Thursday, July 11, 2002

Logophilia, a new site for word lovers, will introduce you to a new word each day, or a new use of an old word. Meanwhile, if you're a person of few words, you might appreciate The Bible in Five Words. Hilarious! See The Five-Word New Testament as well. I'll get you started: Matthew: Verily, Christ was way cool. Mark: Verily, Christ was the whip. Luke: Verily, Christ was the shiznit. John: Christ was one cute baby! 8:49:57 AM

If you're looking for a good book, you might find some good suggestions in A Peek Into Professors' Pleasure-Reading Packs. For Sci-Fi fans, there's Diplomatic Immunity, "Lois McMaster Bujold's latest installment in her sci-fi series about the Vorkosigan family." I've never heard of it, but then, part of the fun of summer reading is trying something new, isn't it? My summer reading so far has consisted of Straight Man by Richard Russo, half of The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen (I passed it to a friend before I could finish it but I'll definitely read the rest as soon as I get it back), and The Lecturer's Tale by James Hynes. All are somehow related to academia and I'm loving them -- great hilarity derives from mocking ivory tower theorists and their largely petty problems. I do wonder how these things play to people who haven't been through the academic ringer (grad school in the humanities, mostly is what I'm thinking here). Have you read any of these books? Any thoughts? What are you reading this summer? 8:09:58 AM

Did you know Barnes n' Noble keeps "subversive" and "experimental" books behind the counter so you have to ask for them if you'd like to buy them? In Novel Concepts, Dennis Loy Johnson laments the decline of reading, the rise of publishing and bookselling conglomerates, and introduces us to the Dalkey Archive Press as something of an antidote to both. As a spokesperson for the press says: being a non-profit "allows us to do all kinds of things other publishers would think was crazy," but then goes on to add, "such as keeping a book in print forever!" Yeah, what a crazy idea! I mean, I'm not wild about the idea of books as art objects (the idea seems to play too well with the whole romantic notion of "literature" and author as god/genius, which I don't really think helps anyone), but it's sad to see books reduced to commodities as well. Can't there be a middle ground? And can't we publish on demand, by now, so no book ever has to go out of print, ever again? Still waiting for Eldred to win and for us to get a Napster for books. 7:56:49 AM