A variety of matters have kept me from doing anything substantive outside of work, let alone reading and writing reviews I need to do. Thus, another collection of marginalia, to be soon followed by some dicta and miscellany.
- The NYT announced its 10 Best Books of 2006. I’ve read two, both nonfiction: Rory Stewart’s excellent The Places in Between (reviewed here) and Danielle Trussoni’s Falling Through the Earth (reviewed here). Interestingly, the books that won the National Book Award for fiction and nonfiction didn’t make the NYT‘s cut.
- And the award we’ve all been waiting for has been announced: the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award. I’ll let you see what won in the winner’s thoughts on the accolade. (Via, somehwat appropriately, Blog of a Bookslut.)
- As a follow up to the last Marginalia entry, The Library of America has announced what will be in its Philip K. Dick volume. And Ron Hogan at GalleyCat, who really broke the news on the PDK entry, collects a list of other suggestions for LOA volumes.
- When it comes to giving up on a book, I don’t have any hard and fast rules. The 100 Page Rule, the Page 99 (or 69) Rule or the 33% Rule all seem just a tad bit more artificial than necessary. Fortunately, I have yet to encounter a book I’ve been selected to review that I couldn’t finish. I may not have liked it but I made it through.
- The Encyclopedia Britannica has launched its own blog. (Via Rebecca’s Pocket.)
A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.
Franz Kafka
