Booksquare

The husband, one of the few people we know who reads the Los Angeles Times Business section before he reads the comics, recalled that we have done a series of hard-hitting stories on the publishing industry in China and alerted us to an article that fits perfectly with one of our favorite topics: fake books […]

As we begin the process of clearing out last week in anticipation of this week, we are finding lots of fun stuff that we would be remiss in not sharing. For example, a lament on too many visitors to a library. Truly, it is a problem. Hordes of common folk filling spaces meant to be […]

We were scanning the long list of articles we have bookmarked, sincerely believing we will a) remember we’ve created said bookmark, b) read the articles, and c) work up the energy to write an insightful post on the article. Let us merely suggest you have been spared far more drivel than you can imagine. No […]

In some households, people do things like talk. For example (and this is where a vivid imagination comes in handy), a wife might say to a husband, “Look honey, George Saunders news.” The husband, a noted Saunders fan, would immediately respond with something like, “Thank you for always looking out for my particular interests.” Then […]

When fascinating news abounds, it is difficult to pick and choose the right stories. After all, could anything be more intriguing than the fact that a group of influential authors have formally asked Oprah to reinstate her book club? Oprah, after all, has done more to introduce literature to the public than many publishers. It’s […]

We are having one of our very rare WTF moments: we’re scrunched over our keyboard, brows drawn together, scrolling up and down the page as we try to make sense of what we’re reading. It’s been fifteen minutes and the score is (approximately) Text 4, Booksquare 0. This is worse than watching Ted Lilly pitch […]

We were fascinated by the Foetry.com concept a year ago; we are not so fascinated now. Which is sort of a shame because things have gotten really exciting over the past several weeks. Who knew there was so much intrigue in iambic pentameter (probably we should look up the spelling of that, but chances are […]

According to our schedule, we will be spending the weekend cleaning out the garage. Again. The evil garage elves delight in filling empty spaces with junk we surely did not purchase in a moment of weakness. But if we can manage a believable excuse, we will ditch the never-ending project and head for UCLA for […]

Though we are still puzzling over Kathleen O’Reilly’s assertion that chick-lit is a four letter word (darn New Math), we are willing to help with a good cause. Tomorrow (Friday, April 22): Kathleen O’Reilly will signing THE DIVA’S GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR SOUL at the Waldenbooks in Rockefeller Center, NY (concourse level) from noon to […]

We are, admittedly, lousy at math and only so-so on geography. Or maybe it’s the other way around. When one article combines both, well, we can only hope to muddle through. Let us get through the math problem first: Alas, the fans of serious—i.e., challenging—fiction are a group that figuratively fits in the palm of […]