Bookish thoughts 3 Aug: The Hobbit & moolah, YA authors are not your kids parents & more!

RIASS stuff:

Book Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry'Rating:

Book Review: How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell'Rating: '(in which I examine bogan parenting)

Giveaway: MacRobertsonland and Chocolate Pack'(open to all)

Other bookish stuff:

The Arcade Publications 30% off sale ends today.'These guys do awesome books about weird and obscure Melburnian historical figures. Buy, buy, buy!

Borders Online Australia is being relaunched as Bookworld'I was wondering why the ghostly spectre of Borders kept popping up in my inbox

Infographic: the Hobbit movie to page ratio'(as a trilogy, The Hobbit movie is worth $9m a page)

How to Write a Book in Six Weeks (and live to tell about it)'For me? Its write a thorough outline, set an aggressive word count, and allow myself to write crap. I also take copious notes about the progression of the manuscript as I write as well.

Dale Campisi of Arcade Publications is giving a talk on Presenting the Past: New Media at Fed Square on 22 Nov'As a fellow Campisi, Ill be popping along to this one!

French Olympic team discovered to have unfair advantage: Baudelaire'It has recently come to'our attention'that French Olympic swimmer'Yannick Agnel'stands accused of using literature as part of his pre-match routines, namely the potent work of'Charles Baudelaire. Oh, man, I love this.

Justine Larbalistier: YA authors do not have a duty of care'Too often those adults with the duty of care look to us to not write things they consider inappropriate for the teenagers they are looking out for. How on Earth can we YA writers be the judge of that? I don't know your teenager. I don't know what will freak them out.

On the required mindset for supporting libraries:'Where did they get the idea that libraries are sinking? These are smart folks, and not prone to the sky is falling 'libraries are relics' rhetoric. Then, to my horror, I realised it was me! I set the premise for the whole conversation. I was the one that felt libraries are so important and librarians so crucial that we must save them. To save anything assumes that they need intervention and are at dire risk of being lost.

An interview with John Barth'American boys and girls don't grow up thinking, I'm going to be a writer, the way we're told Flaubert did; at about age twelve he decided he would be a great French writer and, by George, he turned out to'be'one. Writers in this country, particularly novelists, are likely to come to the medium through some back door.

What does'Fifty Shades of Grey say about feminism?'Some readers describe the book as escapist fun and a romantic romp. A woman being degraded, hit, controlled and coerced into meeting the needs of a seriously screwed-up chap who sounds like he needs a good decade on the couch doesn't sound much fun to me.

The perks and pitfalls of signing books'Anyway, there may not be a next person. I might have had the awful luck to be seated next to some damn luminary or other, who sucks up signees like a black hole.

M John Harrisons blog: its like'Viriconium gone to seed.

The Byron Bay Writers Festival starts today!

Jim C. Hines on his new book'Libriomancer

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