OOoh, Steven Johnson turns the traditional “we must read books” argument upside down in his forthcoming book, All Bad Things Are Good For You. Here’s an excerpt from his blog:
Many children enjoy reading books, of course, and no doubt some of the flights of fancy conveyed by reading have their escapist merits. But for a sizable percentage of the population, books are downright discriminatory. Danger: linear reading
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Tale of woe wins book contest
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now ...
Farah Ahmedi was still getting used to wearing a prosthetic leg after her body was mangled in a land mine accident when her tailor father and two sisters were killed in a rocket attack on the family's home in Kabul, Afghanistan. About a year later, her brothers, Mahmoud and Ghayous, disappeared as they fled to Pakistan to escape joining the Taliban. Ahmedi was barely 10. Now at 17, the Wheaton North junior, who wears leg braces, is partaking in another incredible experience.
• The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky [They’re buying a powerful media platform” while providing “paltry” compensation ... Ahmedi says she’s happy just to see the book published, and plans to use the $10,000 to buy her mother a house, so she’ll be comfortable and won’t think about all this terrible stuff that happened to usA cautionary tale of reality-publishing ; Orange prize for first-time writers boosts short stories; Peter Thompson: Film: Three Dollars ]
• · Powerful writing stumps ayatollahs and sets free vibrating broomsticks Salman Rushdie on how literature is a loose cannon. Books vs. Goons ; Even Chris Sheil would approve ;-D recommended by one and only Terry Teachout: Eleven perfectly lovely records
• · · I started a taxing trend! Pushing 'presell tours,' publishers are picking up the check for first dates between authors and booksellers Dine Now, Sign Later ; It's been an incestuous system that worked along the lines of, I'm the jury, the publisher, the writer and the journalist From the Outside, a French Publisher Thrives ; Making literature appealing
• · · · It took on a life of its own. It proved to be way more successful than we could have ever dreamed. Airport-based Paradies Shops report a 20 percent increase in book sales following their initiative to buy books back from customers at half the purchase price within six months. (They sell those books again, also at half price.) Airport stores offer 50 percent return on hardcover books ; Read & Return ; A Look at Fiction Online
• · · · · Actors generally don't know who they really are. They find a center only when they pour themselves into the container of a "character"; they become most fully who they are when they turn themselves into someone else Fonda vs. Vadim ; Give me Saltz's 885 words without theory any day of the week. Saltz's article actually means something to me. I can feel his experience of Hirst's work. I can connect to his opinion. I can sense Saltz's emotional response to the work. Opinion Over Theory Any Day
• · · · · · In the first of a series of interviews introducing this year's inaugural Vienna Writers' Festival Viennese whirl ; For figs to do what figs were meant to do Vienna Writers' Festival