From NPR: The 33rd annual Ernest Hemingway look-a-like competition at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, Fla., kicks off Thursday. The stoically bearded among us will go head to head in the fiercely competitive three-day tournament to win the coveted title of “Papa.” Last year, Florida defense attorney Frank Louderback […]
From i09: The Hogwarts Sorting Hat has been said to place kids based on qualities they value rather than those they exhibit — still, each of the school’s Houses does tend to collect a certain kind of student. Gryffindors are often brave and daring; Ravenclaws brainy and witty; Slytherins ambitious […]
From NPR: The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly. A group of prominent Canadian authors are stripping down for a (mostly) nude calendar. Proceeds from the Bare It For Books project will go to PEN Canada, an organization that promotes freedom of expression. The (actually […]
On more than one occasion I’ve been stuck in highway gridlock and wished, among other things, for a book station on the FM dial—you know, 24/7 reviews, news, gossip, maybe even some audio excerpts. That day is still far off—radio is more profit-driven than ever it seems—but happily, NPR is […]
From The Huffington Post: Most critics were underwhelmed by The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling’s first foray into literary realism for adults. In a web chat hosted by Scholastic (the American publisher of the Harry Potter series), she announced that her next book will likely be for young readers. According to […]
From The Huffington Post: J.R.R. Tolkien, the highly revered author of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Hobbit,” has a new book coming out next spring. This may seem peculiar given that the writer died in 1973, but British publisher HarperCollins has confirmed that the unseen “The Fall […]
Author/Illustrator Hope Larson published a great piece in The Huffington Post about her desire to adapt the Madeleine L’Engle’s classic A Wrinkle in Time into a graphic novel. Larson says adaptations were something she couldn’t imagine herself taking on. With one exception: A librarian from Texas had passed through town and […]
Every procrastinate about reading a book? Do you need to read for a class or a book club but seem unable to find the time? Problem solved, folks. From Galley Cat: To motivate readers to read works from new authors and give them a chance at a second book, Argentinian […]
Rather than taking the traditional route and simply printing catalogs for their fall list, Hachette Australia has put together a stunning and inspirational video. “With new books come new feelings,” the beginning of the video reads, and a black-clad staff enters a warehouse to unload and shelve boxes of new […]
On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.