Author name: Booksquare

At last: the invention we would have invented had we an inventing kind of mind. Yes, kids, it’s brain-wave typing. You know how all the great lines are in your mind, but never quite translate via the fingers? No worries. Downloading your brain is just a few years away . Okay. Fine. So writers aren’t the primary targets of the technology — but surely there will be no better test group than a bunch of people who stream words and sentences and paragraphs like extroverts talk. And, fine, it’s not a streaming sort of thing. More like the brain-wave equivalent

This may be the most delightfully absurd story we’ve read in, well, hours. Paul J.J. Payack, an amateur something-or-other, has calculated that the English language will acquire its millionth word sometime this year. Of course, the experts, you know, the ones who count all the words and keep careful statistics, they say not so fast. Such knowledge is apparently, well, unknowable. Presumably that’s ’cause so many words have died deserved deaths. We have no clue where the vowels are buried. But still, it’s a wonderful thought — a finite number of words comprising the English language, if only for the

For those of you who greeted the time change with aplomb, we salute you. Messing with time is a dangerous thing, and we are of the belief that no good can come from it. Except maybe the opportunity to drink wine in the backyards on lovely spring evenings. We figure that if you’re the type to rise early, then you’re the type to get all excited about copy-editing. And if you’re the type to get excited about copy-editing, well, see previous re: wine. It will help. It’s a nice article (transcript, actually, but why quibble?) that had us in almost

The Booksquare household* celebrates April Fool’s Season with a vengeance. Like it’s Christmas. Over the past twenty-four hours, we’ve been hearing choice bits of tomfoolery. Also, we got to hear about something called “SQL on Rails”. Apparently, it’s hilarious. Needless to say, we’re stepping away from the laptop until this unfortunate season passes. Geeks and April do not mix. * – Not all members of the household, we should note. Just the crazy ones. The Prism DuroSport 6000 – Worst Digital Audio Player Ever!

We end our lazy week with a message of outrage. We’re sure most of you are paying attention to the “signing statements” made by the President — the latest made when he signed the the re-authorization of the Patriot Act. Privacy groups fought and worked hard to ensure that the Act protected the rights of U.S. Citizens, and the recent statement has the Campaign For Reader Privacy fighting back. Teicher said the ABA is once again encouraging booksellers to communicate their views to the White House and their representatives in Congress. “We’re currently deciding what our next step will be,”

Are we alone in thinking that VS Naipaul is having a bit of nervous breakdown? He’s been a bit ranty on the subject of appreciation and himself. Like all geniuses, he believes he’s underappreciated and unloved. We are going to send him a copy of Wilco’s “Misunderstood”. He’ll enjoy it. Seriously, what is the point of trashing authors like Thomas Hardy, Ernest Hemingway, and Jane Austen? So they’re not his cup of tea. And they’re dead — no way to defend themselves. And he clearly didn’t get the concept that was Northanger Abbey: “I thought halfway through the book, ‘Here