Square Pegs

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

In our continuing effort to provide, uh, optimum public service, we are proud to announce that Booksquare is now available by email. Yes, we’ll come to you instead of making you come to us. Which kind of sounds lonely, now that we think about it. But don’t mind us — it’s your life that matters. Subscription form is at the top of the page. Because we don’t have a generous bone in our body, your email address will not be shared, sold, nor given away, even if we are threatened with torture in the form of really bad poetry readings.

Mr. Segundo has lured author Dana Spiotta (Eat The Document) into his cave to discuss (and we quote): Katherine Ann Power as inspiration, the ambiguities of terrorism, comparisons and similarities between Eat the Document and Lightning Field, witty political activists, the Billboard Liberation Front, cinematic influences, Don DeLillo, plotting, reader expectations, on stopping just short of September 11th, justifying pop cultural references, food as a Balzacian character indicator, the Beach Boys, literary influences, dialogue, how people talk in restaurants, the rise in contemporary novels dealing with 1960s & 1970s activism, innocence, and unanswered questions for the reader. Now, far be

To nobody’s surprise, the right cover for a book does matter. We note this only because we’re not sure what we find more fascinating: that a major publishing conference would have a session on this topic or that Publisher’s Weekly would do an article on the session. Then again, it’s possible that what really caught our attention was this: In closing [Walter] Weintz said publishers need to remember what he calls the ‘five Ps’ when it comes to moving books: knowing your Product, doing the right Packaging, giving it the right Price, doing the correct Promotion and getting the best

Though we sincerely hope that no New York Times reporters are turning to us for clarification of policy, we cannot be sure. Times reporters are sneaky that way. Thus we offer yet another in our continuing series of public service posts. If you are a reporter for the New York Times, you are also (apparently) allowed to write books. In some cases, you will have to tell everyone in the food chain prior to committing so much as a paragraph to Word. In others, your star power (real or perceived) will allow you to bend the rules. Whether or not

We are, as you can see in the headline, leaving open the possibility for one more story on this topic. Not knowing a thing about British law processes, except the thing where they wear 18th century style wigs, we don’t know how long things will take to wrap up, and cannot guarantee any manner of extended attention span. Thus we leave you with this: Summing up the case, Mr [James] Baldwin said the ideas were “not original” and “too general” to be protected by copyright. Also: “Many of the ideas complained of were not original to The Holy Blood and

And here we bring you a surprising story about chicklit, or, in other words, a thoughtful essay about the impact of fiction aimed at young women around the world. While the American media focused on the frothy layer of chicklit, the writers were actually exploring topics of importance to today’s women. What’s being exported to women around the world is the realization that they can explore issues and restrictions of their cultures in a way that is accessible to their peers. We have long believed in the subversive nature of fiction — what better way to send messages than through

Membership has its privileges, except, of course, when membership means that really cool insight is inaccessible to others. Though it is inconceivable to us that not everyone is a Publisher’s Marketplace member, we must face reality. And also do a post will sketchy attribution and limited access to source. Life is funny like that. So Michael Cader is talking about the Freakonomics guys and their blog and their website and how the whole interactive thing ties together. See, the blog, especially in this case, creates community. Community builds community. This is not Confucius speaking. This is what you should be