At the New Yorker, tetchy old fogey and mediocre former film critic David Denby has published a lament about how few teens are reading books these days. He has one great overheard line—a student saying “Books smell like old people”; and a few careful caveats (“It’s very likely that teen-agers, attached to screens of one sort or another, read more words than they ever have in the past”); but mostly he is describing a decline of western civilization via smartphone. “If teachers can make books important to kids … those kids may turn off the screens,” he wraps up, making clear his real issue here: a favored primacy of one form of technology (ink on paper) over another (e-ink or pixels on screens).… [more]
Are e-books damaging society? I’ve been thinking a lot about the piece that appeared in the Telegraph this week citing Franzen’s
hatred of e-books.
I was fully prepared to be annoyed by the article when I read the headline. While I’m not fatalistic enough to link the downward trajectory of society to e-books (or at least not solely to e-books), I enjoyed some of Franzen’s points, particularly this one about permanence of physical books:
“I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change.”
I like thinking about books this way. Sure, I own an iPad and a Kindle, and I have a slew of e-books on both of ’em. I love being able … [more]
I read a lot of queries this week–about one hundred. I sent a lot of rejections this week–about ninety-something (I requested four manuscripts).
Getting rejections is never easy (remember: I get them, too!). Sending rejections isn’t easy, either. But when I pass on your project and tell you to keep writing, I mean it. The passage below explains why. So even if you think I’m a jerk with no taste for passing on your project, you should listen to Ira Glass, because he’s a really smart guy.
Keep writing.
… [more]
Some web work is better left to the experts. That is, people with skills and understanding. That is, people other than me.
We are back—not just from vacations and working holidays, but from the netherworld that is 404 status for the blog. In a heart-breakingly comic series of mishaps, I managed to delete both the company blog and, in trying to restore that, the entire desktop from my computer (where I’d unwisely stored thousands of files), and my Time Capsule backups of same were no longer recognizing his computer. Much weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Enter the tech monkeys at Apple, the friendly folks at our web hosting service, and the snarky genius who is Symon Chow, and it is all back up and running. I’ve aged a few decades in the past couple … [more]
Some web work is better left to the experts. That is, people with skills and understanding. That is, people other than me.
We are back—not just from vacations and working holidays, but from the netherworld that is 404 status for the blog. In a heart-breakingly comic series of mishaps, I managed to delete both the company blog and, in trying to restore that, the entire desktop from my computer (where I’d unwisely stored thousands of files), and my Time Capsule backups of same were no longer recognizing his computer. Much weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Enter the tech monkeys at Apple, the friendly folks at our web hosting service, and the snarky genius who is Symon Chow, and it is all back up and running. I’ve aged a few decades in the past couple … [more]
Do you like books? Do you love books? Do you have more of the damned things than you know what to do with? More than you can read in a lifetime? Do you sacrifice the love of spouses, friends, pets, whatever because of the many volumes that clutter your home like snowdrifts after a blizzard?
Well, my friend, join the sorry ranks of us book-loving fools. And take shelving inspiration from the awesome pictures at Bookshelf Porn, a website dedicated to … well, to what its name suggests: Photographs of groovy bookshelves. Up there and to the right is Karl Lagerfeld’s bookshelf in his apartment. (He also owns the bookstore next door, which I suppose you can afford when you’re a super-wealthy creepy looking living dead fashion designer). But there are just as many … [more]
Hey folks! If you’re in the greater New York area this weekend and find yourself pining for great books, cupcakes, or moustaches, feel free to come out to a really terrific event at Books of Wonder.
On Sunday the 10th of 2010 (10/10/10) at 1 pm, Books of Wonder will be hosting ten authors whose debut books came out in ’10. And just to make it even more special, they’ve added an eleventh author in Amber Benson, who you may know from her days playing Tara Maclay on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show. The real stars of the event in our 100% biased opinion, however, will be Upstart Crows Shaun David Hutchinson and Josh Berk (pictured below), who will each be reading from and signing their books for legions of screaming fans. … [more]
As we zoom into another week, I thought it might be fun to start out with a light post, a little game of sorts, to see what you’re reading these days.
As a devoted lover of books, it’s not unusual for me to have many books and magazines stacked haphazardly on my bedside table, some of which I’m in the process of reading, some of which I’m hoping I’ll be in the mood to read soon, and some I’ve already read (multiple times) and love so much that I just can’t stand to put them back on the bookshelf just yet.
The books on my bedside stand are a reflection of my mood, of inspiration, and my goals. Books are my greatest pleasure, my stolen moments, and my meditation. I simply cannot fall asleep without … [more]
As we zoom into another week, I thought it might be fun to start out with a light post, a little game of sorts, to see what you’re reading these days.
As a devoted lover of books, it’s not unusual for me to have many books and magazines stacked haphazardly on my bedside table, some of which I’m in the process of reading, some of which I’m hoping I’ll be in the mood to read soon, and some I’ve already read (multiple times) and love so much that I just can’t stand to put them back on the bookshelf just yet.
The books on my bedside stand are a reflection of my mood, of inspiration, and my goals. Books are my greatest pleasure, my stolen moments, and my meditation. I simply cannot fall asleep without … [more]
Kurt Cyrus‘s fabulous Big Rig Bugs was published this past spring. It’s a near-perfect model of how to do a lot with a little: In seventy-six words, it tells the story of a bunch of bugs clearing away some litter from a construction site. And, because that’s not near enough, it also a slew of great parallels between how some construction devices mimic what bugs do in the natural world. Kurt is a poet and an artist, and he excels in both realms here—this book is a crackerjack read-aloud that should please the youngest fans of big rigs or bugs.
But that’s not what this post is about. No, this post is merely to present this nifty book trailer Kurt made for the picture book, just as a side project while he finishes up … [more]
