*** Interesting Articles

Share your interesting/amusing finds here for everyone to enjoy!

I don't know if everyone has seen it or not, but for some reason or other this story about an Indian orphan who used Google Earth to find his home has resurfaced and been making the internet rounds recently. His entire story is really quite amazing, I'm glad it popped back up because I'd never seen it when it came out!

Donna Tartt’s 'The Goldfinch' causes spike in Frick Museum attendance

The battle over the burial of King Richard III has become savage

"For many Ricardians, rescuing the King from the place where he was killed and humiliated (his corpse was stabbed through the buttock, buried shroudless, and with its hands tied) is also about rescuing him from history. It goes to the heart of the Ricardian project." - Until the last year or so, I had no idea there was a society of Richard III defenders; it fascinates me that something that seems such a part of ancient history to me could be so real and now for others.

Those very prominent figures tend to elicit that sort of reaction from some folks.

There is also an LT group dedicated to Richard III here.

Fascinating link to The battle over Richard III remains.

Cynical comment - someone's going to make some money from it all, celebrity culture gone mad, its gotta be good for the lawyers.

The battle over Richard III's reputation is more interesting, I have read quite a bit about it recently and my conclusion is that he was no better and probably no worse than any of the leading aristocrats fighting to be king of England.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Reader - the NYTimes bemons many current trends in publishing and bookselling. LibraryThing gets a shout out.

Not Here to Make Friends: On the importance of unlikable female protagonists - Great piece

"That the question of likability even exists in literary conversations is odd. It implies we are engaging in a courtship. When characters are unlikable, they don’t meet our mutable, varying standards. Certainly, we can find kinship in fiction, but literary merit shouldn’t be dictated by whether or not we want to be friends or lovers with those about whom we read."

>5 baswood: Nope, he was not. But then someone had to be the scapegoat for the Tudors -- and he ended up being in the wrong place in the wrong time. And then Shakespeare pretty much sealed the deal. :)

GAH I hate the NYTimes, they refuse to let you read articles if you don't allow them to stick their cookies in your browser >_<

>8 .Monkey.: They do that so they can convert you to paid if you read more than X articles a month. They need some sort of way to continue to make money on their content, now that newspapers are being abandoned for the internet.

They're the only news site that does it (eta- that I've ever encountered). And I refuse to allow a site to monitor me when I'm not doing anything that actually involves needing cookies. So instead, they lose my potential hits and my potential to share their stuff with others. Their loss.

Just read the NYTimes article. Not too much news there, but I was intrigued by what the author said about literature's "middle class" and that reading is concentrated on the extreme ends of the scale - either popular books (aka books for the masses) or the 'classics' (in a broader sense, not just Homer). He basically describes my reading habits there. But actually this might go along quite well with one of my reading resolutions for 2014, namely to read something completely different. I'm sure I'll be able to find the surprising literary gem by a less known author in one of the posts in this group over the year... Only someone else has to discover that gem in the first place.

An NPR interview with Chang-Rae Lee about his new book, which I heard on the radio this morning.

What I found most interesting about the article was the claim that social book sites such as LT or GoodReads encourage less diverse reading because people tend to share book suggestions and discussions amongst already like-minded people.

"For more personal interactions, many have turned to social reading sites such as Goodreads or LibraryThing....And though the overall network is vast, recommendations are generally exchanged within tight circles of friends. This results in another typical Internet characteristic: the “mirroring” of existing tastes at the expense of discovering anything new."

Maybe I'm deluding myself, but one (of the many) reasons why I love LT and don't want to participate in GoodReads is because I find the LT experience so exactly counter to that statement. On GoodReads, I would be forced to connect with my "real life" friends, whereas on LT, I have "met" a group of readers all over the world who have exposed me to books and authors I probably would never have looked into on my own.

On a separate note, my boyfriend claims you can get around the article limit by googling the title and going to the article from there. I have not tried it.

#13 on LT, I have "met" a group of readers all over the world who have exposed me to books and authors I probably would never have looked into on my own.

Exactly! And that's the main reason I love it so here.

>13 fannyprice:, 15 - I agree that LT has expanded my reading horizons. There are lots of books that I "hear" about on LT that I would have found by roaming around in a bookstore - the popular titles, prize-winners, etc. - but there are also tons of LT recs that I would never have stumbled upon in a bookstore. Often I have to order a book from Amazon because I can't find it in any of my local stores. Also, I've dipped into genre-fiction based on reviews here, and I certainly would never have done that before my LT days.

Yes, here we have all these groups like Club Read and Category Challenge and the 75ers and everything, and plain ol' Book Talk, and so you have these groups of people who can have nothing at all in common aside of their love of books, everyone reading their own thing and sharing their thoughts on it, potentially influencing others. GR the groups are, in my previous experience, far more narrow and genre-specific or whatnot, where yeah, you're preaching to the choir.

>17 .Monkey.:, Also, I find it kind of refreshing to have a different life online. Almost no one I know in real life knows what I read, how much time I spend thinking about reading, or that I spend time writing about reading. One wouldn't think it, but I am rather a private person.

I actually am too, but books are one thing I will always talk to anyone about, and happily display for all to see (the rare souls who are ever in my house, anyway, haha) in my living room. :D

>19 .Monkey.:, Oh my "real life" people know I like to read and credit me with having "read about everything;" I've just never found a "real life" person who feels the same way about reading that I do. Probably because we are both at home reading.

That's true for me too that people in general don't know how much I read, although of course if they come over to my apartment they see all the books and then they always say, "have you really read all those books?"!!! I do talk about books but people don't seem to make the connection; that said, I've had occasional interesting book conversations on public transportation (bus and subway) and even tried to get one woman I was talking to on the bus to join LT.

>20 fannyprice: Haha, probably so! True enough, I haven't known many either. I grew up sharing book-love with my mom, but we have never really read the same books so we can't discuss them that way, only sharing the Yay new books! and whatnot kind of stuff. I lucked out with my husband though, he's nearly as keen on books as I am! :D

>21 rebeccanyc: I was reading on a bench in the middle of the city one day and had an older gentleman come up and start chatting with me about reading for a minute, and warning me not to flip to the end and spoil it, hahaha. Apparently he must have known some eager beavers who liked to peek? :P

What an asset LT is. Although my husband reads as much as I do, his reading material is different being mostly non-fiction and biographies. I have few friends who are as keen on reading as I am. Anyone who comes to my house rarely gives my books a second glance - or even a first glance. I can spend all my free time reading "Talk" and finding out what others are reading and what they think of it. Wonderful!

>22 .Monkey.: PMM, that old guy probably just wanted to chat up the pretty young woman, hahaha! Now that I'm married to one, I know how they think!

LOL!

Most people see my shelves on entering the house and do a jawdrop, and then I get the inevitable "Have you really read all those?!" and have to explain Well nooo, the ones you can see are the unread ones, the rows behind them are the ones I've read... And then they get kind of quiet and awkward while staring at the wall of books. Only once or twice did people really poke around looking at the titles, though. More people pay closer attention to my several hundred DVDs in the couple columns at the end of the books. And then there's the inevitable "Wow so many horror movies *turn to husband* You really like horror huh?" "Um, no, I really don't, those are all hers." "Really?? Wow..." Apparently this is a novel concept? >_>

I also read the NYT article, and I appreciate the comments here in relation to what was briefly written on Goodreads and LT. I use both - but the former is just my emergency backup catalogue in case - Heaven forfend - a magneto-wave or somesuch horror should take out LT Towers... a horrible thought.

I've found so many new authors and great new writing that I never would have found in my pre-LT days - thanks to the quality and diversity of the great readers who make this site as indispensable as it is.

How dead is the New York Review of Books?

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Graying-of-the-NYRB/143759/

I continue to renew for the longest term offered.

Robert

Well, I still subscribe, but I'm afraid the issues pile up. (But the issues of all the magazines I subscribe to pile up, so this isn't specific to the NYRofB.)

I don't really need anything to push me to read more page turning novels, but..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/can-reading-a-novel-change...

My first reaction was "of course".

Interesting, Colleen. But how did they find enough subjects who would agree not to read anything else? Restricting myself to thirty pages a day voluntarily would be painful.

Lol. I could do it if I were reading a more dense nonfic or just something that was not so gripping. And if I were watching movies and otherwise occupied. But yeah I'm kind of "well duh," that I think most of us here on LT would also naturally figure that. I suppose "scientific proof" is always a good thing, though? *shrug*

Sigh! Even murderous dictators collect books, according to this New York Times article about Pinochet's library.

For people who like ebooks and free: 25 different sources of free public domain ebooks, including one specializing in Finnish and Swedish!

http://ebookfriendly.com/free-public-domain-books-sources/

>26 Mr.Durick:, Interesting article on the NYRB. I don't feel like I know enough to know whether the arguments are justified. I still find the articles enjoyable.

#32 now that is interesting

A little unconventional usage of this thread but: http://www.librarything.com/blogs/librarything/2014/01/new-feature-spoiler-alert...

Not that we need to be told this but here it is: Scientific proof that reading improves social skills.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/i-know-how-youre-feeling-i-read-chekhov...

First paragraph reads:
Say you are getting ready for a blind date or a job interview. What should you do? Besides shower and shave, of course, it turns out you should read — but not just anything. Something by Chekhov or Alice Munro will help you navigate new social territory better than a potboiler by Danielle Steel.

University of California Press free ebooks:

http://www.openculture.com/2014/01/read-700-free-ebooks-made-available-by-the-un...

I thought it would be useful to have all of our links to free e-books in one place, as well as have a place to discuss the various aspects of electronic texts, so I took the liberty of creating a separate thread. It will include a master list--which I will try to keep up to date--of e-book sources.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/167106

When I was growing up in the 70s, my church was very concerned about the huge problem of Satan worship that was sweeping the world (this of course also included Paganism and Atheism--all exactly the same thing you know). A while ago I realized I hadn't heard anything about Satanism in probably a decade, maybe more, and I wondered if any part of it was real, or if it was just a bunch of rebellious teenage boys smoking pot and listening to Black Sabbath. And then I ran across this run down of history's Satanic cults, and which of them were real (no mention of teenage potheads, but I was on the right track): http://io9.com/the-9-best-satanic-cults-in-history-1500866178?utm_campaign=socia...

#39 - That was interesting. I've often wondered if the supposed Satanists actually believed in what they were doing, or if it was just an excuse for some wild group sex.

The Guardian reports on the Edge's quest for ideas ready for retirement. My personal interest is in infinity. I'm not sure that the case is made, but just the careful doubt that Max Tegmark shows looks compelling. I wish he had said more about 'big' infinity than, essentially, we've never seen it.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/12/what-scientific-idea-is-ready-for...

Robert

#41 - Very interesting. I think four the ideas, "Humaniqueness," "Things are either true and false," "Essentialism," and "Infinity" are closely related as they all have to do with rejecting absolute values and abstract models in favor of a more relativistic focus on realities.

Joyce, I remember the satanist scare. Good times. Listening to heavy metal music can sometimes get you possessed by the devil accidentally. Stay safe, kids.

#43 - Ha ha! They did say that, didn't they! I had forgotten.

Jo Nesbo to Write Updated ‘Macbeth’

Between this project, which apparently aims to produce contemporary rewrites of all of Shakespeare's plays, and a similar project for Jane Austen's novels, it appears there are no new books left to be written. What is curious, however, is that this goes on constantly in film and stage - these works are constantly moved to new time periods, gimmicky stagings of Shakespeare are so common that "traditional" stagings now seem more noteworthy than goofy interpretations.

The rise of the marriage thriller

And finally, for our WWI readers: First world war diaries go online

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/

>45 fannyprice: - Interesting short article on the Shakespeare rewrites - kind of reminds me of Canongate's myth retelling series. I am really excited to see that Atwood is taking on The Tempest - my favourite author and my favourite Shakespeare play rolled into one!

Oh, and I agree that traditional stagings of Shakespeare are few and far between. I generally see three Shakespeare plays a year at the Stratford, ON festival, and I have seen some weird stuff - Macbeth set in Africa, but still saying "Scotland"; Julius Caesar where the first two acts were traditional, the next two were set in Afghanistan, and the last in space, complete with Storm-trooper costumes; a surrealist take on As You Like It, with random animal-headed people walking around; punk-rock faeries in A Midsummer Night's Dream (actually, that production was fabulous).....

>45 fannyprice: as for "traditional" staging of Shakespeare, Chris and I are going to see a very traditional Twelfth Night tomorrow, complete with an all male cast. Can't wait!

>47 NanaCC:, that's awesome - I saw Twelfth Night in the last year as well and thought it was quite fun. I am going to see the Folger Shakespeare's Richard III in Feb for my birthday present to myself. I'm pretty excited.

How the Nazi Party Recast Nietzsche

I know very little about Nietzsche, but I know some CR's are much more well-read on him & may find this article interesting.

For World Literature - A review of three books on different sides in the debate about "World Literature." Some fascinating food for thought for those of us who like to read books originating in specific languages or cultures or literature in translation. I must read all of the books mentioned therein: Against World Literature: On The Politics of Untranslatability by Emily Apter; On Literary Worlds by Eric Hayot (no touchstone even approaching appropriate); Distant Reading by Franco Moretti.

"In some specific ways, the old arrangements distorted our understanding of literature. The most familiar framework for literary studies for most of the 20th century was the nation, which routinely obscured the ways that texts travel across borders and reshape the cultures they encounter."

Talking of Nazis...

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.570432

Private letters of SS chief found in Tel Aviv
Hundreds of letters written by Heinrich Himmler to his wife are found, shedding light on the life of Hitler's second in command.

They've been authenticated.

>50 Polaris-:, Fascinating.

Not an article, but this is so cool I had to share:

Famous Movie Scenes In The Style Of The Ottoman Empire

>52 fannyprice: LOL! Very cool, indeed!

Very clever!

#52 - Very funny. I just sent the link to a Turkish friend of mine.

The February Issue of Words Without Borders is about international graphic novels.

>52 fannyprice:

Fanny those are great! I enjoyed guessing which films they were as I scrolled through.

Dear America, I Saw You Naked: Confessions of an ex-TSA agent.

Wow. A must-read.

>58 fannyprice: That is not remotely surprising, and it's what many of the less ...erm, follow the herd folks have been saying all along. Great to have someone actually confirm it all so loud & clear, though, for sure.

This very brief blog post has nothing to do with reading, but it does touch on playing a musical instrument for relaxation and the pitfalls of working from home. Also, it's very funny, although somewhat sweary.

Rebecca Mead writes about Jennifer Weiner's continuing quest to get respect for her writing, and women's writing in general. Felt quite shallow overall, but thought this crowd might be interested in an update in the controversy (such as it is).

This is entirely frivolous, but don't you want to find out which Jane Austen heroine you are? I am, of course, Catherine Morland.

#62 - I got Anne Elliot. I don't know how picking Bora Bora led to that answer. Most of my answers to the other questions were "none of the above".

>61 redpersephone: Hi Laurel. I haven't met you yet, so hello.

I am conflicted about Jennifer Weiner. On the one hand, I have a visceral instinct to support any woman accused of being "strident" or "shrill" and I did like her earlier books (I gave up after a few that came across as both self-indulgent and not that good). On the other hand, I find her arguments confused and unclear. Yes, women authors are not generally treated as seriously as their male counterparts. But Weiner seems to think that she should be taken as seriously as a Franzen or Eugenides. I think she's a good popular author, but I don't think that "best-selling" is always the same as "of literary merit." She's not dismissed because of her sex, but because of her writing.

Jennifer Weiner's comments remind me of Nicholas Sparks's own comments which come across as, well, pompous and self-righteous. She's not championing female authors. In fact, she will trash female authors who write differently than she does, complaining if a writer's characters aren't sympathetic enough. And that's a problem -- she's appointed herself the spokesperson for women writers while insisting that only some women writers count.

Why can't we put things like THESE on the resume!

You got: Elinor Dashwood
Columbia Pictures
You’re mature and know when to be serious, but you also have a snarky sense of humour that makes you fun to be around. You’re creative and artistic, and appreciate pretty things. You’re a great listener and really good at keeping secrets, which means you’re a fabulous best friend.

...and that's why you should pay me 130K.

This long article is about more than the CIA's infiltration of the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

http://chronicle.com/article/How-Iowa-Flattened-Literature/144531/

Robert

>62 RidgewayGirl:, Emma Woodhouse. There is a certain irony in the fact that I cannot seem to generate Ms Fanny Price, no matter what I do.

There is a certain irony in the fact that I cannot seem to generate Ms Fanny Price, no matter what I do.

Ha ha ha. I'm guessing "Lady Gaga" isn't one of the appropriate answers if Fanny Price is your goal.

Fanny - I faked a Fanny Price response: There's No Place Like Home + Lizzy Bennet Diaries Darcy + Twitter + Artist + I'm a mouse, dah + the red haired one + Go to Church + Loyalty + Pillars of Earth + Taylor Swift = Fanny Price: You’re quite shy and have often felt like an outsider, but around your closest friends you aren’t afraid to open up. You’re fiercely loyal and kind to everyone (even if they don’t always deserve it). While you hate exercise, you love reading and learning.

Lizzie Bennet - yay! (But unfortunately a photo of Jennifer Ehle, who I'm not a big fan of).

>62 RidgewayGirl:, 63 Anne Elliot, but I picked New Zealand. Persuasion is my favorite Austen, so I was pleased (particularly since it's so scientific and surely accurate).

#70

(But unfortunately a photo of Jennifer Ehle, who I'm not a big fan of).

High five, friend! :) (We are few, we must stick together.)

#63, 71 - Anne Elliot for me too and I chose Austria.

An interactive quiz from Oxford University Press, "Which Classical Character Are You?"

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/04/which-classical-character-are-you/

I'm Ulysses

#74 - Fun! I got: "you are Medea. Passionate and hot-tempered you’ll do anything to get what you want and to punish those who’ve done you wrong. You are cunning with a powerful grasp of the dark arts. Beware anyone that gets in your way!"

Consider yourselves all warned.

Oh dear, apparently I'm Penelope. And I can't even weave or anything.

#75

Rockin'! Medea's my favourite mythical character.

I chose the male option and got Orpheus, which, huh. So not me.

#76

Good girl! ;)

I just tried the male version and got Odysseus. Clearly I'm destined to be someone from the Odyssey. But I like that result better. :)

Bragan - I suspect that you got Penelope because you always picked the only "reasonable" answer. Since my true answer was always "none of the above," I generally went with one of the outrageous ones that involved poisoning my enemies or some other fun outrageous behavior.

I got Dido. I like the being queen and founding a city thing. Less happy with the stabbing-myself-on-my-funeral-pyre thing.

I also got Dido. I am also a loyal friend. But apparently thin skinned, and feelings get hurt easily.

Oh, Dido's good, Dido's good. Very clever woman--blame Virgil for messing up her story.

On the distaff side, I tried to manipulate it into something Athena-ish and got that trollop Venus. DON'T HATE ME BECAUSE I'M BEAUTIFUL!

I got Odysseus as well. That's fine by me... Although I agree with Nickelini. I would also have answered "none of the above" quite a few times.

Sigh. I got Penelope the first time so then I went for more outrageous and got Venus. But I too wanted to answer none of the above a lot!

>79 Nickelini:: Yes, that's my problem. I'm always entirely too reasonable!

Synchronicity!

The Public Voice of Women

...Penelope coming down from her private quarters into the great hall, to find a bard performing to throngs of her suitors; he’s singing about the difficulties the Greek heroes are having in reaching home. She isn’t amused, and in front of everyone she asks him to choose another, happier number. At which point young Telemachus intervenes: ‘Mother,’ he says, ‘go back up into your quarters, and take up your own work, the loom and the distaff … speech will be the business of men, all men, and of me most of all; for mine is the power in this household.’ And off she goes, back upstairs.​

I got Orpheus, which I think is not half bad, but this was because I chose to rescue my book of poetry from the burning building, my wife would understand.

Apparently I am Medea as well. :)

Odysseus as a male; Dido as a female.

Robert

Non lit-related, but interesting, Rare animals you probably haven't heard of. I've heard of a few, but it's quite a mixed group of funky animals!

>90 .Monkey.: That was fun. I knew about the star-nosed mole and the naked mole rat because I have children and about the babirusa because they are awesome, but the rest were fun. Ugly animals are always hits with children, especially mine. Here are a few of my personal favorites:



This is an electric eel knife fish. The one at the Riverside Zoo (Columbia, SC) is very old and blind and looks exactly like a turd, just floating mid-tank. Also, they are dangerous (note that while they are not eels, they are able to emit bursts of electricity, which is not good if you are in the water with one.)



This is totally different from the electric eel knife fish, being a hagfish, which produces amazing quantities of slime, used to repel predators. If the fish gets too slimy, it will tie itself into a knot to wipe itself clean. Relatively little is known about them, because they are gross.

The first muntjac (related to the tufted deer) I saw freaked me out a little because I couldn't tell what it was and I was fairly close to it. I couldn't decide whether it was a deer or a boar.

Those slimey fellas were featured on an episode of Dirty Jobs, they were collected in order to collect slime from them (which meant Mike getting in a big tank and moving all around agitating them so they'd produce a bunch), which was then laid out on lines to dry out, because it then made some strong substance? I forget the specifics, it was funky, lol.

We used to have a black ghost knifefish in my 200gl fish tank, they're technically electric but "weakly" not "strongly" as electric eels are. Ghost knives are much prettier than electric eels. :P

Not an article, just a picture . . .



(If this image doesn't load well, I will delete this. Let me know--I've had bad luck with images disappearing lately)

>93 Nickelini: LOL. I know someone who might actually say something like that when trying to recommend a book.

93 -
Love that!

>93 Nickelini: LOL Nice.

>94 NanaCC: It's actually sadly quite common for people to go into libraries and bookstores and ask for books that way. "I don't remember anything about it but it had a green cover!" hence some store making this joke-display out of it, heh.

Not to laugh, but when I'm looking for a book on my shelves I often have a clear image in my mind of the cover and what color it is.

>97 rebeccanyc: Oh, I'm sure most of us are aware of many of our covers, it's just when someone hasn't a clue about the book and can only come up with "well it was red" and then expects somebody to hand them a book! Oy.

Literary prizes make books less popular

"...phenomenon happens because a book's audience – and thus the personal tastes of its readers – increases considerably after a prize win, so 'a larger sampling of readers is drawn to a prize-winning book, not because of any intrinsic personal interest in the book, but because it has an award attached to it'."

Why Is Academic Writing So Academic?

This article, part of a recent reaction to an NYTimes columnist's plea for academics to be more publicly engaged, caused much discussion in my household. My significant other, an academic in the social sciences, and I wondered if academics in the hard sciences are plagued with pleas to use "less jargon" or if people just believe that hard science should be less accessible to the general public than social science or the humanities.

#99 - Literary prizes make books less popular

Almost two years ago I did a little study of LT ratings of award-winning books and came to the same conclusion after finding that the winners of Booker Prizes had lower average ratings here than the winners of other more obscure literary awards. The LT ratings of most books also dropped after they were selected for shortlists or awards. I concluded that "a prize like the Booker and Pulitzer induces people read a book that otherwise wouldn't have interested them and which they consequently rate lower."

http://www.librarything.com/topic/136025

Timothy Snyder, the author of Bloodlands, which a few ClubReaders have read, on the current situation in Ukraine:

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/mar/01/ukraine-haze-propaganda/

Thanks for that link, Kris. He had an article in the current issue, which I received this past week, that was outdated by events, so it's good to read this one. I read Snyder in the New York Review of Books before I ever read Bloodlands; in fact, it was reading him there that made me buy the book.

Interesting article.

Thanks for that article.

Yes, it was excellent.

The Morning News Tournament of Books has begun! I love this annual award, which takes its shortlist and pits one book against another, cage match-style. The opening round (well, pre-round) has Kate Atkinson's Life After Life going up against Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel. Each round has a literary judge, in this round it's Geraldine Brooks, who discusses the books and declares a winner. After the decision comes color commentary, followed by the comments section, which is worth reading as well. You can find out who won here./a>

>102 rebeccanyc:, rebecca, re "in fact, it was reading him there that made me buy the book" - I think the same was true for me!

There is a scandal in this year's Tournament of Books!

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-indie-author-tries-fails-drop-o...

The Humanities and Public Life is the jumping off point for this essay on the future of the humanities, a constantly troubling issue.

Robert

Joe Walton about e-books - http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/03/how-having-an-e-reader-has-changed-my-reading-h...

How to buy your way on to the best sellers list: http://www.worldmag.com/2014/03/unreal_sales_for_driscoll_s_real_marriage

This slant of this article is that an evangelical pastor was doing the scamming, but the part I found interesting is how they went about it. Not rocket science, but interesting.

ETA: a blog that speculates where the individual purchasers came from: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/03/05/how-mars-hill-church-...

Will Scotland Go Independent - a very good article in the NYRB.

"Viewed like this, it is, paradoxically, Scotland that has been clinging to an idea of Britain, one that has been abandoned by the rest of the UK—at least if that idea is defined in part as the collectivist spirit of 1945. As Macwhirter writes, 'Scots have arguably been more committed to the idea of Britain than the English over the last 200 years. What Scotland didn’t buy into was the abandonment of what used to be called the post-war consensus: universalism and the welfare state.'"

I've read somewhat on sociopathy and will read more about it. My interest has been mostly in how to confront it in my own life, directly or as a steward. But there are broad social and political implications to the study, and this article from AlterNet surveys those bigger issues, say sociopathy among the one per cent. It also refers to some books that might bear reading.

Robert

There are too many good literary periodicals. They are expensive, and they are long. I keep plowing huge subscription fees into the New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement, but any more I rarely pick up one to read largely all the way through. Yet I remain attracted to all of them, so here's an article on the London Review of Books and its chief character:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/09/london-review-books-lrb-best-magazi...

Robert

>112 fannyprice: Interesting article about Scotland, especially after discussing the issue with my Scottish-born (but now US citizen) friend.

>114 Mr.Durick:: I subscribe to the LRB about one year in two, because I feel guilty about all those unread issues piling up. It is fortnightly and so does give you a bit of a chance to keep up. It is of course very left of centre which might not appeal to everybody.

How the Invention of the Alphabet Usurped Female Power in Society and Sparked the Rise of Patriarchy in Human Culture

"Writing of any kind, but especially its alphabetic form, diminishes feminine values and with them, women’s power in the culture."

I'm gonna have to read this again, but after a first-through, this seems like ridiculous, gender-essentialist garbage. Has anyone read the book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image?

I'm gonna have to read this again

Reading just the sentence you quoted was enough for me. ;)

Wow. Can you post back when you've analyzed it?

Say what? (Oops, I was writing. I feel my power ebbing away . . .)

In honor of St. Patrick's Day: http://www.getting-medieval.com/my_weblog/2013/08/st-patrick-and-christianity.ht...

>117 fannyprice:: Well, that article is indeed interesting. But to my mind - and I also just read it once and not until the end - there are certain things that seem to lack proof. For instance:

Literacy, once firmly rooted, will eclipse and supplant speech as the principal source of culture-changing information.

While it seems to be true (I'm not an expert in the field) that writing supplanted reading in the recording of tales and stories and later information for obvious reasons (e.g., speech is transient) the understanding of the roles of man and woman changed as well. I guess my point is this: Yes, it is true that men became more literate. But then again women became more literate over time as well. Women might have been at a disadvantage in male-dominated societies but to my mind this raises the question of cause and effect. Women being less literate than men through vast stretches of history may just be the effect of male-dominated societies. The article, however, seems to say women being less literate than men is the cause for male dominance. That's where I would need some sort of 'proof' (of whatever kind that may be).

Edit: (If someone read the article till the end and found the point where the author attacks the cause-and-effect issue I'll go back to read the whole article.)

Is sacred art, in the West, really humanist art?

http://rationalist.org.uk/articles/4604/people-power

I think that I will also post this in the Let's Talk About Religion group.

Robert

Stephen Hawking notwithstanding, there is probably still room in the world of ideas for philosophy. This article discusses a book on this subject:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/playing-with-plato/358633/

It makes the mistake of referring to a scientific method when there actually isn't any such thing.

The book apparently is structured around dialogs which I often find to be too cute to read even when they are substantial. So it may be a while before I turn to the book, but it will be on my wishlist anyway.

Robert

It makes the mistake of referring to a scientific method when there actually isn't any such thing.

LOL!

A New York Times article about the dearth of bookstores in Manhattan that fails to mention several that I patronize including Crawford-Doyle, Book Culture, and the Corner Bookstore.

The Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz was born 100 years ago today (March 31). Here are two articles, the first, from the Dallas News, explaining why Mexicans consider him their most important writer. The second link, from the New York Times, discusses his political legacy.

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20140330-why-octavio-paz-is-sti...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/opinion/the-wars-of-octavio-paz.html?hp&rr...

Michael Dirda reviewing Lawrence Buell's book considers the Great American Novel:

http://www.vqronline.org/big-read-can-single-book-sum-nation

Robert

The book mentioned in this interview article is going on my wishlist. The question is how is it that progressive taxation is not capitalist?

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/13/occupy-right-capitalism-failed-worl...

At least I think that that is the question.

Robert

>129 Mr.Durick: ...Are you joking?

Poetry as therapy:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-dante-saved-my-life/

It is likely right, and it may be one of the reasons I read, but I am also a big fan of art for art's sake.

Robert

Something that demanded sharing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26969150

>132 tonikat: those pictures are amazing.

>133 NanaCC: aren't they.

>133 NanaCC: Ditto

>132 tonikat: Wow! Thanks for sharing that, Tony.

Here's an article about what happened when someone decided to read only books written by women for a year. The first is the original article, the second link is to her remarks on the reaction she got.

http://flavorwire.com/429473/why-i-only-read-books-by-women-in-2013/

http://the-toast.net/2014/02/03/what-happens-when-you-tell-people-youre-reading-...

>137 RidgewayGirl: Very interesting articles, thanks for sharing. In response, I'm making a commitment to read mostly women writers this year - not exclusively though, I have too many books on my tbr shelf for that.

PS The reference to David Gilmour still sets my teeth on edge.

>137 RidgewayGirl: Kay, I keep meaning to track how many books by women I've read. I think I will go do that now.

ETA: I know that I have done much better in some years than others. I'm just going to check last year and will track this year.

Last year, 55% of my reading was by women. So far this year it's 60%.

From Buzzfeed "16 Hilariously Inappropriate Amazon Reviews:" http://www.buzzfeed.com/adamdavis/amazon-reviews?bffb, one of my favourites:

Where Is Baby's Belly Button? A Lift-the-Flap Book Board book

255 of 304 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
DO NOT buy this book, you can SEE the ending right on the cover!, April 19, 2012
By PacMan

This book is completely misleading. The entire plot revolves around finding Baby's belly button; the title makes this much clear from the beginning. However, there is no mystery. There is no twist. Baby's belly button is right where it's suppose to be, on Baby's stomach. Right where it clearly SHOWS you it is on the COVER OF THE BOOK.

This plot is a complete mess as a result of it's reliance on the mystery of where the belly button is; everything falls apart the second you realize that the belly button was in plain sight all along. There is no conflict, there is no character development, and there is scarcely any plot. Whoever wrote this book must have a serious error in judgement, because you would have to be an infant to not immediately understand where Baby's belly button is. This is one of the worst pieces of literature I have ever read.

>141 Nickelini: Very funny.

That is funny. Here's a similar website:

http://leasthelpful.com

#143 - oh no, I could read those all day.

Just as I am planning a re-read of James Joyce's Dubliners, I found this article on CBC Books: A re-imagining of James Joyce's Dubliners

>145 VivienneR: Interesting.

For the Mapp and Lucia lovers, a new BBC series.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27254700

That is good news! Although it must be daunting to follow the outstanding contributions of Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales and Nigel Hawthorne from the 1980s version. I hope it will be broadcast in Canada.

Since Club Read-ers are often frustrated by book cover cliches...

"the covers of most novels “about Africa” seem to have been designed by someone whose principal idea of the continent comes from The Lion King":

http://africasacountry.com/the-dangers-of-a-single-book-cover-the-acacia-tree-me...

http://qz.com/207527/the-reason-every-book-about-africa-has-the-same-cover-and-i...

#149 - oh, those are both great! I didn't notice how ORANGE Africa is! This is my favourite line: One day, Mendelsund predicts, there will be a best-selling novel by an African writer that happens to use a different visual aesthetic, and its success will introduce a new set of arbitrary images to represent Africa in Western eyes. “But right now, we’re in the age of the tree,” he says. “For that vast continent, in all its diversity, you get that one fucking tree.”

On the other hand, here are the covers of books by African writers that I've read this year:

     

Admittedly though, these are all published by non-mass-market publishers.

An interesting series of maps showing what languages other than English and Spanish are most commonly spoken, by state, and then breaks it down by language categories.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/05/language_map_what_s_the_mo...

I'm listening to a program on my local public radio station with my favorite interviewer, Brian Lehrer, talking to the author of the Slate post.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/after-english-and-spanish-your-state-speaks/

I'm not sure if this is the right place to mention this, but long-time members of Club Read may remember the "Esenin Translation Project", for non-professional translations of poems by the early-twentieth-century Russian poet Sergei (Y)Esenin. Following an enquiry from user DimNick, who translates from Russian into English and Greek (impressive!), this topic has been revived as a separate group, and you can help it take its first steps at

https://www.librarything.com/groups/esenintranslationpro

It seems to me that I've seen mention of this article here somewhere, but I don't see it in the messages immediately above. How hard is it to rid yourself of books?

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/17/linda-grant-author-killed-books-lib...

Robert

Here is financial commentary that feeds my apocalypticism:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-burnham/dow-5000_b_5373875.html

Robert

A book review on the history of the novel:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/how-the-novel-made-the-moder...

Robert

Readers can't be annoying, can they?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-petite/6-types-of-aggravating-readers_b_533...

Robert

An interesting look at the impact/background to the recent decision to stop prisoners in the UK being able to receive packages from friends and family, including books: http://meandmybigmouth.typepad.com/scottpack/2014/05/books-in-prisons.html

You cannot have a taste for minimalist decor if you seriously read books

Thank you, Robert.

Not so much an interesting article as pure sadness. Maya Angelou has died: cnn.it/1hdpJRD

Very sad.

I saw an interview with her once where she spoke of how as a child she wished to be white and I think of her grandmother's reaction to this and how she framed this saying only "you can cure a person with love" - hit home.

Pictures of NYC bookshops, and a story from each one:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/06/bookstores-of-new-york.html

>164 wandering_star: Very nice! I see part 2 is coming in a few weeks and I hope it includes some of my favorite bookstores that weren't included in this batch.

Bill Watterson, of Calvin & Hobbes fame, has drawn a comic strip. Here's the story:

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/ever-wished-that-calvin-and-hobbes...

>164 wandering_star:: I'm going on a trip to New York next week, so this article is perfect! Thanks for posting.

17 Bookstores That Will Literally Change Your Life

Pictures of amazing bookstores around the world.

>169 Mr.Durick: Thanks Robert, very interesting

Patrick Leigh Fermor anyone?

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jun/19/inspired-voyage-patrick-lei...

Robert

Semi book-related - some fantastic "minimalist movie posters"

http://beaufortbooks.tumblr.com/post/89371609952/escapekit-papers-for-characters...

>171 Mr.Durick: Thanks Robert; good essay

Some amusing items:

Every English Novel Ever

Every Russian Novel Ever

Very amusing. Seems there is also a "Every French Novel Ever".

I particularly like the following:
15. Nothing Is Any Good And Here Is An Exhaustive Description Of The Internal Rules Governing The Parisian Baker’s Union

And many should recognize what book the following describes:
16. 400 Pages Analyzing Waterloo

All very entertaining, especially the French and Russian ones since I've read so many French and Russian novels.

I particularly loved "She’s Very Close To Being In Our Class But Isn’t Quite And That’s Terrible". I don't know why, but that cracks me up.

I got this from Darryl via a mutual friend on Facebook. I don't see that he has posted it on LibraryThing, so here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/arts/new-wave-of-african-writers-with-an-inter...

Robert

>1 .Monkey.: The man featured in this article now has a book out, A Long Way Home.

>178 Mr.Durick: I noticed that all the writers featured in that article write in English. Too bad it didn't talk about some of the young African writers writing in other languages, like Alain Mabanckou, and too more more of them aren't translated.

The beginning of the second paragraph mentions "mostly young cosmopolitans who write in English." I suppose that's where the recognition is, and the article to a large extent is about recognition. It seems to be saying that once upon a time there would have been no recognition, but now this class of writers, at least, are getting notice and sales.

Robert

Are any of these worth reading?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/03/2014-books_n_5552244.html

Robert

>182 Mr.Durick: I don't know, but I think they are all worth taking a look at. Interesting list!

And here's two funny articles about Art History.

http://the-toast.net/2014/06/23/women-listening-men-art-history/

http://the-toast.net/2014/07/07/normal-moments-western-art-history/

Those are hilarious!

Yes, hysterically funny!

3183 - Fabulous!

>174 fannyprice:, >175 lilisin:, >183 RidgewayGirl: - fantastically funny.

After all that fun, I'm posting something way too sad and depressing. It's a link to just some of the people who died on the recent Malaysian Air explosion. I just found out there was a novelist on board (full article http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/19/world/europe/malaysia-airlines-pla...:

Liam Davison, 56, and Frankie Davison, 54
Novelist - Australia
University Of Queensland Press

Mr. Davison, an Australian novelist, and his wife, Frankie were among the victims of Flight 17, the Australian newspaper The Age reported. Mr. Davison’s work earned a number of accolades, including a National Book Council Banjo Award for Fiction for his novel “Soundings” in 1993, according to his publisher. Toorak College, a school in southern Australia where Ms. Davison taught literature, said she was “much loved” in a Facebook post, which was drawing scores of expressions of grief from students, colleagues and others. The Davisons had two children, Milly and Sam, the school said.

A radio segment about, and interview with, Lawrence Block, the author of the iconic Matthew Scudder mystery series.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/mystery-writer-evokes-the-sights-sound-and-grime-of-19...

A New York Times article about Laszlo Krasznahorkai. I really liked his War and War, which I read a few years ago, and have some other books by him on the TBR.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/books/laszlo-krasznahorkais-novels-find-a-us-a...

A little bit on how W. S. Merwin is getting on:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/prize-winning-poet-still-work-age-86

Robert

Authors insulting authors. I'm reading, among other things, right now Baldwin: Collected Essays (I've finished the Notes of a Native Son part) and don't think I can authoritatively deny this criticism much though I am enjoying the reading.

Robert

A re-publication of a piece from 1966 by an anthropologist working in West Africa, on telling the story of Hamlet to the people she is living with.

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/editors_pick/1966_08-09_pick.html

The old man was acquainted with four kinds of “papers”: tax receipts, bride price receipts, court fee receipts, and letters. The messenger who brought him letters from the chief used them mainly as a badge of office, for he always knew what was in them and told the old man. Personal letters for the few who had relatives in the government or mission stations were kept until someone went to a large market where there was a letter writer and reader. Since my arrival, letters were brought to me to be read. A few men also brought me bride price receipts, privately, with requests to change the figures to a higher sum. I found moral arguments were of no avail, since in-laws are fair game, and the technical hazards of forgery difficult to explain to an illiterate people. I did not wish them to think me silly enough to look at any such papers for days on end, and I hastily explained that my “paper” was one of the “things of long ago” of my country.

This may have already been posted: A Map for Book Lovers.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/this-map-will-delight-book-lovers-everywhere#2...

I'm not sure if this has been posted before, but I found it amusing - "28 Totally Relatable Quotes About Books"

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/totally-relatable-quotes-about-books?utm_term=12sg...

This isn't an article, but Coursera is starting another round of Comic Books and Graphic Novels -- (This class) presents a survey of the Anglo-American comic book canon and of the major graphic novels in circulation in the United States today. Its governing question is simple: by what terms can we discuss comic books as literary art? In pursuit of that question it develops a theory of literary reading and time itself.

Its shortcomings notwithstanding I hope that the film is shown here.

http://www.vogue.com/1809321/50-year-argument-martin-scorsese-documentary-new-yo...

Robert

PS Apparently it'll only be on teevee. I don't have teevee, or not in any practical way anyway.

R

Mostly about Marilynne Robinson but some about Lila, her latest novel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/magazine/the-revelations-of-marilynne-robinson...

Robert

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-a-traveling-salesman-sugar-...

From McSweeneys, an open letter about a teenager discovering books.

More Marilynne Robinson: on writing religious fiction

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/08/marilynne-robinson-lila_n_5955202.html

Robert

"Luring" younger readers with simpler versions of best sellers: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/business/media/laura-hillenbrand-jon-meacham-a...

Here's a song about what our loved ones endure, called My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MeQK7JtLpU&spfreload=10%20Message%3A%20JSON...

Although I wouldn't toss a billiards table out of the game room of my mansion for having a green playing surface, I think of green as being a color appropriate to floral nature and a few reptiles — I even hold some parrots and emeralds as being suspicious. I once liked green clothes but have since shied away from all but the skimpiest use of the color in my wardrobe.

So the question is, does the color green merit a whole book, even a light weight one?

http://chronicle.com/article/Green-Day/148985

Robert

Ben and David Crystal explore accents in their book You say potato: A book about accents. Waterstone's has a blog post from son Ben, followed by father David's picking up the story.

If their anecdotes don't appeal, scroll down to the potato map at the bottom. Maybe it's just me, but I got sucked into clicking on random potatoes and hearing how people from different places pronounce it. Good fun on a rainy weekend afternoon.

http://www.waterstones.com/blog/2014/10/how-do-you-say-potato/

>203 Mr.Durick: I haven't read this book yet, but I did read Pastoureau's book on Blue: the History of a Color and enjoyed it. He also has one on The Devil's Cloth: A History of Stripes.

I think that I could enjoy those books, but I wonder about putting them ahead of the couple of thousand other unread books I have.

Meanwhile, here's an easy Guardian article on Jared Diamond and his critics:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/24/jared-diamond-bestselling-biogeogra...

I should read more of his work and some of the criticism that has been brought to bear on it.

Robert

PS I am extremely glad to see that he and his family eschew the split infinitive.

R

What's wrong with split infinitives? This has always baffled me. They were the norm when I learned English.

ETA: oops, I looked it up and finally learned what a split infinitive is. Still can't see what's wrong with it, but it's not what I thought.

I always thought with split infinitives and other rules you had to know the rules so you know when you can break them! After all, Winston Churchill, speaking of the rule forbidding ending a sentence with a preposition, is alleged to have said "This is something up with which I will not put"!

Another well regarded multi-volume life of Stalin is coming out:

http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/rayfield_11_14.php

Robert

>209 Mr.Durick: Oh no . . . I've read so much about him already, but that will be hard to resist.

On the shortcomings of Martin Scorsese's New York Review of Books documentary:

https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/no-argument-here/

Robert

How important a literary figure is Stefan Zweig?

http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/9373472/stefan-zweig-the-tragedy-of-a-great-bad...

Robert

Personally I think Stefan Zweig is a genius in his minimalist approach. He doesn't need to bog the reader down with words to draw them in; the story takes over. He will always be one of my favorite authors and I've never had a negative response upon recommending him to others.

I've only read The Post Office Girl, but found it brilliant -- Zweig was able to change the tone of the novel halfway through and then ended the story exactly where it should have ended, which is a rare talent. According to the article, that makes me less than discerning and deeply superficial.

Deeply superficial? I'd say that's something to be proud of :-P

I think I read only one of his books, Amok, but I don't remember much about it except that it was a new word for me, and the definition on the back cover of the book.

I've enjoyed Zweig too -- I remember reading another similar critique of him several years ago. I think there's people who love to compare him unfavorably to Joseph Roth but to my mind all they have in common is that they came from the same part of the world at about the same time.

Famous First Lines Re-Written For The 21st Century. I think my favourite is Rebecca/OMG Becky

Some of these are clever and fun: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jenniferschaffer/first-lines-rewritten-for-the-21st-cent...

My favorite was Moby Dick -- Tweet me @ Ishmael.

The Guardian: Writers pick the best books of 2014: part one

>217 Nickelini:
"Miss Brooke (shouldn't it be Ms.?) had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor filters."

:-)

>219 Mr.Durick: - I'm adding a few to my wishlist

Earlier this month African-American author Jacqueline Woodson's novel Brown Girl Dreaming was chosen as the winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The master of ceremonies, Daniel Handler, who is better known as children's book author Lemony Snicket, told a watermelon joke about Ms Woodson to the audience (Daniel Handler's Offensive National Book Award Jokes Prove Industry Has A Long Way To Go), which needless to say was not well received during or after the event. In an Op-Ed article in yesterday's New York Times, she elegantly responded to Handler's comments.

The Pain of the Watermelon Joke

>222 kidzdoc: wonderful response. Made me want to read her book.

>223 dchaikin: I plan to read Brown Girl Dreaming next month, as I own the Kindle version of it. Meredith (mabith) wrote a nice review of it recently.

Based on his purchases, I think the President might be a good fit for Club Read.

http://electricliterature.com/president-obamas-bookstore-haul/

An article about whether African books that get published are those that meet with western approval, by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/opinion/sunday/african-books-for-western-eyes....

The New York Times 100 notable books of the year:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2014.html?_r...

I believe that the web site can be cranky, but I'm giving it a try.

Robert

And the Huffington Post's best books of the year:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/02/best-books-2014_n_6248016.html

A much shorter list.

Robert

>227 Mr.Durick: Well, that's a lot of books added to my wishlist...

So, Betty, try this. NPR goes overboard:

http://apps.npr.org/best-books-2014/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=soci...

Robert

>230 Mr.Durick: Oh my. I should never have clicked that link.

I very often click on the Wikipedia link to get a reasonably full introduction to a subject I suddenly don't know enough about to proceed with reading or life or something, and I have found it useful. I realize that it has its faults. On the other hand I don't trust the arguments of people the bulk of which are, "Oh, your source is Wikipedia; that explains everything."

Here is an article on how some of these faults actually come about and which might offer enough warning regarding accepting Wikipedia as the last word:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/12/wikipedia_editing_dispu...

I for one expect to continue to use it as the first word.

Robert

Thanks for the link, I will save it for later reading (which, amazingly, occasionally results in my actually reading the articles I saved).

I agree with you that Wikipedia is a good first step to learning about a subject. It's often also the last step for me if it's not a controversial subject and I only need a quick overview. But of course on some subjects one view is never enough. In case of doubt it can sometimes be useful to read the discussion attached to an article.

I do appreciate that Wikipedia is firmly rooted on the side of science, which unfortunately seems to be a more and more unpopular choice.

The New York Times suggests some books which they think first of all are interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/fashion/9-books-that-would-make-great-gifts.ht...

Robert

A short piece on some cool words:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-grambs/english-is-seldom-at-a-lo_b_6378122.h...

Robert