December 2009
23 posts
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Out to sea
Taking some time off for a while to write & think & read some of the big stack of books I received over the holidays. Enjoy yourselves.
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“A truly good book is something as natural, and as unexpectedly and unaccountably...”
– Thoreau, “Walking” (via captives, via fyeahthoreau)
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“My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.”
– Abraham Lincoln (via quote-book, via bookscakesnkisses, via booklover)
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Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony →
An ornate ritual of appreciation, from the bean’s home country:
Ethiopia’s coffee ceremony is an integral part of their social and cultural life. An invitation to attend a coffee ceremony is considered a mark of friendship or respect and is an excellent example of Ethiopian hospitality. Performing the ceremony is almost obligatory in the presence of a visitor, whatever the time of...
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Laredo, Texas, set to become the largest U.S. city... →
It’s all demographics: only 1 in 5 adults has a college degree, and nearly a third of Laredo’s population lives below the poverty line. Books unfortunately are purchased by people with lots of disposable income.
It’s still sad news, though. The city I live in is just a hair larger than Laredo, but we have a Barnes & Noble, a Waldenbooks, a Joseph-Beth Booksellers (a...
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“Readers and publishers alike need to stop envisioning books as just “content.”...”
– MobyLives writing on the challenges of transitioning from books to e-books
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“We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind — mass merchandising,...”
– J.G. Ballard (via nihilnoetia, via booklover)
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Nielsen folds Kirkus Reviews →
This is very, very sad news. With most newspaper book critics gone and Kirkus now shuttered, the traditional review landscape is looking very sparse indeed. (via Daring Fireball)
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“We will end up with one and a half cities in America—Washington, D.C., and...”
– Richard Rodriguez writes a haunting obituary about the death of American newspapers — and, by extension, the soul of America itself. (via)
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“The novel’s spirit is the spirit of complexity. Every novel says to the reader:...”
– Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel, transl. Linda Asher (Perennial, 2000), 18. (via enormousair, via libraryland, via booklover)
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Slow progress is still progress
Robin Sloan launched his Kickstarter project on August 26 with 4,500 words. By November 18, 84 days later, he had a stack of boxes filled with the printed book.
Now, granted, Annabel Scheme is a 30,000-word novella and not the huge beast I’m working on. (I passed 40,000 words the other night.) On the other hand, 84 days from start to finish is pretty impressive. I’ve been working on...
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“Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in...”
– Ray Bradbury
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In a foreign language, are the words "I love you"... →
Beautiful essay on love and language (appearing, for some reason, in the NYT’s fashion section) and what it means to love someone who’s first language isn’t the same as your own.
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Sufjan Stevens Christmas Game →
Yes, this is awesome. (via notarobotbutaghost, via inthekitschen)
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“What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who’s up and who’s...”
– Dave Eggers gives a long and fascinating rant back in 2000 to a journalist asking questions about his supposed “selling out” with AHWOFG. (via matthewb)
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“Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.”
– Ray Bradbury (via samsaramotel)
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Some half-formed thoughts on one future for... →
Reblogging this from austinkleon, who writes:
The future seems to be splitting in to directions: print-on-demand on the low-end, and book-as-object on the high-end. Interesting.
Not only that — it seems like Doctorow is looking forward to a future of extremely decentralized and deeply personal publishing. Sounds exciting.
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