Books « A Progressive on the Prairie

A fever changes in kind but not intensity

For the last month or so, in fact, for much of the year, I’ve been in kind of a reading frenzy. I must be averaging around three a week. But over the last week or so it kind of burned itself out — and got replaced with a new one.

A number of the last [...]

Why do I do this?

Actually, I ask myself that question about blogging with some regularity. In fact, I occasionally consider abandoning the blog, a thought that comes up when I’ve got a number of books to review and feel a bit pressed for time. A lot of people probably think bloggers blog because they believe everyone is obligated entitled [...]

Mein Kampf returning to Germany

Monday’s announcement that Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf is going to be republished in Germany for the first time since the end of World War II brought a couple thoughts to mind.

I find it interesting that the State of Bavaria holds the copyright to the book. According to the news report, Bavaria took over the [...]

March Bibliolust

I may be setting myself up for a bit of failure this month. A couple of the books are a bit more serious than perhaps I would normally read. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And so what if I have a couple “did not finish” books this year. (Although I had one earlier in the [...]

A glimpse of the ‘literary’ perspective

I’ve commented before on the fact the New York-centric publishing world seems to have more than a bit of disdain for the reading public outside that world. Part of it is a sense of an essentially pretentious perspective, one that seems based on the notion that if you aren’t part of the “literary” world you [...]

An updated snapshot of the book-buying public

A survey conducted by an advertising firm at the end of last year seeks to give us a picture of book buying in America. I can’t vouch for the statistical validity of the internet-based survey, which had 2,200 respondents, It claims to have a 1.5 percent margin of error.

So what did the survey results [...]

Pretty much 0-fer again

Last year I read nearly 150 books, with fiction (74) slightly exceeding nonfiction (67). In the latter category, about one third of the books were biographies or autobiographies. So how did I do in voting for the National Book Critics Circle awards? Once again an 0-fer in the finalists in four main categories: fiction, biography [...]

Fighting the urge

Remember my “nonresolution” to read what I want when I feel like it? Given that I posted it just 10 days ago, temptation has already reared its head. It sneakily arrived in the mailbox.

When I got home last night there were two catalogs from a major publishing house of forthcoming books on a number [...]

My nonresolutions

The only New Year’s resolution I think I’ve ever kept is the last one I made. Years ago, I resolved to not make New Year’s resolutions and have been very good at it since. (I don’t remember if that was before or after I decided that each Lenten season I would give up giving up [...]

January Bibliolust

It’s the time of year where we look both forward and back. In looking back, I am surprised at how closely the percentage of Bibliolust books read last year is to the all time percentage. I doubt there’s any significance but I do find it interesting. Looking forward means half the books this month actually [...]

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A fever changes in kind but not intensity

Why do I do this?

Mein Kampf returning to Germany

March Bibliolust

A glimpse of the ‘literary’ perspective

An updated snapshot of the book-buying public

Pretty much 0-fer again

Fighting the urge

My nonresolutions

January Bibliolust

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