The Nobel for literature is on tap for October 11, and some names being tossed around include Philip Roth and Italian novelist Claudio Magris. Of those mentioned in the article, I'll confess I have only read Roth, so I will, in my own provincial way, root for him.
The Salt Lake Tribune does one of the better articles in response to a sky-is-falling report about how many Americans read literary fiction. This one makes note that publishers are emphasizing more nonfiction because men are becoming averse to fiction; I have a simpler answer to why men aren't reading fiction as much. College grads are far more likely to read fiction. Men are falling behind, drastically, in college participation. A study published 5 years ago had women well into the majority of college students; by now, this trend is likely far higher.
I spent much of my childhood in beautiful Santa Cruz Country, California, and was sad to read that one of its best bookstores has been vandalized by homophobes who targeted the gay literature section. How sad--not to mention basically stupid--do you have to be to a.) spend your time vandalizing gay literature in bookstores and b.) do it in Santa Cruz County, California, a place where the banishing of gay books (which we have to assume is a goal of these morons) WILL NEVER, EVER HAPPEN. I mean seriously. I realize none of us thought these people were geniuses, but Santa Cruz? Isn't that like trying to scare all the Christian bookstores out of Alabama?
Jonathon Coe over at the Guardian celebrates classics of British literature - written by women, and recalls discovering them at a time when the canon was still a male country club.
Oprah says go read Marquez.
Lit fight! Boris Pasternak's son doesn't like how his father's book, Dr. Zhivago, came to be published and feels that the book's champion, Sergio D'Angelo, got waaaay too much of the profits. Long story short, the younger Pasternak had his revenge by managing to put a scathing critique of D'Angelo's actions in a rather unusual place--the epilogue to D'Angelo's new memoir. Without him knowing. Imagine putting out a memoir, and then some guy who really doesn't like you inserts twenty pages that amount to "you suck." Wow.
Stay tuned for Sunday fall color pics from central Minnesota.
The Salt Lake Tribune does one of the better articles in response to a sky-is-falling report about how many Americans read literary fiction. This one makes note that publishers are emphasizing more nonfiction because men are becoming averse to fiction; I have a simpler answer to why men aren't reading fiction as much. College grads are far more likely to read fiction. Men are falling behind, drastically, in college participation. A study published 5 years ago had women well into the majority of college students; by now, this trend is likely far higher.
I spent much of my childhood in beautiful Santa Cruz Country, California, and was sad to read that one of its best bookstores has been vandalized by homophobes who targeted the gay literature section. How sad--not to mention basically stupid--do you have to be to a.) spend your time vandalizing gay literature in bookstores and b.) do it in Santa Cruz County, California, a place where the banishing of gay books (which we have to assume is a goal of these morons) WILL NEVER, EVER HAPPEN. I mean seriously. I realize none of us thought these people were geniuses, but Santa Cruz? Isn't that like trying to scare all the Christian bookstores out of Alabama?
Jonathon Coe over at the Guardian celebrates classics of British literature - written by women, and recalls discovering them at a time when the canon was still a male country club.
Oprah says go read Marquez.
Lit fight! Boris Pasternak's son doesn't like how his father's book, Dr. Zhivago, came to be published and feels that the book's champion, Sergio D'Angelo, got waaaay too much of the profits. Long story short, the younger Pasternak had his revenge by managing to put a scathing critique of D'Angelo's actions in a rather unusual place--the epilogue to D'Angelo's new memoir. Without him knowing. Imagine putting out a memoir, and then some guy who really doesn't like you inserts twenty pages that amount to "you suck." Wow.
Stay tuned for Sunday fall color pics from central Minnesota.
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