Glad to see that Inexcusable made the Best Books list, at least. And Heavy Metal and You (How do I love thee, Sam Markus?? Let me count the ways...) made Quick Picks AND Best Books. HOO-ray.
(Today, I told a patron that I wanted Sam Markus to be my boyfriend. I think she was scared. Whatever. I guess that not everyone has a literary harem. Can a harem be full of guys? Is there a word for that? Stable? Have I asked this before?)
hmmm. According to the wikipedia entry, "harem" technically refers to "the part of the household forbidden to male strangers" so I think that "male harem" is probably inaccurate (although, I guess the members of your harem wouldn't necessarily be strangers).
You might be able to adapt "andron" ("that part of a Greek house which was reserved for men, as distinguished from the gynaeceum (gunaikeion), the women's quarters.")
Another option might be "bachelor herd" (groups of male animals that have not yet formed new social groups).
For aesthetic reasons, however, I think I prefer to adapt "zingua" after the former queen of Angola who had a group of men that she made fight "to the death in order to spend the night with her and after a single night of lovemaking they were put to death."
So while "stable" or "male harem" easily convey their meaning, talking about your "literary zingua" or "literary andron" has the benefit of making an obscure reference, which is always fun in my book.
Posted by: steve | 26 January 2006 at 12:55 AM
Oh, you're not the only one with a literary male harem, or whatever you want to call it.
I saw an Inexcusable review in the Horn Book and thought of you...guess I should pick it up once I whittle away at my reading list a little further.
Posted by: jess | 26 January 2006 at 02:38 AM
I KNEW Steve would have the answer. After all, he hesitated not one moment when I casually asked if there was a female equivalent for "sausage party".
(Clambake, by the way.)
Posted by: lauren | 26 January 2006 at 12:09 PM
Steve, that was AWESOME. Both for zingua and clambake.
Posted by: Chrissy | 26 January 2006 at 12:32 PM
Better to use both in a sentence: You'll never have a clambake as long as your zingua is always close at hand.
Posted by: lauren | 26 January 2006 at 03:05 PM