Weekend Edition: 7-30

Bulletin Board

• Do Nothing But Read Day is set for Saturday, August 6. Although I believe they frequently amount to the same thing, the requirements are: (1) you have to read, and (2) you have to enjoy yourself. Accordingly, the DNBR crest is being added to the right sidebar.
• It seems standing up for South Dakota authors draws crowds. The day of my post on the subject was among the busiest days on the blog in the last four and a half years.

Blog Headline of the Week

• 2 Tips For Better Dumpster Diving

Bookish Linkage

• You may be surprised at the range of books when 30 lawyers pick books every lawyer should read. (By the way, have I ever mentioned how much I despise “galleries” or slide shows where a simple list will do?). Back on topic, I’ve read three and have two others unread on my Nook.
• Meanwhile, the first annual Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction has been awarded. I actually quit reading the winner 15 years ago.
• Comparing the fiction of Room and the reality of Jaycee Dugard’s memoir. (via)
• The New York Public Library is allowing kids to “read down” (erase) any library fines they have by participating in the library’s summer reading program.
• Gollancz is launching SF Gateway, which it says will be the world’s largest digital library of SF and fantasy. It will make out-of-print titles available as e-books, starting with more than 1,000 titles this fall and plans for 3,000 titles by the end of 2012 and 5,000 by 2014. (via)
• A writer was awarded $100,000 in damages for libel for a book review in the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
• “Mary Doria Russell for President: we’ve done worse!”
• World Book Night is coming to the U.S. next year.
• The 2011 Mann Booker longlist was announced — and I’ve read none of the 13 books.
• The Booker longlist means, of course, that nominations are open for the 2011 Not the Booker prize.
• Meet the winners, runners-up and “dishonorable mentions” of the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest — for bad writing.
• “Pulitzer Prize winning author Jeffrey Eugenides was attacked on a New Jersey train on his way home from Manhattan last week by one of two inebriated men who were singing songs about their penises.”

Nonbookish Linkage

• Words banned from Google’s “What do you love” project (via)
• The opposite of love?
• This is frightening: “Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society.” (via)
• So, about that the deficit.
• Time travel impossible? (via)

Mason Cooley, City Aphorisms, Eleventh Selection