Bulletin Board
- A tryptophan overdose meant no edition last weekend and, hence, a couple items this week are a bit older than usual.
Worthwhile Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- Bin Laden’s Lonely Crusade (“The first thing to recognize is that, despite the carnage and the shock, the 9/11 attacks represented a strategic blunder by al-Qaeda.”) (via)
- Students are supposed to read books, not burn them (“In being inculcated into the speech-code ethos, American students are increasingly having their thoughts controlled rather than their minds expanded.”) (via)
Blog Line(s) of the Week
- “As an American, I don’t think any translation is really necessary. If the book’s any good, the author would have damn well written it in English. Woooooooooooo! [FIRING GUNS INTO THE AIR, EATING BACON CHEESEBURGER PURCHASED WITH CREDIT CARD, MOCKING IMMIGRANTS, LISTENING TO LEE GREENWOOD]”
Bookish Linkage
- Adam Parfrey runs Feral House, one of the most intriguing publishing houses in the country. He is profiled by Seattle Weekly, which calls him “America’s most dangerous publisher.” (via)
- One of the judges for the Best Translated Book Award has launched a blog called Against Amazon. It is an interesting development as it was only six weeks ago it was announced that Amazon was going to underwrite the award. (via)
- By coincidence, I read about the anti-Amazon site the same day I read that Amazon is giving a $44,000 grant to Words Without Borders, another of my literature in translation heroes.
- The NYT has selected its 100 Notable Books of the year and, among those, its 10 best books of the year. online. I’ve read 11 of the 48 fiction works, including two of the five in the top 10, but only three of the 52 nonfiction books, none of which is in the top 10.
- A list of more interest is the gift guide at Salonica World Lit, skewed, naturally, toward those of us who enjoy iternational literature.
Nonbookish Linkage
- Jesus hates the Buffalo Bills.
- As for me, it isn’t that I don’t care, I’m just “existentially indifferent.”
- What he said (and which is a significant part of the reason The Daily Show is the only nationally televised “news” program I watch).
- The case against buying Christmas presents.
It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out
It doesn’t matter much to me
“Strawberry Fields Forever,” The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour
