| 01/03/04:
Happy Public Domain
Day!
A new round of works
enter the public domain in Canada. (LOL* Boingboing) (discuss)
Paris Review Gets New Editor
Stephen King and Harold Bloom team up to steer the grand old lady
of journals into the future. Well, obviously
I'm lying. (discuss)
Maud is God, Bookslut is ... Cooked... Nuts? I'm Sorry, Jessa...
Oh Wait! Hooked Up!
Maud Newton and Bookslut cited
as favourite book blogs by Slate. (discuss)
The Thing I Like Best About Standards is How PORTABLE They Are...
Are our standards
are falling? (discuss)
Famous Mainstream Authors Use Web to Reach Fans
I use
web to look up phone numbers and talk to y'all. (discuss)
G'Day? No Way! I Get My Bling Bling Flown in from the USA! My
Daddy Scarred Me, Tarred Me, Threw Another Shrimp on the Barbee...
Yo Yo... Good On Ya... Word to Your Mum...
Now here's something I bet
you'd never considered... (discuss)
Nobody Takes a Shot at Being Somebody
The football
chant thing. (discuss)
Your Year in a Can
Guardian tries to put Bookninja out of business with a
link-filled year in review, whereas alt-mag eye takes a
more editorial approach. (discuss)
The Book as Fetish Object
Oh, sorry, it's "the
book as art object."** I make that mistake all the time.
(discuss)
Hmm... R...? R...? R...? Ah! Here It Is: Roswell!
Now THAT's a library! Wouldn't you just love to wander
around in there?** I bet there's not much poetry, but plenty
of good sci-fi. (LOL* Kitabkhana) (discuss)
Reality Czech
Ivan
Klima profiled. (discuss)
Eliot as Playwright
A N Wilson likes collecting
old books. (discuss)
Dreamtoons
Slow Waves turns people's
dreams into four-panel comics. My favourite: the
Canadian centaur in the American supermarket (scroll down a
bit). (LOL* Memepool) (discuss)
Dating Miss Dickinson...
Um... I think there are some people who would doubt
that you ever stood a chance with her, SIR. (LOL* ALDaily) (discuss)
Rabbie Burns' Skull Walks Earth in Search of Creep Who Made Mask
of It...
You know, these articles
about exhuming and defiling dead poets never fail to give me
the screaming neck sweats (mostly because I know I'll never be famous
enough to be properly defiled... The best I can hope for is one
future grad student seducing another with some cheap pot on my headstone...)
(discuss)
01/05/04:
Note:
Our little Bookninja
community is growing and sometimes it's hard to keep track of
everything that's going on. Some of the discussion topics are getting
away from pertinent debate and, because we're not using ugly threads,
tangents abound, making it difficult to follow the arguments. The
familiarity between the old-timers is great, and it's good that
you all love one another, but it's also creating an environment
in which new people feel somewhat reluctant to post. So, we're creating
Miscellaneous
and Social
topics for posts that don't fit particular subjects. If you want
to take a discussion off topic, then, "Hey, take it outside."
(If you can think of other topics you'd like to see created - as
we did with Book
Recommendations and Shameless
Self Promotion - then by all means, email us at editors@bookninja.com)
"Publishers are reducing the number of books they release to
concentrate on "big name" authors or "good-looking"
first-time novelists who are more marketable."
Nothing like dire
book news to start the year off right. (discuss)
Every Author Has a Duty to Be a Celebrity
The new
laws of the book world? (discuss)
King's Ka-tet Set to Go Ka-plooie?
I read
the Gunslinger** about twenty thousand years ago and really
liked it. But my attention span is ONLY SO LONG! (discuss)
"We need to learn to utter unpopular opinions"
Ryan Bigge has some
thoughts about the state of book reviewing in Canada, and includes
some choice bits from reviews published in Canadian
Notes and Queries. If you're looking for unpopular opinions,
CNQ has them.
(discuss)
"10 Signs That Your Professor Is Sleeping With You To Assuage
Mid-Life Depression and Will Dump You Shortly Afterward."
Thanks also to Ryan for pointing out the London
Review of Books Classifieds (scroll down to the personals).
An article on
selfsame, and on
a related note. (discuss)
Is Fanfic Wrong?
Hey, we're still waiting for ninja
fanfic. And maybe even some slash fiction. Rowwrr. (discuss)
01/06/04:
Upper Canada Writers'
Craft Award Update
I spoke with the PR people at Sleeman's (who own
Upper Canada) and the rumours are true. Well, almost. The award
has been "indefinitely postponed." What this could mean,
I don't know, but it smacks of PR spin lingo for "gonzo, annihilated,
currently sleeps with the fishes." They told me, "For
whatever reason, we could not do the award this year," (solid
spin-doctoring that) and promised to have "someone from marketing"
email me. So there you have it. Another one bites the dust. Cue
the Queen. (discuss)
That Paradigm Is Punk'd
Ban
these words in 2004. (discuss)
Funny, "teh" Isn't on There
Yourdictionary.com has the top
100 misspelled words. (LOL* Bookslut) (discuss)
NYPL Exhibits Rare 90's Books
Courtney Love's signed copy of Miss Manners is not
included. (LOL* Maud Newton) (discuss)
The New Classics?
Hesperus Press reissues
some oldies. Check out their lit
trivia column too. (discuss)
Sci-Fi Writers Comment on Schwarzenegger's Election
For the record, I came up with that little
Arnold/big Arnold combo first! (discuss)
01/07/04:
Taddle Creek Wants
You
To save
poetry in Canada. (discuss)
Dat Brazen Conman Does it Again!
DBC takes Whitbread
for best first novel. (discuss)
But I Thought We Were All Equal Now...
Didn't this whole pesky
gender inequality thing get cleared up around the same time
the rainforest, ozone, and racism issues? (discuss)
RIP: MobyLives?
MobyLives, the grandaddy of all lit weblogs, including Bookninja,
goes on "a sabbatic of
indefinite length." That must have been some New Year's
party, Dennis. (discuss)
Fraud! ... Um... Again!
Regarding George Wubblewoo Bush's poetry career: "The
first lady lies in order to make the president look ... stupid?"
(discuss)
I Think We Met This Guy and Bought His Book!
Ah, New York. Land
of the success story.** Well, the famous success story and all
the unheard of failures. (discuss)
"We'd Be Just as Happy if We Had No Books at All"
Kafka
on Books. (LOL* Languagehat) (discuss)
This is Your Name. This is Your Name in Ancient Doodles...
Ever been digging reeds into quickly drying clay and been stuck
for a cuneiform translation of your name? Well, NO
MORE! (LOL* Maud Newton) (discuss)
01/08/04:
Strange Brew
The Bookninjas were upset that no one was picking up on the Writers'
Craft Award story we broke last week, so we wrote one ourselves.
Let's try investigative
journalism. (discuss)
Front Page News! Writers' Union Actually Does Something!
A searing open
letter blasts Regina's public library board, using vicious
writerly words such as "aghast," "draconian,"
and "need." (According to their website this--dated
January 2003--is their first press release since October 2003...
Advocating for YOU with YOUR DOLLARS!) (discuss)
Haddon Takes Whitbread
Looks like DBC's unwitting financiers will have to wait
for another day... (discuss)
The Colon: A Debate
Academics ponder
the use of colons... in titles. Of course they do. (discuss)
Your Name in Lights!
Actually, it's in
the grubby pages of a pulp novel, but it's probably as famous
as you will ever get, loser. (discuss)
The Uncertainty Principle
Scientists debate the merits of Michael
Frayn's Copenhagen. (discuss)
So Cool, Kids!
For those of you who like Derek
McCormack's work, why not stop by the website of Ian
Phillips, whose art graces the cover of The Haunted Hillbilly.
You can even order Western
Suit, a beautiful chapbook that excerpts part of Hillbilly and
has the design for your
very own Western shirt! (discuss)
Apparently Scotland is as Clean a Freshly Mown Kilt Monkey
But that eeevil scoundrel Irvine Welsh is trying
to deluuuude you, dear reader....! (discuss)
01/09/04:
Hard to Swallow
Catherine Bush points
out that the arts supporters at Upper Canada moved on to Steam
Whistle after the former was bought out. Steam Whistle has had
a great relationship with Taddle
Creek in the Toronto lit scene. Apparently it's also a supporter
of the visual
arts and theatre in Hogtown. By the way, one day has passed
with no major media coverage of this story. (discuss)
Federal Spending on the Arts Up in Canada
The feds
spend $145.9M on publishing and periodicals. That's what, $4
a year per Canadian citizen? Hell, I'm willing to spend at least
$5. (discuss)
Black with a Wicked Accent
What does it mean to be a
black author in Britain? (discuss)
Meaty Article from Smith
That's right, you whinging farmers in your dustbowl shanties!
We urban
poets need more beer money! Listen, I find much of Alberta as
distasteful as the next educated person, but these farmers are up
to their overall snaps in financial crap. Interesting point about
the factory farms though.
(discuss)
Who's Who?
Author almost turns
down Who's Who entry because... well, it's irrelevant. (discuss)
Mars: the Narrative
A brief
literary history of the Red Planet. (LOL* Elegant Variation)
(discuss)
01/10/04:
I Had an Access
Copyright Form Out on My Desk...
When I came across
this I started filling it out... (discuss)
Press for Poets
The Star covers
a poetry reading. Exsqueeze me? Baking Powder? Well, bravo,
guys! (discuss)
The Worst Web Writing in 2003...
...Wasn't here! Whew.
Looking forward to 2004! (LOL* Bookslut) (discuss)
"It's a form of resistance. If there was not a body of literature,
then native people would be invisible. Sometimes the term Indian
is an abstract idea. But when we express ideas in literature, then
we have a valid body of expression that's totally ours."
Native
lit in the US. (discuss)
Like to do Drawrings?
Danny Gregory, author of Hello World, has a
neat website which contains a
blog, and top
25 books list, and more (LOL* kinda from Bookslut). (discuss)
Tintin Turns 75
I miss the good
old days of journalism. (discuss)
What Happened to All the Fools in Literature?
Annabel Lyon wants
to know. (discuss)
Can YOU Sell 300 Copies in a Matter of Days?
Maybe it's because I'm a new dad, but... this
almost made me weep. Damn kids and their earnest little faces...
Sniff... It's like McWeeney's, but honest. (discuss).
01/12/04:
Elm Street Is (Was)
a Women's Magazine??
Elm
Street is gone and my gender-transgressive reading with it.
I guess it's on to Flare. (Thanks to Lynn C. for the tip.) (discuss)
Laura Miller on Writer's Block
She'll do
anything** to avoid writing a good column. (discuss)
The New Rainforest?
Languages are dying and no one seems to be noticing, except
Mark Abley - and those
noticing him noticing. (discuss)
Statistically Speaking
A prof thinks English Lit scholars
should stop reading books.** English Lit scholars read books?
(discuss)
Glut of Buks
Are too
many books being published? Have we asked this question before?
(discuss)
Was Yeats Autistic?
Having been in social work and then having hung out with writers,
I personally think autism and schizophrenia are highly
under-diagnosed. (LOL* Goodreports) (discuss)
Faulkner Rules!
The work of Faulkner apparently
good. (We try to not link to the Washington Post because they
collect personal information from you as a "fee" for entering
their site. We encourage you to lie to them. I, for instance, am
a female born in 1901 and living in the zip code they give as an
example.) (LOL* ALDaily) (discuss)
"Don Paterson was watching telly in a bedsit in Tottenham
when he had an experience that changed his life."
He was watching what in a what in where? Oh, the
poet Don Paterson? Okay, I'll post it... (LOL* Places for Writers)
(discuss)
I'd Just Like to Have a Hardcover Someday...
When words don't matter so much, big
books are in. (discuss)
|
01/13/04:
Rimb(fr)aud a Simpering Used-to-was?
Rimbaud's collected
letters reviewed by Michel Basilieres. (discuss)
Cool Still Cool
The word "cool" apparently came without
a best before date. (This is debatable. I knew some incredibly
cool people in New York who were surprised to hear me use "cool"
in conversation. They said I sounded like someone's dad. Prophets,
those.) (LOL* ALDaily) (discuss)
Scrittura dans 许多 Languages es Tres Schwierig
The tradition of writing
in more than one language. Funny, when so many can barely write
in their own. (discuss)
Tales from the Stacks
McSweeneys
has a new librarian column. Why would people put firecrackers
in book drop-off slots? (LOL* Bookslut) (discuss)
Whoa Whoa Whoa... When I Said Miserablism, I Meant it in the
Nicest Possible Way...
Besides, I
like that Welsh. And even if I didn't, I'd respect the fact
that he's a sketchy character who hangs out with an army of smackheads
or something... (discuss)
Poetry Avoids Getting Run Over
And ends
up in Italy, of all places. (discuss)
How Many Different Things Are Wrong with This Story?
What do "books" have to do with "wireless
internet?" Isn't that like conflating sex with porno? (discuss)
01/14/04:
Rushdie on the Run
Muslim extremists out
to "blacken" Salman. Um, doesn't this represent a
step up for him? (discuss)
Spalding Gray Missing
Sad
case.** ("Actor" before "Writer?") (discuss)
That's It, Hold those Filthy-Rich Writers Responsible
Lingua Franca did something noble in making sure its writers
were paid before it went bankrupt. Now the creditors want the writers
to hand
those paycheques over...** (discuss)
Empty Pages
Jonathan Safran
Foer collects
blank pages from other writers' stacks. Who the hell still uses
paper? All right, the next sheet on which a famous writer would
have written is kind of cool. (LOL* DangerBlog!) (discuss)
Creativity Machine
Dear God... Think of the implications! If this
could be applied to Canadian poetry Ekstasis might one day be
as good as Oberon! (discuss)
More Dick Than You Can Shake a Stick At
Calm down, folks. It's just old Phil
K. getting his due a couple decades past dead. (discuss)
Fly the Poetic Skies
Delta Airlines now
offers poetry. (discuss)
Poet's Journal
Admit it, your own life sucks, so why not read
someone else's journal. It's on Slate so it can only be so bad...!
(discuss)
Kill the Authors!
Writers
and video game deathmatches meet! What could be better? (LOL*
Bookslut) (discuss)
01/15/04:
Tingling Revelations
Jonathan
Bennett interviewed at January Magazine. (discuss)
Kesey in Jail
Kesey
the artist, and not just painting in, like, my own breath, man.
(LOL* Places for Writers)
(discuss)
Want to Run a Magazine?
Established Canadian small press site (hailed by many as the
best web journal in Canada) The
Danforth Review is up for grabs. Founder and editor Michael
Bryson is moving on and he's reading
proposals from parties interested in taking it over. My plea
to you, if you do get it: don't screw it up. (discuss)
On the Road On the Road
Caffeine-soaked scroll to make 13-stop museum
tour. (Funny thing, I was never able to read OTR ... Hated it.
That is, until one night before an exam - in which said book would
make an appearance. I read it in one sitting, mostly aloud to keep
myself awake. Loved it. Something to be said for all that "typing.")
(discuss)
"Why should anyone but a poet care about the problems of
Indian poetry?"
I'm
not sure what the answer to this is. (LOL* Old Hag) (discuss)
Why We Review the Books We Do
The Atlantic comes
clean. (LOL* Maud Newton) (discuss)
"To have been alive and given to writing poetry in Canada during
the 1960s and 1970s was a wonderful privilege"
Brian Fawcett's elegy
for John Newlove. (discuss)
Literary Scavenger Hunt
At last, publishing publicists
do something besides organizing book readings! (LOL* Neil Gaiman)
(discuss)
01/16/04:
Programming Note
Radio Nomad, with host novelist André Alexis, premieres on CBC
Radio One, 99.1 in Toronto, Monday, January 19th at 8 pm. André
is one of the most intelligent, well-spoken, educated, inquisitive,
and down-right awesome people I know, so I hope you'll all tune
in. (discuss)
Saunders-O-Rama
Is he everywhere suddenly? Good.
(discuss)
A Bookless World
Would it be so
bad? (LOL* Ninchick) (discuss)
It's Happening Everywhere...
The Asian American Writers' Workshop in NYC is closing
its doors. (discuss)
"I end up being kind of tangential to the Canadian mainstream
literary scene"
The Danforth Review
interviews Nalo Hopkinson. (discuss)
Wait a Minute... Forget the Fact that Young Novelists in Japan
Dress like Sailor Moon Characters and Tell Me Again...
... Subaru
has a literary magazine? (discuss)
New Covers for the Classics Contest
This
is kind of cool, although I think they got the 1984 cover wrong.
(discuss)
No Foreigners, Please
Eye weekly examines the
state of Canadian publishing. (discuss)
Rake with Wig to Be Cast in Rushdie Adaptation
Wait... That's a
living being? But where do all her organs go? (discuss)
"If books could kill, I'd use this one on my ex."
Lee Henderson's Unsolicited
Blurbs for Previous Winners of the Booker Prize. (discuss)
01/17/04:
Late Edition Addition...
Danforth Review posts two new interviews, including one with
CanLit anti-Christ, and Bookninja fav, Tony
Burgess. (discuss)
Gibson on US Politics
Well, it's just
about into his territory...** (Excuse me while I geek out here,
but by my, albeit sketchy, recollection, wasn't Neuromancer was
published before 1984?) (LOL* PFW) (discuss)
When I Used to See Her Hanging Around Toronto's Annex Neighbourhood,
I Never Thought My Fantasy Would Come True...
Well, I never thought it would come
true without me... (LOL* Maud Newton) (discuss)
I Just Kant Believe it's Been 200 Years!
"Kant's
greatest interpreters in English, however, have not been professional
philosophers, but poets and men of letters." (discuss)
This Begs the Question...
Who thought it a good idea to repackage
it? It also brings up a whole ugly crapload of other thorny
issues about the existence of inherited art and the responsibilities
of its curators... (discuss)
"The odd thing about poetry, which is so hard to get published
and is so poorly remunerated, is that it's the most abused art form.
The sheer slog of typing a novel keeps most time-wasters at bay,
and the slog of reading a hollow novel discourages people from putting
up with duds. Almost everyone thinks they can write a book, but
few do, whereas everyone who thinks he or she can write a poem does.
Thus those who have sound wares stand out."
Makes sense. Tibor
Fischer on Don Paterson. (discuss)
Irvine Welsh and His Bonny Band o' Smackheeds are Nae Enough!
Now those pesky Scots want their
own poet laureate. (discuss)
RIP: Olivia Goldsmith
Why does anyone do
this to themselves? (discuss)
Are Mysteries Lit?
Ben Yagoda criticizes
the modern mystery scene in Salon, and mystery writers and fans
respond. (discuss)
What Do Murakami, Jack London and One of the Spice Girls Have
in Common?
Mmm,
icing.. (discuss)
This Is Just Like My Office
Get Your War On goes
to Mars. (LOL* Boingboing) (discuss)
01/19/04:
Anyone know a cure
for infant insomnia caused by teething, flu, and fever? We're going
on three hours in 48 and I'm ready to pay generously.
The Mythological Emily
Margo Jefferson offers an
opinion on a Dickinson doc,** but doesn't really offer her own
on Emily. (discuss)
Typwritrs
Ian Frazier's quest to fix the "e" key on his typewriter
leads him through a
history of the machine. (LOL* Maud) (discuss)
One Night Only! Sunday! Sunday! SUNDAY! The Polymaths vs. the
Popularisers! Smell the Carnage, Hear the Thunder! Thunder! THUNDER!
Don't
you dare miss it! (discuss)
"There's something terribly poignant about a minor poet
like David Solway lashing out in the nastiest way about other Canadian
writers who have somehow, inexplicably, achieved international celebrity
without his permission."
Solway gets the come around of a go 'round... A shot of his
own medicine, as it were, and in his hometown paper, no less...
(It's strychnine, for those of you who are keeping track.) (discuss)
"But if he is not a novelist, he is the greatest essayist
and one of the greatest poets that the cinema has known."
A bio
on Godard. (discuss)
Yes, It Seems Matthews Was Indeed a Dork
But this
article** briefly mentions Stephen Dunn who is a fantastic poet.
One of my five favourite Americans, if you count Geoffrey Hill as
... not American. (discuss)
Bug-eyed Monsters!
Scans of comics
from the 1940s. (LOL* Boingboing) (discuss)
More Freaking Cowboy Poets
You know, we've been doing Bookninja for about five months now,
and I'll be durned if we ain't done near five r six of these
here cowboy poetry bits. Seems a bit much, don't it? (discuss)
01/20/04:
(Baby is better but
still cranky. I still haven't really slept. I can see spots floating
before my face. It's kind of cool. Thanks for all the hints. I was
more hoping someone might want to come live with us, act as babysitter,
and be our sugarmama/daddy. But fever care tips will do, thanks..)
Paterson Takes the Eliot
Becomes first
to nab prize twice. Get reading him, guys and gals. (discuss)
Booker Prize Chair Announced
Press
release. (discuss)
Radio Ga Ga
Alexis on writing
for radio. (discuss)
Who Has Time for Reading When There's All This Great TV to Watch?
Book
TV: good thing. That's funny, I hear it sucks. (discuss)
The First Draft
More like first
daft, with me... (discuss)
"You couldn't make a blockbuster about Ted Hughes's life
and work; you would have to leave out a hell of a lot of fishing,
for a start."
Who
was better? (discuss)
File This Under: Stop That or I'll Take It Away!
Ripping
up books. It sounds so decadent when someone other than my son
is doing it. (discuss)
01/22/04:
Two Letters in One
Month?
Has the Writers'
Union gone mad? They'll blow a tire at this speed! Someone spare
them the hernia! They're actually DOING something? New hires? An
angered membership bored with listservs full of gardening tips?
Maybe they should have a chat with the paper weights at the LCP.
(LOL* PFW) (discuss)
Yeah, That'll Take Care of It
O brave new world! I can already smell the flowers and see the
elves dancing. Why hasn't anyone thought of this "censorship"
idea before? (discuss)
Better Company Than He Deserves
(Kind of like how things are in Montreal.) Alex
Good writing on Solway in between Amis and Ugresic. (discuss)
More on Paterson
"Many
of the poems in his new collection Landing Light seem to involve
transitions, crossings and borders - and the changes people undergo
in their journeying." Noooooo! (discuss)
Miniature Books
Not to
be confused with the widely prevalent Insignificant Books.
(LOL* Maud) (discuss)
"Sapphic Action?"
A
pretty decent discussion (for a newspaper) of Sappho. (discuss)
File This Under: Tell Me About It
Being
a young writer sucks. (But I can't imagine that it gets much
better.) (discuss)
|
01/23/04:
Now Anne Can Finally
Rest
Unless Gilbert is getting
out of jail this month... His lawyer said it's likely since
he's served two thirds of the time and has a clean record (except
for that run in with Mexican mafia, which really wasn't his fault,
and which he "paid" for in the prison currency of cigarettes
and steamy love.) (discuss)
Hesperus Press
From the remainder bin of history straight onto your coffee
table. (No, seriously, they've
got a great list.) (LOL* ALDaily) (discuss)
Ah-ni! Ah-ni!
Ani DiFranco: spoken
word artist... (discuss)
Newsflash: Drunk Poet Resists Arrest, Explains Actions through
Poetry
I feel for this
guy. (discuss)
RIP: George Woodbridge
That's
it! 43
Man Squamish is gone? I'm switching to "Cracked."
(discuss)
Anne Michaels to Forced to Ruminate on the Weight of Carry-on
As she's attending the StAnza
poetry festival in Scotland. (discuss)
I Hate to Link to McSweeney's
But this DeLillo
parody is kind of funny. (LOL*Maud) (discuss)
"If invention had wings, Diddy would fly"
Seamus
Heaney on hip hop (by way of Steve Almond). (LOL*Bookslut) (discuss)
01/24/04:
Self-serving Promotion
or Act of Literary Charity?
I've posted a chapter of Please,
my first book, on my website
for free download. It's called "What
Happened to Our Baby?" (discuss)
"We are convinced that when people read, people change"
I, on the other hand, am convinced that these
books will appear for sale on the streets in about two hours.
(discuss)
Nice Lineup
Coetzee, Atwood, Winterson, Rendell. Those
Aussies got the bling to bring em in. (discuss)
"I am in my bedroom in the palace. There is a four-poster
bed, and not much else. A portrait hangs on the wall. An exit leads
north."
Play the Hamlet
adventure game! (LOL* Neil Gaiman) (discuss)
Attention: John Harris Is Not Brian Fawcett
Or
is he? (discuss)
"There are fonts called Palatino installed on millions of
desktop computers; inevitably a weak and ugly parody of the original.
Regrettably every book published between 1987 and 1991 was set in
some bad Palatino or other; this may be why I watched so much television
in those years."
Ah, Textism.
Also check out the Evolution
of Writing. (discuss)
You Mean There's Another Country in which the People Loathe Success?
And here I thought it was just
us Canadians. (discuss)
Robert Silvers, NYRB
Life
at a glance. (discuss)
Burns Burns
Rabbie's
life is hot news right now (but mostly in Scottish papers...)
(discuss)
Book Nerds Succeeding in Squash?
Yay! Kick
that little smelly ball's arse with your round racquet dealies.
(discuss)
01/26/04:
Happy
Birthdays, Ailsa and Elaine! You're both 21 Now!
A Couple More Letters and I Won't Even Be Able to Be Indignant!
The Writers' Union is positively on
FIRE! Has there been a regime change or did someone get lucky
over the holidays? (discuss)
"You can write an op-ed today that runs tomorrow, set up
a Web site that sells toys in a day or two, get a million signatures
and recall a governor in a couple of months. But for some reason,
it takes two years to get a book published."
Self-publishing.
(LOL* Goodreports) (discuss)
Amid the Eschatological Fears of the Bloomsphincter Group
"Nothing
people like so much is unimportant."** (discuss)
Speaking of Eschatology ... Here It Comes ...
Can't you feel it? Orwell
has awakened** and is moving among us, gaining power, biding
his time, just waiting for some hint of The Ring... (discuss)
A Bit of Literary Sleuthing
Led an academic to Henry
James' early stories. (discuss)
"You have to think of poetry as an amateur pursuit"
Don Paterson on the
life of a poet. (discuss)
Maybe It's a Gender Thing
A Guardian judge speaks out on picking new
covers for the classics. (discuss)
Why Don't WE Get Pleasant Mail Like This from You Lazy
Hacks?
Maud's
readers LOVE her. Sometimes I feel like you guys are just leaving
change on my pillow. (Naw, I'm just joshin. You can stay over and
eat our food again.) (discuss)
01/27/04:
Come on Paterson!!
Yeehaw!
GOD, I JUST LOVE THE THRILL OF A RACE, YO! (discuss)
I Am SO Buying This Book
Those of you who know me, know
why.** Ha! I'm laughing already! (discuss)
First to Go, Last to Fall
Poetry
axed by Lord Black. (Lord Black?) (discuss)
Was it Good for You?
What does publishing
your book mean? (besides your friends making jokes about the
cover behind your back...) (LOL* Goodreports)
(discuss)
Portland Draws the Talent
Comics
thriving out west, down Oregon way. (discuss)
Old Coot Goes After Old Lady Regarding Ancient History
Solzhenitsyn is angry
again, and the woman who saw his works through to publication
is getting the brunt of it. Isn't he part Russian, or something?
That explains it. (P.S. "Household name?" Um, what household?)
(LOL* ALDaily) (discuss)
Silent Auction
A cute small town newspaper piece on the joy of finding old
books for sale and then other things tucked in them. (discuss)
Sound Extravaganza:
Blurbs -- The Laughing Stock of the Laughing Stock
Even the Simpson's are getting in on ridiculing
the blurb. And everyone knows they're about ten seasons past
funny. (LOL* Maud) (discuss)
"I Can Smell My Own Fear"
The New Yorker on comedy
and cartoons. Note: It's an audio piece. (discuss)
Looking For Audio Interviews with Your Favourite Writers?
Bookworm
is the place to go. (discuss)
01/28/04:
Haddon Takes Whitbread
Somewhere in the darkest depths of Texas, a man obscured by
the backrest of an enormous leather chair raises a perfectly manicured
hand from the head of a Persian cat. A pock-marked assassin silently
exits the room, leaving only piece of paper with the scrawled letters:
DBC... Elsewhere, the announcement
causes DBC's "creditors" to simply throw their stetsons
to the floor in disappointment.
(discuss)
The Thin, Hooded, Trembling Monk Did It!
I so want this Name of the Rose inspired board
game. (discuss)
Browning, da Dawg
Scorin'
on the side! And selecting the best, naturally. (discuss)
Like, Gee, Scoob... Who'da Thunk It?
"She categorizes no less than nine different kinds of "like"
that aren't recorded in any official
dictionary." (My ability to use relevant slang turns out
to be correlated to John Hughes' ability to make an entertaining
movie. See headline above. Long live Ducky!) (discuss)
Pinero Biopic Myopic
So what if it sucks? I get off on these
kinds of movies. I even liked Pollack (is it just me, or does
Jackson get drunker every year?) I'm still waiting for the Frank
O'Hara biopic. The dune buggy scene better have string music. (discuss)
So THIS is Why the Four Copies of My Book in the Local Crapters
Didn't Move Over the Holidays
Freakin' inventory
problems! I just knew monopoly and corporate greed couldn't
be to blame! (discuss)
This is So Fucking Stupid
A look
at the "eff" word. (LOL* Bookslut)
(discuss)
Title: the EP
Are titles
getting longer? Could this piece get any shorter? (discuss)
Good God, I Thought I Wasted My Time
The Lord of the Rings as if written
by other writers. Like, for instance, e.e.
cummings. (LOL* Maud)
(discuss)
01/29/04:
Arts Hotel in Toronto
The Drake features artist-friendly
accommodations and Gutter Press publisher Sam Hiyate, who is
"going to be the Oscar Wilde of the Drake." Ahem. (discuss)
"A variety of distractions..."
They should be proud, these
writers.** And by proud, I mean filled with self-loathing and
shame. (discuss)
This Would Go a Long Way to Explaining Why Everything I Write
is Crap
I mean, everything I write lately. No
wise cracks, you. (LOL* Maud)
(discuss)
É 2, Christiènne le Bök?
Merde! 'C
fou! (LOL* PFW)
(discuss)
Law and Literature
Robert
Barsky was one of my best experiences of grad school. A real
critical thinker who was grounded in real life instead of being
a typical academic monk (he actually docked me marks for being too
academic once!). If there'd been more people like him in English
departments, I probably would have stayed in academia. (LOL* Elegant
Variation) (discuss)
Relatives ... Who Needs 'Em?
If Charles
Dickens (aka Chuck D) didn't want a statue, then why are we
wasting valuable marble that could go toward building a fence around
Texas? (discuss)
More Relativity
Tolstoy's
granddaughter - not the Tolstoy you're thinking of, but this
article in the English section of the Russian Pravda has a distinct
Russian "accent" which I find enchanting, and I
couldn't help but run it. I think I'm developing a fetish. I just
want some Russian woman to quote Pushkin and blow smoke in my face....
is that so much to ask? Note: not THIS Russian woman. (discuss)
Octopus Magazine
Personally, I think of puffer
fish when someone mentions poets, but whatever. (LOL* Spike
Magazine) (discuss)
Can You Believe This?
These chaps-wearing
yokels are getting more press than Lou Ferrigno's barbell! And
in Nye County's largest newspaper! (discuss)
01/30/04:
Didn't We Skip the
Part Where People Get Whisked to Work on Conveyor Belts in the Sky
and Have Back-talking Robotic Maids?
E-paper
is almost here. The perfect medium for lightweight writing.
(LOL* Maud) (discuss)
And in Related News...
E-books
rise from the dead and stalk the earth looking for eyes to suck
out of heads. (discuss)
Another Look at Nate
Hawthorne's
200th sheds some rather nasty light on his politics. Fair? (discuss)
RIP: Janet Frame
New
Zealand great laid
low. (discuss)
"Postmodern literary theory is now transforming itself so
rapidly that Marxist, feminist, deconstructionist, and psychoanalytic
critics (and others) are flocking back to the drawing board in droves
as they search for new approaches to writing and teaching."
Couldn't
this have happened when I was in school? Better be careful what
I wish for... I might still be there. (LOL* ALDaily)
(discuss)
Looking for that Hard-to-Find Gerry Gilbert?
Do you know Apollinaire's
Bookshop? You should. (discuss)
And Here I Thought It Was because I Keep Forgetting to Take My
Gingko Biloba...
TOT: Tip
of the tongue - that word that will haunt you all day: explained.
(Damn, that Don MacKay is EVERYWHERE!) (discuss)
RIP: Bush Barry
"Friends paid tribute to a
prolific writer who could pen a poem in minutes." (discuss)
01/31/04:
"Yes, it's
time to throw out your black eyeliner and burn the crushed-velvet
Value Village wardrobe. Vampires are passé."
So for the record: fangs on top, out; fangs
on bottom, in. (I know what you're thinking, but I've lived
there: Brampton is the perfect place for a horror writer to live.)
(discuss)
German Literature Online
A new online journal
tries to bring German writing to the English-speaking (and Arabic-speaking)
world. (LOL* Elegant
Variation) (discuss)
"The rare book business is a highly agreeable way of making
very little money."
Ah, Book
Row. (discuss)
"This year we saw some very high-quality literary-dramatic
projects made with all the technique and expense usually lavished
on, say "Bad Boys 2," "SpiderMan" or this year's
"X-Men" and "The Hulk." Not to slight Stan Lee,
but it's good to see Tolkien and "Master" author Patrick
O'Brian getting the same treatment."
A Bookninja movie is currently in pre-production, but having
read
this, we're holding out for more budget. I'm pretty sure we
can get six Pixie Stix each, and maybe a can of grape soda thrown
in. (Pete's insistence on Poprocks and a subscription to Mad nearly
blew the entire deal!) (discuss)
"Australian fiction has developed a power that reverses
the cultural cringe"
Prospect Magazine thinks Oz fiction may
finally have arrived. (discuss)
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