- Looks like I wasn’t the only one impressed by Nobel Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk’s lecture at the awards ceremony Thursday. Encyclopedia Britannica’s Britannica Blog calls it “a rich, engaging, and moving text.”
- From the sublime to the borderline ridiculous or else from Turkey and literature to America and popular culture. What is this year’s bestselling book at Amazon? Cesar’s Way. No, this isn’t about Julius Ceasar or anything of that ilk. It is “an accessible guide to help new and current dog owners better understand the needs of their beloved pets.” Not having read it and being a dog lover, I’m not really knocking it. I’m knocking American consumers.
- BuzzFeed does its thing with the plagiarism accusations involving Ian McEwan.
- Hugo-nominated SF author John Scalzi interviews Hugo-nominated SF author Charlie Stross.
- Writer’s Dreamtools provides a historical guide for writers to the decades from 1650 through 1990. (Via Kottke.org Remaindered Links.)
- Literary Cache has a TBR challenge that would probably help my ailing bookshelves. Basically, you pick 12 books that have been on your “to be read” list for more than six months and read one each month from January through December of next year. Granted, this is a variation on the Stacks Winter Challenge but I missed the starting bell on that. I’m also considering the 2007 Winter Classics Challenge, which is to read five “classics” in January and February. Although it would do me (and almost anyone) some good to read some classic works, things look hectic enough already for January and February that I am hesitant to embark on it. I am more optimistic about squeeing two “TBR” books in during those two months than five classics.
Every book teaches a lesson, even if the lesson is only that one has chosen the wrong book.
Mason Cooley, City Aphorisms
