Friday, April 30, 2010

Round Up Day, Part a Lot

Welcome to Friday, and the round up, by Laura from Combreviations:

I am over this week, reader types. It has been very long, and just won’t die. It is an old hat week. Now, some old things that I do approve of include: Nancy Drew (happy 80th anniversary, buddy!), the massive number of Phillip K. Dick books being reissued, and this original, handwritten sheet of Beatles lyrics that is now for sale. You will note that this week is not on that list.

We’ve all heard by now that Laura Bush’s memoir leaked, and mysteries abound. Was she poisoned at some point? Does she like Sarah Palin? Are there tweets about it? So many questions that I don’t care about! I do care about the NY Times reporter who was subpoenaed about his sources for a book on the CIA. Also, did you know that Amazon tracks what you highlight on your Kindle? They must, because they just released the most highlighted passage. Goodbye, privacy, hello, using Apple products to pick up dates (even if Cory Doctorow would rather eat an iPad than deal with its DRM). And is the Nook really outshipping the Kindle? What a world.

In the interest of keeping myself upbeat for the remainder of this week (that won’t end!), the rest of this round up will be about things I heart. I heart these confessions of a poet laureate. I heart this list of books people read to look sophisticated. I super heart these literary characters and tabloid counterparts, and this take down of picture books that lead children astray. Also, China Mieville won a third Arthur C. Clarke award (which is for being handsome, right? Guys?), and, since I like him, I am for it.

I also kind of love this FBI warning to booksellers about a mobster who loves books. That is exactly where the FBI would find me. Maybe that mobster had absentee parents, and was raised by Radio Shack instead, which soured him on following rules for life. He should probably just stick to Twitter for book addicts or sidewalk book sellers if he doesn't want to get caught, and maybe do his food shopping at the library.

Other things I'm feeling right now include this book of Hubble photos and this book of vending machines. I've never read anything by Rita Mae Brown but, after this profile, I just may have to start. And hey, someone wrote about the concept of combreviations! But, er, called them "frankenwords." Whatever, close enough.

Well, gentlefolks, it's been real, and I am slightly more optimistic about the world. Mostly because it is Friday. See you next week, or all the time at Combreviations!

2 comments:

  1. Oh no! Rita Mae Brown goes fox hunting! I'm all for lovely and chaotic menageries of pets and horses and so forth...I've nothing against taxidermy...but fox hunting! Rightly banned for its horrible cruelty and pointlessness in the UK. I'd rather authors not be promoting it as a form of entertainment. Books, please, not the hounding to death of small inedible chicken-predators.

    word choice: tally. No joke.

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  2. I have to get the book of vending machines, I know just the person to give it too: it will sit well next to the one on beach huts ;)

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