How the Pandemic Has Changed Our Reading Lives
“Many of the readers who have more reading time are finding that the mental toll of current events is hurting their attention spans, or seeing their genre preferences shift and twist.”
Leah Rachel von Essen “talked to authors, book bloggers, librarians, and general readers to investigate how the anxiety and circumstances of the pandemic have changed our reading habits.”
She made some interesting discoveries, which she explains here. However the COVID quarantine has affected your reading, I bet you’ll find that many other people are having a similar experience.
Ubud writers festival still standing after COVID-19 twists the plot
If it was a book it would be a page-turner: the Australian woman living on a tropical island who founded a literary festival imperilled by terrorist attacks, smouldering volcanoes, the shadow of a massacre and a global pandemic.
Read the story of a writers festival founded in 2003, after the terrorist bombing of a nightclub in Bali.
Craft Capsule: The Art of Literary Criticism
Here’s one of the most useful expositions I’ve ever seen of how and why we read and review what we read.
Gillian Flynn on Paranoia, Conspiracy Theories, and Adding “Showrunner” to Her Resume
As every reader knows, the book is always better than the movie or TV adaptation. But this article intrigued me because it offers a new take on the subject.
Gillian Flynn, author of Sharp Objects and Gone Girl, worked as writer and executive producer of the science fiction TV series Utopia, currently streaming on Amazon Prime. The series is adapted from Dennis Kelly’s British of the same title. Here’s what Flynn has to say about the process of creating this adaptation:
I approached Utopia the way I’ve approached all adaptations—this has to become my own. I don’t think it serves the original material by trying to be beholden to it. I don’t believe in just remaking something because the original was good. Adapt when you really know that you want to do something different or have it come to life in a different way.
So maybe instead of grousing because the movie differs from the book, we ought to look for and examine those differences. And although I haven’t read the source material for Utopia, I eagerly anticipate watching that series as soon as my husband and I finish the series we’re current bingeing on Acorn TV.
Akwaeke Emezi shuns Women’s prize over request for details of sex as defined ‘by law’
“Author, who became first non-binary trans writer to be nominated for the award in 2019, declines to submit future novels for consideration in protest.”
The controversy over inclusivity in the publishing industry continues to rage.
Hollywood has gobbled up book rights during the pandemic. Here’s why
If you sometimes feel compelled to try to find the silver lining in the COVID-19 cloud, this might be a good item to put at the top of your list.
© 2020 by Mary Daniels Brown
