Books/Mags/Blogs

Our sense of humor is having a rough time getting out of bed this morning, so we’re thinking we may have to go back and read this article from Slate more carefully. After all, they cannot possibly be suggesting that our beloved Dr. Seuss is driving children away from books. Now don’t get us wrong, we’re completely down with “down with authority” — but that’s not the Cat in the Hat. We’re pretty sure they mean cops and stuff. Nevermind. Hopefully this article is lacking in seriousness and we will get the joke as soon as Ms. Funny stops hitting […]

We are continually fascinated with the New York Post. The all-caps headlines creating a sense of looming death and destruction. The unabashed political bent. Even the recent lack of, um, properly sourcing stories tickles us. Probably because we’ve always been a bit fascinated by stories about William Randolph Hearst and yellow journalism. So it was with delight that we read Sara Nelson’s column on Tom Wolfe’s new book I Am Charlotte Simmons, a novel set in the wild and crazy world of higher education. Astute observers of the literary world will recall that Wolfe himself hinted at the, as Nelson

We’ve encountered this story twice — and fretted twice. So we thought we’d share the love with our friends and have a worry party. Maybe it’s because, once or twice, to escape hassle we have said “vacation” instead of “business” when traveling (it was a long time ago and we score a lot of sightseeing, so it wasn’t a complete lie). A journalist arrives in the United States with the proper visas — she’s thrown in jail. Now, she could have lied, but she, in her ignorance, told the truth. And went to jail. We realize things have changed in

We’ve held back for several years now. But with yet another article on this crazy new phenomenon, chicklit, we feel we must speak out. No, not about the fact that San Luis has just discovered the genre — it’s a sleepy town with easy access to wineries…who has time to focus on the latest thing in books? Our rant is about the wonderful The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing. We have never once, despite being told constantly that it’s so, believed this book to be chicklit. The only thing we can conceive is that it had the misfortune of

It appears we are having one of those wishy-washy moments we often talk about. Minutes ago, we typed a sentence to the affect that world-building in novels is critical no matter if a work is set in Manhattan or South Central Los Angeles. We very nearly used the example of science fiction novels, but thought that too obvious. Well, we’re going there anyway. For those who can’t read our mind, no harm, no foul. For those who can, we’ll try to resist our impulses in the future. We start with a quote from later in the article: “The problems that

Okay, if we’re genetically predisposed toward blogging, why wasn’t it invented when we could stay up late and still get up early? Answer that one, Mr. Scientist. We are still unclear on what a “boffin” might be (but surely it doesn’t sound good), but love this quote too much to let it pass. Okay, fine, it’s like the oldest article ever — we don’t have to be timely every moment of every day. “Webloggers are born not made,” he said. “And shouldn’t be persecuted.” Boffins isolate ‘blogging gene’

We thought perhaps Sarah Weinman was playing an early Bastille Day joke (sort of like April Fool’s, but less well known). But, no, it’s true: The New York Times has discovered…wait for it…Amazon’s used book sales. Perhaps we should have warned you in advance or suggested you sit down first. We’re sorry. Anyway, we’d like to welcome the paper of record to the party. Hats to your right, punch in the back corner, please lock the bathroom door if you want to maintain your privacy. Sometime in 2000, the so-called “blue button” debuted. This has changed to a text link

It is our belief that blogging hasn’t come close to reaching critical mass. At this year’s South by Southwest Interactive, it was on everyone’s lips, sure, but, let’s face it: what else would a crowd of geeks discuss (yes, we know, there was plenty of that going on as well)? So before the majority of the world discovers the magic ‘sphere, an entire generation of bloggers will be burnt out and weaning themselves from their addiction. They will be the web’s Velvet Underground. Why is this happening? It turns out that some blogs are the victims of their own success:

Something tells us that The Elegant Variation doesn’t hang on our every word. Luckily, we have a very strong ego, and can forgive him for missing the tip of the iceberg on this story: mere weeks ago, we broke the news that Harlequin is moving into straight erotica (the Spice imprint is ramping up). For the uninitiated, Harlequin is a very marketing driven publisher; when it invests in an imprint, there’s a good, solid financial basis for it. Apparently sex is the next big thing in Britain (makes us wonder if perhaps the author of the article is unaware of

This Independent story isn’t particularly timely or revelatory, but what the heck? To nobody’s surprise, index-reading remains a hobby…and woe to those who aren’t name dropped. If we were to somehow acquire a scandalous existence (or even find ourselves on the fringe of such a thing), and then found the time and energy to name names, we think we’d take the “no index” approach. If you want to know what we say about you, read the damn book! Dishonourable mentions: Sometimes the most waspish writing is at the back of a book. And often it leaves little need to read