Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- Americans’ Hollow Commitment to ‘Rule of Law’ (“… isn’t it somebody’s job to notice that, day by day, American freedom is becoming something far narrower than it once was?”)
Blog Headline of the Week
Bookish Linkage
- We voracious readers already knew that exposure to literature may make people more likely to open their minds
- So that’s what it’s called — paying a book tax
- A reading list for the surveillance state (I’ve read 6 of the 11)
- A blogger explains why she reads
- It’s wonderful to hear there are more public libraries (about 17,000) in America than McDonald’s (about 14,000) or Starbucks (about 11,000 )
- Increased reading by kids doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in their reading level
- Books whose sales were boosted by the news
- Three essential books you should read in every major genre
- The change in high school reading lists over the decades
- Nineteen books you’ve been meaning to read forever
- The Vonnegut Review is “a telegraphic schizophrenic journey through the novels of Kurt Vonnegut”
- A suggested reading list for Ron Swanson
- Amazon has come up with a world “travel” plan for the summer, Around the World in 80 Books. It gets an “A” for idea but a “C-” for execution as the list is heavy with nonresidents of the continents (except, of course, North America) and I’m guessing the vasy majority were written in English
Nonbookish Linkage
- Caffeine withdrawal is now a mental health disorder (but then in my book if you stop drinking coffee, you are crazy)
- Why don’t Americans seem to care about government surveillance?
- To keep constant watch on 2,000 suspected terrorists would take about 50,000 people doing nothing but following them
- How to curmudgeon
No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.
Jane Wagner, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
