In writing about death, all life is there – Telegraph
‘Few people like to reflect on whether the Grim Reaper is hovering nearby, whetstone out, sharpening the old scythe. But on the obituaries desk, I’m afraid, we do it all the time. Indeed, one of our writers regularly appears at work after one of her subjects has died and notes wryly: “I see my curse has struck again.”’
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Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on the planet?
“A reddit user asks Neil deGrasse Tyson: Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on the planet? Tyson responded with the following list…”
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I Also Wrote A Book Called ‘Cloud Atlas’ (But They Didn’t Make A Movie About It) | The Awl
“5. Many people write to say that they liked my novel better, and not just because I tacked a definite article on the front of the title.”
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The Little Library Under the Oak 10/21/12
“The front of my house faces east, so in the mornings I like to sit in my library looking out the big floor-to-ceiling windows down the hill towards the road and to the waterway beyond. The sun pours in, the dogs vie with the cats for the warmest spots, I drink coffee and read and watch the procession of fishermen pull into the marina across the street with their Jon Boats on rusty trailers, their trucks filled with fishing gear and beer coolers. And now, they sometimes stop under my oak tree, and pick up a couple books to take with them out on the water along with their beer and their bait.”
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“Wiencek’s brilliant examination of the dark side of the man who gave the world the most ringing declarations about human liberty, yet in his own life repeatedly violated the principles they expressed.”
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EBooks Are Real Books. Deal With It. | BOOK RIOT
“Ebooks are not going away, ever. Amazon now sells more ebooks than print books. In Canada, 16% of books purchased are digital. Ebook sales in the UK increased over 188% in the first six months of 2012. More and more people are consuming their books from a screen, and I’m having trouble mustering righteous anger about it–but if you stick your neck out and say the word “ebook,” you’ll still get people lobbing “those aren’t real books!” at you. Can this argument be over? Is it possible to think of your preferred method of reading as your primary method, and the other options as supplements/choices/possibilities, instead of thinking of them as the enemy? While I don’t necessarily agree that all reading material is equal (you’ll never catch me saying “at least they’re reading!”), I do think that all reading methods are equal.”While we’re at it, let’s get over texting, emoticons, email, and those disrespectful kids today. It’s the 21st century, people, let’s act like it!
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The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine
By local author Henry Wiencek. Be sure to read the discussion in the comments section.
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‘The show operates on a simple concept: each Wednesday, Delaney deconstructs a piece of Ulysses, usually for four to fifteen minutes. This will run, so the plan goes, for the next twenty-two years. An ambitious project, certainly, but I find that podcasting, especially literary podcasting, could always use a little more ambition. “Why?” Delaney asks of the show on its debut episode. “Well, why not? You could say, ‘Why bother?’ And I would say, for the sheer fun of it. Because this is a book that has engrossed and delighted me for most of my adult life, and I know the enjoyment to be had from it. And I also know that such enjoyment has been denied to many, many people who would read Ulysses if they weren’t so daunted by it, and indeed, who tried to read it but had to give up. How do I know this? Because I was one of them.” If this sounds a little like the script of an infomercial, Delaney embraces the sensibility, labeling Re: Joyce his “infomercial for Ulysses.” As far as eloquence — and erudition, not to mention richness of subject matter — he’s certainly surpassed Ron Popeil.’
“Tracing its roots back over close to 90 years to 1924, this survey of the best in book design represents perhaps the longest-standing legacy in American graphic design.”
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‘Ulysses’ in Pie Chart Form « PWxyz
“Here’s a steaming, segmented pie chart for Joyce’s steaming, segmented masterpiece.”
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Massive Proust audiobook coming this fall » MobyLives
“There is an existing audiobook of Remembrance of Things Past, recorded between 1996-2000, but it is an abridged version that spans 36 CDs, whereas the new one clocks in at 120 discs that take 153 hours to get through. Recording the full, unabridged text took classical actor Neville Jason—winner of a diction prize from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art—45 days to complete.”
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The Death of the Book Through the Ages – NYTimes.com
“Well before any of these digital technologies, Théophile Gautier’s novel “Mademoiselle de Maupin” had already declared that “the newspaper is killing the book, as the book killed architecture.” This was in 1835. And Gautier was only one-upping Victor Hugo’s “Hunchback of Notre-Dame,” which, four years earlier, depicted an archdeacon worrying the book would kill the cathedral, and a bookseller complaining that newfangled printing presses were throwing the scribes out of work.”
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“Henry Wiencek’s latest book, Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves, will be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux on October 16. His numerous books include The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, which won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award in Biography in 1999, and An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History and the Best Book Award from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. He holds a fellowship at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and has been awarded residential fellowships at the International Center for Jefferson Studies and the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, where he was the inaugural Patrick Henry Writing Fellow.”
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Pap! Bad Quotes from Gatsby | BOOK RIOT
‘“and once there he could suck on the pap of life….” Wait, what? Pap? Pap! That sounds like a dead fish hitting a counter. I mentally hear it in a nasal, flat accent. Sucking on the paaaaaap. All the music in that paragraph comes to a crashing halt.’
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MATCHBOOK. bikinis meet their match
“Clever matches between bathing suits and books. Each match discovered by hand. We should have been doing this all along, am I right?”
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THE 2012 STORYQUARTERLY PRIZE FOR FICTIONOpen to short stories and novel excerpts of 8,000 words or less.Grand Prize of $1000 and publication in StoryQuarterly 46The contest is open to short stories of 8,000 words or less. No flash fiction, novel excerpts, previously published work or memoirs.Initial screening of entries will be blind. All contest entries will be sent by the editors to the contest judge with the authors’ names expunged.Cover letters are not requiredThe contest fee is non-refundable. Should your contest submission be accepted elsewhere, the entry fee cannot be refunded.Multiple submissions are acceptable as long as each is accompanied by the contest fee.Check the website and your email for results of the contest in late 2012 or early 2013.Contest judge: Amy Hempel$18 contest fee includes subscription to StoryQuarterly 46, to be published in the late Fall, 2012.Last day to submit contest entries is October 1, 2012.
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How to Use a Book Cover as a Shield – GalleyCat
“Perhaps the most striking example of such deployment of books has been the Book Bloc—phalanxes of protesters hoisting large shields against lines of riot police, each emblazoned with the cover of a book. Book Blocs first appeared in Italy in 2010, and since then they have made their way to London, Spain, California, New York and beyond.”
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