RIASS stuff:
Coming up: A review of Bellas Run by Margareta Osborn
A review ofThe Wizard of Oz'by L Frank Baum(far creepier than I remembered!)
A review of'From the Earth to the Moon'by Jules Verne'(Jules gets his funny on)
Just a note that I'll be tango dancing my way through Argentina in April, and would love to receive some guest posts to feature during that time. Feel free to drop me a line at readinasinglesitting@gmail.com.
Other bookish stuff:
When Im rich, I want a home library like these!
What literary agents can learn from Girl Scouts:
The main criteria that [Literary Agents] have for choosing the works they represent that they have to fall in love with the books. . . .Once, when I'd received about my 500th rejection letter, the 14 year old daughter of one of our friends happened to be over at our house, and she heard me utter a tired groan when I read the letter.' She also happened to be a Girl Scout.' I showed the letter to her, and she started laughing. 'That's the dumbest excuse I've ever heard, she said.' When I asked her why, she said, I was the Number One seller of Girl Scout Cookies in our troop three years in row, and I don't even like Girl Scout Cookies!
Thirty years after Adrian Mole, Sue Townsend is facing blindness:
I'm getting to the end of my magnifying glasses now, she says, rummaging in her handbag to show me the thickest one available. One eye's gone completely. The other is gradually dimming. She breaks off, laughing again. Dimming ' that sounds very dramatic, doesn't it? I'm so lucky. I can still make a living ' and the same kind of living.
MJ Rose on how a scent inspired a novel:
I bought the bottle from the antique dealer and it sits on a shelf with the rest of my perfume collection. I've never opened it again' I don't want the scent to evaporate any more quickly that nature will insist upon.
Literary time travel: where would you go?':
Only the Bloomsbury set, perhaps, compares with the 1920s Parisian Lost Generation ' but Michael Cunningham rather got there first with'The Hours. . .and it wasnt nearly as jolly. Id love to pop in on Jane Austen, but her house in Chawton is not far from my mums. . .and it seems a pity to go back in time and end up just down the road.
Earl Martin Phalen shares thoughts on the staying power of reading in the face of new technology:
For an e-reader to be an effective learning and bonding tool, it needs to be used responsibly. Many devices come with bells and whistles that can distract both parents and children. . . .Time spent reading aloud to a child should be just that, not an opportunity to check email, play games, or update a Facebook status.
Photography books with seriously minimalist cover design
Margaret Hamilton shares her favourite books for a Year of Reading on Walk-a-Book
Censorship in Literature! Should it be self-imposed or imposed upon us?
A library-turned-office (I want to work there!)
A slight issue with copyright, methinks
Karen Boersma to head Owlkids Books
Should there be a VAT on ebooks?
Pretty books!
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Thanks for the link! What a gorgeous office, the one I work in doesnt look like that so much. Thought, it is a little better with my TARDIS. :)
My desk is covered in books, but thats about as good as it gets here! Although we do have a blue telephone booth downstairs on Level 10 ;)
A blue telephone booth equals awesome. :)
Its not quite a Tardis, but it is full of beer! Hehe