RIASS stuff:
Book cover trend: butterflies, moths and lepidoptery''Know of any butterfly-smothered covers? Share them with us!
List: Young adult books about plagues and pestilence
Book Review: The Harbour by Francesca Brill'Rating: 
Love and survival in 1940s Hong Kong.
Giveaway: The Robbers by Paul Anderson'(Aus only);'Giveaway: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley'(world)
Ive been asked to participate in a live chat with the Huffington Post about book bloggers and the death of literaturestay tuned for details!
Other bookish stuff:
A project involving the redesign of classic book covers, all in the name of fighting illiteracy'
Evernoteand Moleskines?'Evernote is pairing with Moleskine to bridge the digital-paper divide. Notes written by hand on a Moleskine can be synced with note-taking app Evernote. How? The paper in the new Moleskine notebooks has been specially developed so that it can be scanned or photographed using a smartphone, and then uploaded. There really is an app for everything.
Book summaries: 7 things to say about books youve never read'A handy-dandy guide to the themes and quotable quotes of some of the books that everyones meant to have read, but that most of us have passed up in favour of reading trashy bestsellers instead. This'Which Jane Austen Character Are You quiz might also give you some extra lit cred.
On the future of the author-publisher relationship'A look at the divide between traditionally published and self-published authors, at dissatisfaction with what publishers claim to offer, and how advice given by publishers to promote a book is often hazy and uninformed. Authors shouldn't be told they are responsible for marketing and promotion while not be given all the tools needed to be successful at the task, but that is exactly what is happening today. Authors will have too many options to accept such a situation in the future.
Women, men, and fiction: how not to answer tough questions'In which the author takes on Jeffrey Eugenides uninformed and arrogant remarks about the relative underrepresentation and lack of critical acclaim and attention afforded to women writers.
A curious project involving bots taking comments from YouTube and uploading them to Amazon as ebooks.'The project is meant to sell consumers work back to them, and to point out flaws in the current publishing paradigm.
An interview with agent Laura Rennert'I think the explosion in YA/children's literature comes from a recognition that it has an appeal that crosses audience (many adults are reading YA, many kids and teens read adult books, many young readers read up) and nationality. Some of the best, most original, imaginative, and emotionally powerful writing is being done in these categories.
Why most films of Wuthering Heights, including the latest, depict only part of Emily Brontes novel'Wuthering Heights is perhaps one of the misunderstood book of all time, claims the author, noting that people tend to focus solely on the love story, meaning that its taken on a mythos akin to that of Romeo and Juliet. Are we turning dark books into sweet romances because thats what suits us?
How focusing on analytical and argumentative writing can improve test scores across the board'A struggling school in the US has emphasised analytical and argumentative writing skills across all subjects, and in doing so found that students often lacked a basic understanding of how language workedno wonder they were unable to express themselves effectively.
Escaping ones own shadow in writing'The author looks at how linguistic priming affects the way that we write. In order to avoid repeating the structures and styles we come across on a daily basisdry business writing at work, academic writing at uni, tweets and emails and so onits important to cleanse your palate with different types of quality writing, and to shut off linguistic primers when working.
A gorgeous book cushion from Fenton and Fenton:'(of course, for the price, I could buy an entire bookshelfand some books as well)
I just had a look at one of those YouTube ebooks and I think I lost a few brain cells. Its not a pretty picture of humanity. Eek.
It irritates me when adaptations of Wuthering Heights only focus on and romanticise Heathcliff and Cathys relationship. Theyre horrible people with a horrible relationship, I dont get why theyre considered one of the greatest loves I dont know that Bronte would have intended them to be, either!
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Venturing on to YouTube invariably results in a loss of brain cells, I think. :)
I wonder what it says about our current world that we focus only on the romanticised, sanitised view of things. It really seems as though people are looking for escapism and hope over anything else.