Bulletin Board
- Truly, I’m not pushing this but you can vote for this blog in the Goodreads Independent Book Blogger contest. There is also a link in the right sidebar. I normally don’t do stuff like this but since it can result in a free trip to Book Expo America, I figured I would do it.
Interesting Reading
- Why are English and American novels today so gutless? (“At the point when we need people of all disciplines and none to offer their say, the artists are missing.”)
- Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? (“The beauty of Facebook, the source of its power, is that it enables us to be social while sparing us the embarrassing reality of society[.]”)
Blog Headline of the Week
Bookish Linkage
- The first movie is breaking box office records but The Hunger Games trilogy made the list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2011. By the way, To Kill a Mockingbird made the list too.
- Spring cleaning the bookshelves
- Attack of the sex-happy hippies
- The NYT Book Review launches By The Book, asking authors about their reading habits.
Book Awards Linkage (’tis that time of year)
- Finalists for the 2012 Best Translated Book Award, of which I have read a total of zero.
- Shortlist for the 2012 International IMPAC Literary Award. I’ve actually read two of the 10, one of which was my favorite nonfiction book of 2011.
- 2012 Hugo Awards nominations. I’ve read one of the five novels. If you’re interested, author John Scalzi has rounded up links to the Short Story nominees, of which he is one.
- The Independent Foreign Fiction Award. I’ve read one of the six.
Nonbookish Linkage
- The 2012 Jefferson Muzzles have been awarded for abridgments of First Amendment rights.
- A forum on the Port Huron Statement on its 50th anniversary.
- How the Marshall Amp Changed Rock
- “A new study says there’s a significant correlation between the amount of Walmart stores in an area and the number of hate groups existing in that same area.”
- Wow! Not only did NASA fake going to the Moon, how it is hiding the fact we sent men to Mars who returned late last year. (via)
- Unfortunately, the Mars traveler says there is no life there, although the Viking spacecraft found life on Mars in 1976.
I keep thinking tomorrow is coming today
So I am endlessly waiting
“Saint Robinson In His Cadillac Dream,”
Counting Crows, This Desert Life
