Quote of the Week

The discourse at reading groups does not often have much in common with the language of scholarship. Prof Currie and a fellow English literature don were once barred from a book club lest they ruin the fun with talk of structuralism and the like. For others, that expulsion might represent a happy revolution. According to Professor John Sutherland, of London University: “People are reclaiming the right to read from pointy-headed academics”. Why the book club is more than a fad: It is a phenomenon that has become a near ubiquitous part of bourgeois life – and it is about far […]

Though he had more books than he could finish, Rudy prowled estate sales and thrift shops, always looking for more. When a community four towns over closed its school, he bought out the whole library — two pickup loads of outdated textbooks and teen novels. As Elsie puts it: “He was forever buying something for a little bit of nothing.” Pop.: 1 Plus 5,000 Volumes (Note: It’s not cheating to link to the same article twice. It’s called repurposing content.)

The tough-talking publisher [Judith Regan] added: “He [Bill Stadiem] apparently has nothing better to do with his time, and maybe if he finished his second book, which is overdue, by the way, instead of calling gossip columnists, then he would amount to something. “His next book is about his obsession with hookers. He’s touring whorehouses around the world. He likes hookers — and I’m starting to feel a little sorry for the hookers.” Regan Sinks Hook Into Writer

This is necessary because the man [Dean Koontz]doesn’t just write at a breakneck clip. He edits each page at least 20 to 30 times immediately after writing it. When the chapter is finished, he prints it out and starts editing those same pages all over again. “It’s fun,” he says. Sit, stay, succeed – Bestselling suspense author Dean Koontz has a shockingly vivid imagination, a sedate Newport Coast lifestyle and, oh yes, a dog who writes a little too. (Note: Unless a miracle has happened, getting to this article is rough going due to registration and the Times’s strange belief

For better or worse, only books grant that kind of access, getting into people’s minds. Sex moves from back shelf to bookstores’ front tables (Note: Irritating, pointless registration required. We heartily recommend bugmenot.com)

Or are the solipsists who once looked upon the internet as a fad, believing it would suffer the same fate as CB radios, and who once thought online news would never equal print. Alas, he’s still waiting to see if this email thing is going to stick as well. Like It or Not, Blogs Have Legs

But these are not just warmed-up seconds. What continues to distinguish [A] Alvarez is his passion for writing and his eloquence about it. For Alvarez – no surprise here – the crucial quality is tone: ‘For a writer,’ he says, ‘voice is a problem that never lets you go… a writer doesn’t properly begin until he has a voice of his own.’ Writing a book is one thing … signing it is another matter says Robert McCrum

Back in college, working at breakneck pace all night on my first novel, I felt a little immortal, but I certainly don’t now. Maybe I wrote so fast this time around because I feel a lot more mortal. I have the sense now that ideas, when they come, shouldn’t be endlessly lobbed around or toyed with or lightly discussed with friends over dinner. They should be gotten down. There’s a headlong thrill to writing fast, a unique chance to snatch ideas from the air and simply run with them. Rewriting is another story altogether. The Writing Life: Sometimes it pays

Screaming at the descent of the razor-sharp scimitar in The Pit and the Pendulum with my bedroom door closed, I convinced my parents that they had a very strange child indeed. My Secret Stash of Books on Tape

The “time seemed appropriate” for the hieroglyph version, due in April, translators said, as the story had already been published in 35 languages. Peter Rabbit gets hieroglyph tale: Beatrix Potter’s classic children’s book The Tale of Peter Rabbit has been translated into ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by the British Museum.