Annie Proulx has a new collection of stories out. It’s called Bad Dirt. I think it looks interesting. I haven’t read her short stories, only The Shipping News. But this looks very good. Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly had to say: “The beautiful and harsh terrain […]
Is this a move to compete with what Amazon has done? Google is beta-testing a Google Print site. Here’s what they say about the new service. “Google Print enables publishers to promote their books on Google. Google scans the full text of participating publishers’ titles […]
“Human beings expend staggering amounts of time and resources on creating and experiencing art and entertainment — music, dancing, and static visual arts,” writes scholar Denis Dutton, a professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. “Of all of the arts, however, it is the […]
“I wonder whether I am afflicted with something more than a “gentle madness,” as Nicholas A. Basbanes described it in his 1999 book on the history of book collecting,” writes this annonymous English professor from a Midwestern liberal arts college. “You see, I spend more […]
Last week, the nominees for the prestigious National Book Award were announced from the great state of Minnesota. Among the nominees is Minnesota author Pete Hautman, nominated for his young-adult novel “Godless (Simon & Schuster). “The 20 finalists were announced from the Fitzgerald Theater in […]
Why read? In reading circles it seems to be a subject of debate. University of Virginia Professor Mark Edmunson has written a book of the same title, which was published in September. In August, I posted excerpts from the book printed in an essay by […]
Scott Esposito at Conversational Reading has a good post today on his site. I hope he doesn’t mind if I reprint it here. Questions to ask yourself to determine whether you are a book lover: Do you surreptitiously observe what people are reading on public […]