I had intended to have a much fuller report of my 2021 reading to post, but time has caught up with me. So here’s the short version. I read 41 books this year, with a total of 13,139 pages. Shortest book: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (164 pages) Longest book: Second Generation by […]
The Best Books I Read in 2021 Read More »
Here’s an abbreviated version of Literary Links for the holiday weekend. The Joy of Writing by Hand Writer Nicholas Russell says, “During quarantine, drowning in screen time and desperate for any reminder that I had a physical form, I took up writing by hand once again. This time, it was less about keeping up correspondences
“When I’m not at my computer I’m reading almost constantly in my recliner with a gooseneck lamp angled over my shoulder. I’m a diligent underliner and I take notes in the margins almost constantly. This is as true with the books I read for research as it is for the fiction I savor and enjoy
Quotation from Anne Rice’s Final Interview Read More »
S.A. Cosby on the Conversation Around Policing in America—And Why It Needs to Change S.A. Cosby describes the event, when he was 16, that taught him “this man who had barely graduated from high school, who still came to football games and hit on the cheerleaders, who expected and received free coffee and donuts at
Related Posts: Books You Can Read in One Day (from 2020) Books You Can Read in One Day or Less (2019) Books You Can Read in One Day or Less (2018) Books You Can Read in One Day (2016) I’ve already admitted to myself that I’m not going to make my quota for books read
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Indie Bookseller Panel Tackles Free Expression News items like this are becoming distressingly frequent. Publishers Weekly reports on a virtual discussion by regional independent bookselling associations. Powell’s Books Survived Amazon. Can It Reinvent Itself After the Pandemic? “As much as any city, Portland, Ore., has been through hell. Its landmark store, Powell’s Books, must finally
The lofty goals and short life of the antiracist book club “After George Floyd’s death, many white Americans formed book clubs. A year later, they’re wondering, ‘What now?’” Today, just a few of the antiracist book clubs formed during the height of protests soldier on. They’re taking their time to learn how America got this
How Gruesome Penny Dreadfuls Got Victorian Children Reading “Despite causing a moral panic, these salacious tales helped boost literacy in Victorian England.” Even if you don’t read the article, take a gander at the illustrations. I’m Glad I Don’t Picture Anything When I Read Here’s an article on aphantasia or “mind blindness.” It attracted my
Sympathy for the De Vil: Reading Beyond Likability “As a writer and enthusiastic consumer of unlikable characters, I’m often puzzled by viewers or readers who criticize a story for having these types of characters,” writes novelist and English teacher John Copenhaver. This is a topic that just won’t go away. I Don’t Read to Like
The Book Review Turns 125 The New York Times is celebrating the 125th anniversary of its Book Review with a selection from its archives. Here you’ll find links to reviews of past books including The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, Roots by Alex Haley, and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, as well as
