October 27, 2010
As painful as it may be for some devotees of Jane Austen to acknowledge, everything did not, as her brother Henry claimed, come finished from her pen. Researcher Kathryn Sutherland at Oxford University has been studying a treasure trove of the original handwritten mansucripts, and has discovered a fair amount of discrepancies between the manuscripts and […]
October 26, 2010
That’s the title of one of the hottest pulp fiction offerings today in India, and it’s coming to us soon. Booksellers across the ocean have observed the meteroic success of those Swedish writers who have taken American readers by storm, and are hoping the oh-so popular Tamil pulps–mysteries, thrillers, and romances–translated into English find a […]
October 24, 2010
NPR, in conjunction with Sirius XM Radio, has been running a fascinating and timely series on the importance of public and school libraries in today’s cultural climate. Hosted by Bob Edwards, the programs have been airing through October on Sunday mornings at 10am. To find out more about and to link to archived broadcasts, podcasts, and […]
October 21, 2010
After hearing at least two programs speaking about the new Sherlock, I decided it was a good time to mention it here. The BBC‘s 3 part series featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as the lead and Martin Freeman as Watson has become quite famous in Britain over the past few months. Sunday night, on Oct. 24th at […]
October 21, 2010
Although I occasionally read more “literary” fiction, I spend a lot of time reading Women’s Fiction and Contemporary Romance. The other day, I tried to remember what first drew me to this genre. Every summer, my family drove our Subaru station wagon north to a small cottage in northern Michigan. Every year, two days before […]
October 21, 2010
My lovable bike-crazy pal George Christensen has been touring the central U.S. recently, partly to visit dozens of Carnegie libraries. Besides being an amazing rider, George is quite a writer, and has been blogging about his tour. See http://georgethecyclist.blogspot.com (esp. his entries for Oct. 2 & 1, and Sept. 29 & 27). – Jeff B.
October 19, 2010
A British founder of an online book sharing service has been swamped with people calling to join his project. Peter Baillie has received over 700 requests to share in his scheme! The plan works like this: for a nominal annual fee (8.95 pounds) each member must be able to share 10 paperback books that are […]
October 15, 2010
Without city approval for a loan of approximately $600,000, the Des Plaines Public Library may need to close for the year on December 5th. The library board will meet to vote on this option next Tuesday, October 19th. For more, see the Daily Herald. In response, Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan wants the library to focus on making “basic […]
October 14, 2010
The Finkler Question, a comic novel about being Jewish, won the Booker Prize. British author and columnist Howard Jacobson prevailed against more favored writers. Sir Andrew Motion, head of the judging committee, comments ‘The Finkler Question’ is a marvellous book: very funny, of course, but also very clever, very sad and very subtle.”‘ Shira S.
October 12, 2010
Michiaki Tanaka, a Japanese publisher, claims that hiring a regular publisher to create e-books is a waste of money. “Concentrate on marketing your book,” he advises. Using software programs like Calibre he is able to convert text files and photos into professional looking e-books for free. Anyone interested? Shira S.
