Notes in the Margin Weblog

The Guild of Book Workers - The National Organization For All The Book Arts:

“A book worker is one engaged in the hand book arts, which includes “bookbinding, conservation, printing, papermaking, calligraphy, marbling and artist’s books.” The Guild of Book Workers is a century-plus-old American organization that sponsors workshops, lectures, and exhibitions. Their website is a great resource for book workers, or for those interested in viewing and learning about the hand book arts. Visitors unfamiliar with book art should definitely take a look at the “Galleries” link under the “News & Events” section of the site. Some of the themes of the exhibits in the gallery are “Marking Time” and “AbeCeDarium”, which is the alphabet, and a classic theme for the book arts. Visitors will find it enjoyable to see how the same theme can be expressed or interpreted in so many beautiful, moving, or disturbing ways by book artists. The multitude of online galleries on this site is a real treat for those who enjoy the creativity of the book arts.”

>From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2010. http://scout.wisc.edu/

J. D. Salinger, Enigmatic Author, Dies at 91 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com:

J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91.

A Deluge of Devices for Reading and Surfing - NYTimes.com:

You’ve heard of Amazon.com’s Kindle. And you probably know that Apple is likely to introduce a tablet computer this year. Soon you may also be hearing about the Alex, the Que proReader and the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid.

Those products are part of a new wave of slender touch-screen tablets and electronic reading devices that dozens of companies, both well known and unknown, brought to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

This article from the New York Times includes a three and a half minute video focusing on several new ebook readers under development around the world.

Recent Related Posts

• More on Ereaders
• Choosing the Small Screen of a Smartphone for E-Reading
• Big News in Ebooks
• “I Shall Not Be Kindled”

A Novel? Padgett Powell’s Book Defies Genre : NPR:

The question mark that accompanies the subtitle of author Padgett Powell’s new book, The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? might seem flippant. But Powell’s book earns that bit of punctuation. The Interrogative Mood is composed entirely of questions. Some of them are laugh out loud funny, some designed to provoke memories of long gone times, some leave you pondering the meaning of life. But is it really a novel?

Books - Sherlock Holmes, Shapeshifter - Robert Downey Jr.’s Version - NYTimes.com:

Arthur Conan Doyle grew so to hate his greatest creation, Sherlock Holmes, that in 1893 he tried to kill him off, plunging him over the Reichenbach Falls. He called it ‘justifiable homicide,’ saying, ‘If I had not killed him, he would certainly have killed me.’ . . . As it was, Conan Doyle bowed to popular demand and the emptiness of his bank account, and in 1903, after the success of “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” reluctantly resurrected Holmes for 24 more years.

Charles McGrath discusses one of fiction’s most enduring characters in light of the latest movie version.

Julianna Baggott - The key to literary success? Be a man — or write like one. - washingtonpost.com:

This fall, Publishers Weekly named the top 100 books of 2009. How many female writers were in the top 10? Zero. How many on the entire list? Twenty-nine.

In the Washington Post, author and creative writing teacher Julianna Baggott laments the sexist leanings of the publishing industry.

Top book picks for 2010 / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com:
“The experts tell us what they are excited about reading in 2010″

Oh, good grief. A “best books of the year” list for 2010 already, and it’s only January 4.

At any rate, here are recommendations from some book store owners about books set to be published in the next couple of months. Note that the page linked here is the first of two.

Not another top 10 list - latimes.com:

Now, personally, I enjoy making up my best books reading list at the end of each year. I also enjoying seeing other peoples’ book lists and comparing them to mine. But columnist Meghan Daum is ambivalent about all these “listicles,” as you’ll see here.

Looking Ahead - Hot Books for a Cold January - NYTimes.com:

To get you started on some possibilities for next year’s best books list, “Here are some of the big books expected in January.”

Now that 2009 is officially over, I can decide which of the 50 books (exclusive of textbooks) I read this year were my favorites. All the published lists of best books of the year refer only to books published during that year, but my list is of the books I read this year, regardless of when they were published.

Here they are, listed alphabetically by author:

• Corrigan, Kelly. The Middle Place
• Didion, Joan. Slouching Towards Bethlehem
• Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique
• Genova, Lisa. Still Alice
• Hoffman, Alice. The Story Sisters
• Larsson, Stieg. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• O’Connell, Carol. Bone by Bone
• Sarton, May. Journal of a Solitude
• Stockett, Kathryn. The Help
• Zaslow, Jeffrey. The Girls from Ames

Honorable Mention

• Shaffer, Mary Ann & Annie Barrows. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• Strout, Elizabeth. Olive Kitteridge
• Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own

Best wishes to everyone for a Happy New Year and a productive year of reading good books!