Jan
26
Confederacy of Funny
January 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment
“Any fool can make you cry,” English novelist Howard Jacobson once stated in an interview. “If I want to see what a writer’s made of, I say, ‘Go on, make me laugh!’”
Laughter. There’s never too much. This is why compiling a short list of funny books to read (or re-read) over the coming year is a good way to start off a new year – keeping all those resolutions can be such a downer. Here’s my list:
- Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (or really ANY book by David Sedaris)
- The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- The Book of Bunny Suicides
Please feel free to add your funny favorites in the comments section, we’d love to hear from you.
P.S. I like to ruffle through the archives from time to time. Here’s an article from the pre-iPad days, when e-readers and their contents were so ugly and clunky we pretty much shunned them.
And evermore, a plug for our beloved Livewriters…
It’s brain porn for the avid reader: Livewriters curates a wonderful sampling of booknerdy (and free) videos every day. Check them out here.
Jan
18
Please Don’t Burn Our Digital “Books”
January 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment
It’s internet black out day in protest of Senate Bill 968: the Protect IP Act that is coming before the U.S. Senate next week. This might be a good opportunity to take a Luddite day in general – crack open a book perhaps?
If we think about internet censorship as a sort of invitation for the “burning” of digital books and information, we can begin to wrap our heads around how destructive and backward such censorship would be. It simply must be stopped.
So, before I sign off of the net for the day in protest, I’ll present a few bookish links for your enjoyment. You can watch them tomorrow 
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More excellently curated literary videos from LiveWriters:
Walter Isaacson on his Steve Jobs biography on MSNBC.
Jan
11
Visual Literacy
January 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment
I found this piece particularly interesting in light of how graphically driven content is these days – with iPads and eReaders providing so much of our reading material does it mean that we will become more visually literate as we gobble up the images in rapid succession?
Visual Literacy of Our Images
By Rachel Beth Egenhoefer (Furtherfield)
Yesterday morning I went to get my New York Times as I do every Sunday. As I unwrapped the rolled up paper (yes I’m talking about the physical paper edition) I wondered what image would appear on the front page of the first day of 2012. This the leading newspaper in the US surely would bring in the new year with a powerful image of what is to come. Which is why I went through a rollercoaster of thoughts when I revealed this image as the front page.
A bunch of people taking pictures of a ball dropping. Seriously?! Not people enjoying the ball dropping, but photographing the ball dropping. I immediately wondered what happened in the moments after this photo was taken. Were people cheering and kissing and celebrating in the streets? Or were they instantly uploading, Facebook-ing, and tweeting these images? It seems as though more and more people are not presently enjoying events, but rather documenting them to share with others (either for bragging rights, or to genuinely share the moment) But what is better?…
For the complete piece click here to go to Furtherfield.
More bits:
There are a ton of new smartly curated literary/book vids up on LiveWriters right now. Here’s a recent sample:
Book Title: Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
Author: Kathryn Schulz
We’re taught to try to live life without regret. But why? Using her own tattoo as an example, Kathryn Schulz makes a powerful and moving case for embracing our regrets.
More amazing book art here.
Jan
4
Shhhh. The Silence Is Coming.
January 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment
Below is an article that is a must read about silence and tuning out/turning off. I know some of us have the intention in the new year to be unplugged more often…This will inspire you to keep that intention alive beyond just this first week in January!
The Joy of Quiet
By PICO IYER
ABOUT a year ago, I flew to Singapore to join the writer Malcolm Gladwell, the fashion designer Marc Ecko and the graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister in addressing a group of advertising people on “Marketing to the Child of Tomorrow.” Soon after I arrived, the chief executive of the agency that had invited us took me aside. What he was most interested in, he began — I braced myself for mention of some next-generation stealth campaign — was stillness…
A few months later, I read an interview with the perennially cutting-edge designer Philippe Starck. What allowed him to remain so consistently ahead of the curve? “I never read any magazines or watch TV,” he said, perhaps a little hyperbolically. “Nor do I go to cocktail parties, dinners or anything like that.” He lived outside conventional ideas, he implied, because “I live alone mostly, in the middle of nowhere.” -
For the complete article click here to go to the New York Times.
…and of course, here are some (non-unplugged) bits to start off your year:
For that tablet you got from Santa, some new ebooks worth a look-see -
Literate, humorous erotica – Drilled in Formation by Bill Carson.
Duet – by Kitty Burns Florey, well known novelist and nonfiction writer. A digital reprint of her favorite novel.
A Godsend by feminist therapist Dalma Heyn and her husband, novelist Richard Marek. A late life romance fantasy billed as a “love story for grown-ups”.
Embarrassment of Riches by the somewhat infamous James Howard Kunstler (author of the best selling nonfiction The Long Emergency). This funny, picaresque novel takes place in 1804,with Thomas Jefferson and Lewis and Clark as important characters.
And evermore…
It’s brain porn for the avid reader: Livewriters curates a wonderful sampling of booknerdy (and free) videos every day. Check them out here.
It’s fun to listen to authors podcasting about their books (David Wilk only interviews authors who have written books that he REALLY likes). Here.
P.S. This is one is available in regular old dead tree format:
I can’t resist a book called: Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All (by Christina Thompson)
Dec
28
A Bookish Mystery of Beauty
December 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment
It started with a wonderful creation, left anonymously on a table in a library…
Guardian article, 3rd March 2011.
One day in March, staff at the Scottish Poetry Library came across a wonderful creation, left anonymously on a table in the library. Carved from paper, mounted on a book and with a tag addressed to @byleaveswelive – the library’s Twitter account – reading:
It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.… … We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)
They thought it was just a fluke, but then more began to appear in other libraries…
Click here.
P.S. It’s remarkable how wise the advice from our favorite authors can be.
From Letters of Note - Advice from Harper Lee:
Transcript
06/07/06
Dear Jeremy
I don’t have a picture of myself, so please accept these few lines:
As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don’t think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, “I’m probably no better than you, but I’m certainly your equal.”
(Signed, ‘Harper Lee’)
To see the original letter click here.
Happy New Year readers! xo
Dec
21
It Is Impossible For Me to Do This Very Long List of Things…
December 21, 2011 | Comments Off
Happy Holidays readers! That said, as you well know, the holidays can be a very busy and stressful time. Let’s take some self-preservation inspiration from the below…
According to the delightful we
Dec
14
My Cameo at The Rumpus: True Story
December 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment
A friend of mine, popular comic book artist MariNaomi, has immortalized me in a recent comic she published at The Rumpus. I’m excited because I love The Rumpus and I post about it here constantly. Also, it’s fun to be comic-ized, and the story MariNaomi tells in this comic is endlessly entertaining to me because it’s true and it’s ridiculous.
Here’s a teaser panel (the crying girl is me!):
Click the image below to read the comic.
For more MariNaomi check out her book Kiss And Tell.
Dec
7
Stopping Traffic with Haiku
December 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment
If it’s been a while since you’ve checked out our parent site LiveWriters, here’s a great sample of what’s over there – (Livewriters curates a wonderful sampling of booknerdy, and free, videos every day.)
And now for something completely different.
If you’re walking or biking around New York City this weekend you might look up at a busy intersection and see signs like these:
Traffic warning street signs written as haiku are appearing on poles around the five boroughs, posted by the New York City Department of Transportation. The poems and accompanying artwork were created by artist John Morse. There are 12 designs in all, 10 in English and two in Spanish.
“Poetry has a lot of power,” Morse tells NPR’s Scott Simon. “If you say to people: ‘Walk.’ ‘Don’t walk.’ Or, ‘Look both ways.’ If you can tweak it just a bit — and poetry does that — the device gives these simple words power.”
Take, for example, these signs that urge pedestrians, drivers and bikers to walk, drive and ride responsibly…
Listen to the story here.
Dec
2
Literary Round Up
December 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Here is something I’ve had on my list to share with you for a while – better late than never. Enjoy this transcript of a brilliant speech by the late David Foster Wallace.
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE, IN HIS OWN WORDS
IN MEMORIAM
The world of letters has lost a giant. We have felt nourished by the mournful graspings of sites dedicated to his memory (“He was my favourite” ~ Zadie Smith), and we grieve for the books we will never see. But perhaps the best tribute is one he wrote himself …
This is the comencement address he gave to the graduates of Kenyon College in 2005. It captures his electric mind, and also his humility–the way he elevated and made meaningful, beautiful, many of the lonely thoughts that rattle around in our heads. The way he put better thoughts in our heads, too. (Many thanks toMarginalia.org for making this available.)
(If anybody feels like perspiring [cough], I’d advise you to go ahead, because I’m sure going to. In fact I’m gonna [mumbles while pulling up his gown and taking out a handkerchief from his pocket].) Greetings ["parents"?] and congratulations to Kenyon’s graduating class of 2005. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”…
The complete text is here.
And…
Check it out, we’re famous! Galleycat wrote about us, or rather, they wrote about LiveWriters, which as you may know, is the site that hosts this little blog (and it’s truly a one-of-a-kind source for book related videos)…
LiveWriters Collects Literary Web Videos
Readers looking for literary-centric web videos can turn toLiveWriters.com. The site showcases videos spotlighting on authors and books of every genre.
Browsers can find everything from book trailers to recorded interviews. The site’s most recent videos features Chuck Palahniuk reading from Knock, Knock,Paul Zak discussing the origins of morality and Jeffrey Eugenides talking about his latest titleThe Marriage Plot.
Here’s more from the site description: “LiveWriters is home to video and audio by and about writers of all types and kinds, as well as news, stories, original writing – in short anything that matters to writers, writing and the future of our shared culture. And we believe in a good healthy dose of fun too. Participate, play, share, enjoy.”
In other news, our compatriots in bookish blogging are prolific right now. We’ve posted about the amazing tool for authors called Bibliocrunch, and our friends over at Writerscast have a new interview in their Publishing Talks section with Miral Sattar, the company’s founder. Listen to it here. Also, there’s a new post over at Booktrix, check it out:
Book?
I want to write a book …. How many of us have said that to ourselves, or out loud to our friends or family? I’d guess almost everyone I or you know has uttered these words at one time or another, or perhaps many times over our lifetimes.
Writing a book is a cultural milestone for anyone who writes one, and has grown to have tremendous meaning and impact.
It’s pretty common to hear people in the book business (writers too) complain that there are “too many books,” worried as they are that the bad will drive out the good, or at least make it difficult to find the good ones among the dross. I do not doubt that is difficult to find all the good ones, but I think finding a great book to read today is like falling off a truck…
For the complete post click here.
Nov
23
Old School Books Win In The Children’s Book Market
November 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment
“As the adult book world turns digital at a faster rate than publishers expected, sales of e-books for titles aimed at children under 8 have barely budged. They represent less than 5 percent of total annual sales of children’s books, several publishers estimated…” (See article below.)
This makes perfect sense doesn’t it? Why lump our precious book time with our kids into the “screen” time allotted our children via iPads, laptops, television, and the like? As a mom, it’s clear to me that children resonate with three dimensional experience, especially that which integrates touch, and even smell. For example, infants seem to love nature more than anything else. Take a crying babe into a grove of trees and allow her to touch the bark, smell the leaves, hear the crackling of the leaves under her knees and hands as she crawls. She will be calmed and enthralled. I don’t think an electronic version of a forest on your iPad would create quite the same magic, do you? So then, why would a parent bother to replace the woody, papery, clunky experience of a beloved baby book with the sleek, clean, over-stimulating zappiness of an electronic book…
For Their Children, Many E-Book Fans Insist on Paper
Before nap time, Ari and Sharon Wallach read books to their twin daughters Ruby (in yellow shirt, left) and Eliana.
By MATT RICHTEL and JULIE BOSMAN
Print books may be under siege from the rise of e-books, but they have a tenacious hold on a particular group: children and toddlers. Their parents are insisting this next generation of readers spend their early years with old-fashioned books.
This is the case even with parents who themselves are die-hard downloaders of books onto Kindles, iPads, laptops and phones. They freely acknowledge their digital double standard, saying they want their children to be surrounded by print books, to experience turning physical pages as they learn about shapes, colors and animals…
For the complete article click here to go to The New York Times.
We hope you enjoy reading some of your favorite books to your kids this holiday weekend! We’re presently reading a most beloved title from my own childhood, the classic A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC by Shel Silverstein. (I still have my old copy – thanks Mom!) My 5-year-old is absolutely loving this book! Silverstein’s poems and illustrations are a tiny bit scary and a lot funny – and that is an excellent combination for sparking the imagination of a child.