780-1910 (University of Virginia)
- Early Stuart Libels
- Emerging from Absence: An Archive of Japan in English-Language Verse, ed. David Ewick & Irene De Angelis
- Enchanting Ruin: Tintern Abbey and Romantic Tourism in Wales - Introduction
- English Broadside Ballad Archive
- EnglishVerse.com
- Leeds Verse Database (BCMSV)
- Representative Poetry On-line
- Spenser and the Tradition: English Poetry 1579-1830
- The Poetess Archive: Poetry by Women and Men, British and American, writing in the Poetess Tradition, 1785-1900
- The Poetry of the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1731-1800
- Victorian Poets and Poetry (Bucknell University)
Fine Arts
- Kate Greenaway
- 19th Century Actors Photographs
- Andy's Early Comics Archive
- ARC International - The Art Renewal Center
- Art of the Print
- ArtLex Art Dictionary
- ArtServe
- BBC - Your Paintings
- Beazley Archive (Classical Arts)
- Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource
- British Museum - Pictorial Art Collection Database
- British Printed Images to 1700
- Cartoon Centre Catalogue
- Cartoon Cornucopia (LOC)
- Children's Book Illustrators
- Christian Iconography
- CLARA (Database of Women Artists)
- Collage: Corporation of London Libraries and Guildhall Art Gallery
- Collins Collection of Irish Political Cartoons
- Colour Prints by George Baxter
- Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot
- Cruikshank Artwork at Princeton University Library
- Database of Mid-Victorian Illustration
- Dictionary of Art Historians
- Digital Archive of European Architecture
- Early Photographically Illustrated Books - Victorian photographs
- EIKON Image Database
- Exhibition Culture
- Exhibitions of the Royal Photographic Society 1870-1915
- Exposed: The Victorian Nude (Tate)
- Fashion Plate Collection (University of Washington)
- Gender, Literature, and Art
- Glossary of 18th Century Costume Terminology
- Government Art Collection (UK)
- Great Caricatures
- Hale Scrapbook
- Hogarth: The Site for Research on William Hogarth
- Illustrated Books 1780-1830 (Penn)
- Illustrating Scott
- Images of England
- Images of Prayer, Politics, and Everyday Life From the Harry and Branka Sondheim Jewish Heritage Collection
- Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840 -1860
- Index of Christian Art
- James Gillray (Princeton)
- John Johnson Collection of Political Prints (VADS)
- John Leech Cartoon Archives 1841-1864
- John Tenniel and the American Civil War
- John William Waterhouse
- John William Waterhouse (another site)
- Lewis Walpole Library Digital Collection
- LizzieSiddal.com
- Mausolea and Monuments Trust
- Mezzotint Satires
- Napoleonic Satires
- National Maritime Museum Prints & Drawings
- National Portrait Gallery
- NIKI: Photo Study Collection of the Dutch University Institute for Art History in Florence
- Nineteenth-Century British Art
- Oxford Portraits
- Photographs Exhibited in Britain 1839 -1865
- Photographs Exhibited in Britain 1839 -1865
- Phryne (Painting 1816-1914)
- Pockets of History (VADS)
- Prints from the Curzon Collection: Images of Napoleon and British Fears of Invasion, 1789 - 1815
- Shakespeare Illustrated
- Simeon Solomon Research Archive
- Sir John Tenniel (Lewis Carroll engravings)
- SPIRO, Architecture Visual Resources Library Image Database
- The Art of John William Waterhouse (1849-1917)
- The Bible and the Visual Imagination
- The Daguerreian Society
- The Elements of Drawing (John Ruskin's teaching collection)
- The Political Cartoon Society
- The Pre-Raphaelite Critic
- The Print and The Book
- The Regency Fashion Page
- The Regency Fashion Portraits Page
- The Scrap Album - Victorian Greeting Cards, Valentines and Scraps
- The Sister Arts - British Gardening, Painting, & Poetry 1700-1832
- Thomas Bewick (1753-1828)
- Vanity Fair
- Victoria and Albert Museum: Digital Collections
- Victorian and Edwardian Photographs - Carte de Visite
- Victorian Art and Design
- Victorian Art in Britain
- Victorian Studio Portrait Photograph Collection
- ViewFinder (English Heritage)
- Visual Arts Data Service - NICE Paintings
- Waddesdon Manor: Rothschild Trade Card Collection
- Walker Art Gallery (19th Century Gallery)
Philosophy and Religion
- Ann Griffiths Digital Website
- Bibledex - Expert videos about every book in the Bible
- Catholic Heritage
- Irish Penal Laws
- John Foxe - Acts and Monuments (OSU)
- AdHoc Image and Text Database (History of Christianity)
- Isaac Mayer Wise Digital Archive
- The 1662 Book of Common Prayer Website
- John Foxe's Book of Martyrs
- Unitarian Historical Society
- Digital Quaker Collection
- The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540-1835: Home
- Jewish Communities & Records: UK
- Cyberhymnal
- Orestes Brownson Society
- Methodist Archives and Research Centre: Biographical Index
- Joseph Butler
- THE PHILOSOPHICAL LEXICON
- The Revealer
- Anglo-Jewish Archives Database (University of Southampton)
- The Jewish Historical Society of England
- Anglo-Jewish Miscellanies
- Project Canterbury (Anglican)
- Internet Theology Resources (Catholic)
- Guide to Philosophy on the Internet
- The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- The Origins of Comparative Religion: Bernard and Picart's Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the Peoples of the World (1723-1743)
- Who were the Nuns
Buy Books!
- AddALL Book Search
- HamiltonBook.com
(remainders) - Labyrinthbooks.com
(new and remaindered scholarly books) - Postscript Books
(UK remainders) - Richard Beaton's Victorian Novels and Novelists
- Scholar's Bookshelf
(academic remainders) - Seminary Co-op Bookstore
(disclaimer: I used to work for them) - The Sensation Press
Just for fun
TTLB Ecosystem
Amazon
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January 01, 2009
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Comments
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Nothing makes me as crazy as the cheerful suggestions to "visit our website" when I'm on hold. If the website could take care of it, I wouldn't have called you, now, would I?
Posted by: undine | January 02, 2009 at 07:51 PM
Customer service? What's that? Please hold.
Posted by: John Thomas McGuire | January 05, 2009 at 05:01 AM