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Bookishness: Week of May 7, 2012
Frankenbooks Inkle’s just released Frankenstein, an interactive novel/mobile app, may have descended from the Choose Your Own Adventure stories you checked out of your school library every Thursday morning, but the resulting work is one marked by an unexpected artistry and nuance, according to early reviews. Salon’s Laura Miller says of the… novel/app/thing, it “is a…
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Bookishness: Week of April 30, 2012
A “bipolar rabbit hole of past and present” This Findings interview with Brainpicker Maria Popova about the future of reading taught me about fifteen things, as any encounter with Popova is wont to do. In other doings (she lives in hyperdrive): Popova’s book spine poetry (inspired by National Poetry Month and the delightful Sorted Books). On the intimacy of Draw Something “Draw…
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Bookishness: Week of April 23, 2012
SlushPile Hell Ever wondered what’s going through the mind of the literary agent-not-to-be as she reads your work? You probably don’t want to know. Listen carefully and you can hear handcuffs clicking in the background Erin Balser and Becky Toyne on Fresh Air discussing 50 Shades of Grey. Bonus: includes Canadian smut recommendations. How to edit…
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Bookishness: Week of April 9, 2012
What we like to read in bed E-books, apparently. According to a just released Pew study of e-reading, American readers now favour e-books as their preferred method of reading in bed (at 45%, with books just behind at 43%). Books to be devoured While the idea of eating a book after reading it makes me cringe,…
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Bookishness: Week of April 2, 2012
A Slow-Books Manifesto “To borrow a cadence from Michael Pollan: Read books. As often as you can. Mostly classics.” “The refuge of stories.” Steve Almond on grad school as an alternative to therapy. Please please Mr. Postman So much of life allows us (expects us, requires us) to be passive. The letter, though, invites a response,…
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Bookishness: Week of March 26, 2012
The enchanted e-forest Exploring twitter, where rotating skulls live alongside kittens and bunnies, with Margaret Atwood. “Application opposed” with “likelihood of confusion” Facebook attempts to claim the word book. As commenter uno2tres states: “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz” and all combinations, permutations, derivatives, and modifications of “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz”, including but not limited to modifications such as “ñ” , “ò”, and “ö” are trademarks of…
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Bookishness: Week of March 19, 2012
Strike Toronto Public Library workers are on strike as of 5 p.m. last night. I am currently deep in horrifying imaginings of a library-less world. Hoping a resolution is swift, for everyone’s sake. What your favourite author had for lunch The power of the Internet to answer the big questions: Megan Fishmann on life as an author-groupie, then and…
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Bookishness: Week of March 12, 2012
Keep calm and watch this video You’ve seen it everywhere: mugs, notebooks, and, of course, posters. Keep Calm and Carry On. But where did it come from? Sure – England, the war, but there’s more – including one of the most charming book shops I’ve ever seen. The story of Keep Calm and Carry On. (And…
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Bookishness: Week of February 27, 2012
We all fall down Toronto Public Library has announced its 2012 One Book title: Girls Fall Down. As of this writing there were 187 holds and 1015 copies in TPL’s system. Burbling blurbs Undoubtedly being called upon time and time again to provide thoughtful, nuanced and overwhelmingly positive appraisal of other writers’ books in the form…
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Bookishness: Week of February 13, 2012
Making faces You know what Emma Bovary looks like in your head, but does law enforcement composite sketch software agree (hint: that’s her at right)? Joyland co-founder Brian Joseph Davis has started a Tumblr, The Composites, using said software to create sketches of literary characters based on their descriptions. He is now taking suggestions. A moved feast Just over two years after Gourmet shut down, the…
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Bookishness: Week of January 30, 2012
Mister Lonelyhearts Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) recently took over the Huffington Post Books twitter feed to dole out relationship advice in support of his latest book, Why We Broke Up. As one might expect, the resulting advice is clever and wry, but it’s also, in many cases, pretty bang on. Example: Q: “How do you go from being just…
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Bookishness: Week of January 23, 2012
Fewer cardigans than one might expect, but a fair number of spectacles The latest in the Toronto Standard’s Uniform Project: Librarians. CanLit is Sexy Not convinced? Let the CanLit is Sexy tumblr sweet talk its way into your heart (or elsewhere). Definitely safe for work, sadly. Books on film TIFF’s Books on Film returns in February for a second season, featuring Eleanor Wachtel…