Libraries

Monday Miscellany

Homeless Outreach in Volumes: Books by Bike for ‘Outside’ People in Oregon This city [Portland, Oregon] has a deeply dyed liberal impulse beating in its veins around social and environmental causes, and a literary culture that has flourished like the blackberry thickets that mark misty Northwest woods. It is also one of the most bike-friendly, […]

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Monday Miscellany

Open Library Open Library is an open, editable library catalog with an attractive facade and a lofty mission. The mission? To build an online catalog with a web page for every book ever published. The best part? You can help. From the homepage, click Sign Up, then create a free Open Library account in two

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Monday Miscellany

Tragic fiction may leave you emotionally upset It might seem logical that reading a sad fictional story would be less upsetting than reading a less sad but true story. But new research suggests this is not the case: “Consumers may choose to read a tragic fictional story because they assume that knowing it was fictional

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Monday Miscellany

Harlan Coben: By the Book This week’s New York Times‘s Sunday Book Review includes an interview with one of my favorite thriller authors, Harlan Coben. Related Posts: Harlan Coben in St. Louis: Part I Harlan Coben in St. Louis: Part II From Distant Admirers to Library Lovers–and beyond The Pew Research Center continues its study of

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Monday Miscellany

The Bestselling Books of 2013 Publishers Weekly has gathered some interesting statistics about last year’s book sales. Among their findings: “fiction is the genre of choice for customers who read e-books” and movie adaptations created demand for several titles, including Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. See the books

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Monday Miscellany

Why GR’s new review rules are censorship – Some thoughts Late Friday (US time) Goodreads announced a change in review and shelving policy, and immediately started deleting readers’ reviews and shelves. In doing this they became censors. Limiting readers’ ability to discuss the cultural context of a book is censorship designed to promote authors’ interests.

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Monday Miscellany

There are a couple of sad stories about well known authors to report: Elmore Leonard, 87, has suffered a stroke Harper Lee, 87, is the victim of elder abuse But there is some good news about libraries and librarians: State of America’s Libraries Report 2013 Libraries and library staff continue to respond to the needs

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Monday Miscellany

The Best Births In Literature In honor of the birth last week of Britain’s Royal Heir, The Atlantic compiled this list of the five best birth scenes in literature. Are there any others you’d add to this list? Literature’s Fight Club Katherine Hill, author of the recently published novel The Violet Hour, admits: I have

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Monday Miscellany

Actors Today Don’t Just Read for the Part. Reading IS the Part. The digital revolution has contributed to the dramatic rise in audiobooks: Once a small backwater of the publishing industry, in part because of the cumbersome nature of tapes, audiobooks are now flourishing. Sales have been rising by double digits annually in recent years.

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