Friday Links

I’m fleeing town for Winter Break, which is awesome, but I’m bummed to be missing two fantastic book nerd events this weekend in Atlanta.

On Saturday night this is going on at The Wren’s Nest:

Free. You should go. But, nearby at Manuel’s Tavern, the Atlanta Open Orthographic Meet (spelling bee) gets underway at 7PM. The Meet, definitely a grown-up affair, is a fantastic time for word lovers. Check it out if you’re not going to the Nest. I can’t believe that I’ll be missing both.

BOMB Magazine is hosting a fiction contest to be judged by BGB favorite Rivka Galchen. Time to dust off that short story.

Author/Internet Dude Seth Godin is asking readers to share their favorite overlooked gem at TED Conversations.

Between being able to save journal articles on USB drives and this new “bar code to bibliography” smartphone app, I may well punch the next college kid I see. On principle.

After reading this, The Book Spy is my new favorite blog.

After reading Radioactive (check out my review), I was pretty freaked out by this.

Why do ”smartphones” insist that you meant to type a word other than the one that you actually typed. In England it lead to a killing. My own phone decided that I didn’t mean to text a co-worker “are you here?” when I clearly must have meant “are you heterosexual?” Luckily I caught it a nano-second before hitting send. Still.

Carolyn Kellogg asks if the new Atlas Shrugged movie (shudder) will divide audiences. It certainly will. I hate it already. And it’s being divided into two parts. Dear God!

In better news, McSweeney’s is starting a children’s book imprint. Can’t wait.