Square Pegs

At some point in our history, such notions as good punctuation and proper grammar emerged. One suspects, if one has spent some time learning the English language, that there were equal rations of randomness and sadism in the development of sentence structure and rules. Apparently clarity of communication could only be achieved via the most circuitous route. It is noted that some writers, well-known ones at that, didn’t follow rules that lead to neatly organized dots and dashes and curlicues. Or maybe they did, but in the end, it didn’t matter much because even in the days of Shakespeare, the […]

This is from the March 3, 2006 “Shelf Awareness.” In an effort to restock its shelves after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Public Library is asking for donations of hardcovers and paperbacks for people of all ages. Library staff will decide which books should go into its collection; the rest will go to destitute families or be sold to raise funds for the library. Please send books to: Rica A. Trigs, Public Relations, New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Ave., New Orleans, La. 70112. Apparently if donors mention to the Postal Service that the books are for the library in

To nobody’s surprise, readers largely prefer books with happy endings. Psychologists will surely do studies and focus groups, but we believe that deep down inside, most humans are hopeful. It’s a tough world and turning to a book that makes you think it will be just fine is human nature. It is that most of us crave overwhelmingly a happy ending to a novel; and that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice – in which Elizabeth and Mr Darcy ride off to Pemberley in the sunset and live happily ever after – is our runaway favourite of a perfect ending. Part

Sometimes it’s hard to tell: is Susan Gable sadistic or masochistic? Or maybe she has too much time on her hands. Today’s tip certainly suggests the latter. It is rare that an advertising campaign affects us in a way that inspires utter loathing. Truly. We save such emotion for truly awful thin–wait, that’s what happened here. Let us summarize to save you the agony. Oral-B, a toothbrush company, decided to promote a new, uh, sensitive brush product by tying it to romance novels. First (and this should say it all), you choose one of three readers to, we suppose, read

As it turns out, the Da Vinci trial is keeping the industry glued to, hmm, what does one observe when a trial is held in the UK? News is scant, but we have high hopes that someone will do something. In the meantime, we’re heading back for more coffee.

That thud you just heard was our head hitting a wooden desk. Hard. And, yes, it hurt. We’ve long suspected that the world as we know is coming to an end. We simply didn’t realize it would happen this week. And here we went and wasted the weekend on accomplishments. Nothing less than the future of Western literature is at stake in the High Court tomorrow [today, actually]. Or so the publisher of The Da Vinci Code, the money-spinning blockbuster by Dan Brown, is expected to argue in a ground-breaking trial. Yes, kids, coming to a scandal near you: the

We realize that most of our readers aren’t lucky enough to hear the behind-the-scenes conversations (nor the re-enactments) at BS HQ, so it’s possible that you missed some ranting and raving in the last week or so. It all started, more or less, with this: Take Gallup’s poll. Beyond flat to declining blog traffic, it found just 9% of Internet users read blogs frequently, 11% do so occasionally, 13% rarely bother, and 66% never do. And “reading blogs” ranked last in a list of 13 common Internet activities, below things like emailing, checking news and weather, and shopping. It continued,

It’s Friday, February is slow (makes July and August seem like positively thrilling months), and we’ve hit rock bottom. First, pope news. Now feuding authors. Of course, no way could we resist pointing you to an article that starts like this: Literary award ceremonies, generally speaking, are not particularly boisterous affairs. This year’s British Book Awards may, however, be an exception. The London hotel hosting the event, Grosvenor House, has asked for an “exclusion zone” between two of the shortlisted authors, Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson, on account of their now legendary personal feud having erupted into fisticuffs at a

Okay, on one hand, the pope is rich. Sure all that money belongs to the church, but let’s be honest, the pope can tap the treasure trove whenever he wants. Then again, it is the firm policy of BS to support authors in their quest for full compensation for their work. Yeah, the pope wants his royalty money and he wants it now. The demand by the Vatican to respect copyright on the pontiff’s writings and pay for their use has triggered hot debate: Should an institution which exists to spread the word of God be putting a price on

We know you’ve spent the last few weeks busily reading Garner (though, in all honesty, it probably only took you one long evening). Now it’s time to go to the LBC and join the discussions. We know, we know, you’ve listened to the podcast already. You’ve read the posts. And today, Kirstin Allio is talking about her book. Don’t be shy… Lit-Blog Co-op