Friday Distractions
Check this out: New York magazine has a full feature on the rise of indie bookstores (in New York). Click around. There are several interesting stories in there.
Have you forgotten about the Fake AP Stylebook? Me, too. I had to go back and start catching up with it all over again. It’s still hilarious. This recent tweet in particular cracked me up. And this one.
This just in: Fate of newly discovered Franz Kafka manuscripts are caught up in a Kafka-esque “nightmare”. Tune in next week when we discuss unpublished works of Joseph Heller caught in a Catch-22.
This just in: Apparently fart joke books are NOT the key to getting boys to read, as was erroneously reported everywhere last week (just in time for the release of a book with fart jokes.) A rigorous scientific study has found that comics are the key to getting boys to read. (Just in time for ComicCon says the story.) Stay tuned next week when it will be revealed that cartoon characters on cereal boxes are the key to getting boys to read. (Just in time for the triumphant return of Fruit Brute.) As a long time boy reader, I’m beginning to take umbrage with this whole line of inquiry.
Lifehacker names the top 5 book recommendation services.
Dave & Valentino’s school open for business in Southern Sudan.
Check out this handy graphic that explains what author/idea guy Clay Shirkey means when he talks about the internet tapping into the “cognitive surplus”.
The movie adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood comes out in December. In Japan. I’m not sure how that helps us. But Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead is doing the score.
August 6, 2010 9:21 am 2 Comments
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Subscribe
By Dr J, August 6, 2010 @ 11:42 am
That Kafka story is too perfect.
By Tom B., August 6, 2010 @ 8:23 pm
If the Fake AP Stylebook wanted to be realistic, every other entry would change the style rule for the previous entry. The AP Stylebook used to be an important/impartial guide, but since it became one of the AP’s few reliable profit centers, the stylebook has become a joke — changes are made for the sake of getting clients to buy new stylebooks annually (or subscribe to the online version). It’s saddening and maddening to editors.