Bulletin Board
- This week’s post on being an illiterati was cited as some of the Noteworthy Content of the Week at the blog of the 9rules blog network.
- Other activities and commitments will produce sporadic and sparse posting for the near future.
Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- Morgellons: A hidden epidemic or mass hysteria? (“But if you were to seek the view of the medical establishment, you’d find the strangest fact about this disease: morgellons doesn’t exist.”) (via)
Blog Lines of the Week
- From Michael Schaub at Bookslut: “The ACLU claims that a jail in South Carolina has effectively forbidden inmates from reading anything except the Bible. If this is true, I’ve got to say, it’s a sound policy. Prisoners shouldn’t have access to violent or sexually suggestive reading materials; they should instead reflect on the kind of peaceful prose you can only find in, say, Deuteronomy 20:10-14, or Isaiah 13:15-16.”
Irony of the Week
- Two Muslim religious leaders were asked to leave a Delta flight in Memphis over the weekend. Naturally, they were traveling to a conference on fears of Islam and discrimination against American Muslims. (via)
Bookish Linkage
- A very interesting approach toward the library. While it’s probably a wonderful concept for academic-oriented libraries with their collections of journals, texts and the like, it’s not the type of library most of us would enjoy.
- The Future of Book Reviews: Critics vs. Amazon Reviewers or (Snooty) Literature Critics Criticize Reader’s Literary Criticism
- Here’s a way to spend the summer going around the world in 24 books.
- The Guardian asks 24 current SF writers to choose their favorite SF novel or author.
- The top five vote-getters for the 2011 Locus Awards have been announced. Three of the five SF novel finalists are also finalists for the 2011 Hugo Awards. I’ve actually read two of the fantasy finalists. (via)
- The 13 finalists for the Indie Booksellers Choice Awards have been announced. I’ve read only one.
Nonbookish Linkage
- Why am I just now learning that the world will end May 21? Heck of a way to ruin a weekend. (via)
- Before the world ends, you might consider the enduring appeal of the apocalypse.
- An interesting look back at A Clockwork Orange. (via)
- The Library of Congress has launched the National Jukebox site, which has streams of more than 10,000 music and spoken-word recordings produced in the U.S. between 1901 and 1925.
If the apocalypse comes, beep me.
Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Buffy the Vampire Slayer
