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Thomas Mann: Strike Two...the Magic Mountain

By cobwebsandstrange on 8/27/10 7:13pm
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Most folks who read – for real, not just in passing, every once in a great while – probably don’t start a book and not finish it. If that does occur, some catastrophe could only explain the inability to complete a nominally easy task. So, my not finishing The Magic Mountain, since it was interrupted by some emergency, can only be explained by my lack of focus, or the boring nature of the book. That latter seems right, though.

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Trocchi's Cain's Book: Smack on a Scow in New York

By cobwebsandstrange on 7/30/10 2:59pm
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It’s funny reading descriptions of Alexander Trocchi’s final novel, Cain’s Book. For the most part, the writer, a heroin devotee, is couched in terms of existential uncaring and set in a line with Albert Camus and any number of other beats.

What separate’s Trocchi from his American brethren is admittedly his uncaring about pretty much everything apart from how to get high. But in Cain’s Book, that flippant perspective on life is related in some of the most poetic language possible. Granted, the subject matter and the resultant physical toll is apparent at times as Trocchi’s prose moves in and out of this flowery language. But the writer does maintain a rather concerted tone throughout the entirety of the work.

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John Brunner's the Shockwave Rider: A Sci-Fi Plea from the Past

By cobwebsandstrange on 7/13/10 4:26pm
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It would appear that most science fiction is given over to the figuring that if a strong enough case is made against the total emersion in technology, that mankind will not be prey to the worst possible future imaginable. Ok, maybe not all, but a huge portion of Phillip K. Dick’s and John Brunner’s work do. And each of those figures comes from drastically different backgrounds in different countries.

Brunner’s best known novel, based partially on Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, is entitled The Shockwave Rider and covers an interesting possible future for the United States subsequent to a tremendous earthquake centered in the Bay Area.

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The Dorothy Parker Reader: Not as Gloomy as You Might Think

By cobwebsandstrange on 6/15/10 5:29pm
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If one were inquisitive enough to seek out various writerly types and query each about literary heroes, no doubt names like William Faulkner, Hank Charles Bukowski and that guy who wrote about bull fights would crop up pretty frequently. The thing is, with those last two fellows perhaps more than the first, is that not only were they each one trick ponies to a certain extent, their writing wasn’t too entertaining.

All of those gents, though, might be thought of as overtly masculine writers, though. And for that alone, each should be commended. With the likes of Tom Robbins and his cohort traipsing about on the outer lying edges of acceptable, mainstream lit, it serves everyone who takes an interest in the written word to figure out why there aren’t more women writers making huge gains in publishing – or anywhere.

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Well Worth a Read: "The Shack"

By Thoreson on 5/19/10 2:34pm
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William Paul Young wrote an incredible book, "The Shack," and it is no surprise that it is a #1 New York Times Bestseller and has over two million copies in print.  It's written as therapy for the author, as he relates very closely to the pain inside of the main character, Mackenzie Allen Philips.  Young held in deep, dark secrets of sexual abuse, a none relationship with his parents, and adultery, while Mack battled a terrible relationship with his father and the loss of his youngest daughter.  According to USA Today, "Young functioned by stuffing all the evil done to him and by him into a "shack" — his metaphor for an ugly, dark place hidden so deeply within him that it seemed beyond God's healing reach."

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Bronte Sisters Action Figures

By lisala on 5/11/10 8:42pm
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Pirate Potter: Unauthorized Chinese Harry Potter Knock-Offs

By erika on 5/4/10 5:04pm
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I'm familiar with the term "piracy" as it relates to eBooks - either genuine eBook files being distributed online, or regular books where someone has sliced off the binding and fed the whole thing into an automated scanner.  These things are bad, agreed, but they seem so… pedestrian… compared to the Chinese unauthorized Harry Potter books!

Turns out, Harry Potter is as popular in China as he is here in the United States.  And Chinese publishing companies are not about to waste that opportunity!  This hilarious article looks at 11 different Harry Potter pirate manuscripts.


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The Future of Publishing

By lisala on 3/27/10 12:39pm
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This video was produced by fabululous childrens', reference, and travel book publisher Dorling Kindersley for a recent sales conference. There's more here than you might think, so watch all the way. Palindromes are good for us.

I want this staircase bookshelf!

By Anonymous on 3/20/10 3:13pm
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Staircase Bookshelf ExtraordinaireStaircase Bookshelf ExtraordinaireI want this extraordinary staircase bookshelf in my next home!

The Problem With EBooks

By erika on 3/3/10 3:27pm
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The Kindle: An Item of PrivilegeThe Kindle: An Item of PrivilegeI'm a fan of eBooks and eBook readers in general.  And I dislike the fetishization of books as objects.  This particular critique of eBooks isn't going to wallow in the supposed luxury of walls of books, or the smell of the paper, or the ability to jot notes on the flyleaf.  As far as I'm concerned, the most important part of a book is the words.  The physical book is just the box the present comes in.  And also, I would like to point out that eBooks can't get mildewed or basement-y.

However, in thinking about eBooks lately, I have come across two potential problems.  I find these troubling indeed.  We may not be able to stop the wholesale rush to eBook gold, but we should start discussing these problems now before it's too late.

Problem #1: EBook Readers Aren't Free


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