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sly lit

If you'd rather be reading at work than working, try this site.

read this

50 best cult books.

want

Coolest bookshelves ever.

coolest staircase ever

for your hidden library.

a real pageturner

Sharon just sent me this delightful entry in a recent Sotheby’s catalogue for the sale of an old book:

LOT 4141

MIDDLETON, CHRISTOPHER.

"A REJOINDER TO MR. DOBB’S REPLY TO CAPTAIN MIDDLETON; IN WHICH IS EXPOS’D, BOTH HIS WILFUL AND REAL IGNORANCE OF TIDES; &C. HIS JESUITICAL PREVARICATIONS, EVASIONS, FALSITIES, AND FALSE REASONING; HIS AVOIDING TAKING NOTICE OF FACTS, FORMERLY DETECTED AND CHARGED UPON HIM AS INVENTIONS OF HIS OR HIS WITNESSES; THE CHARACTER OF THE LATTER, AND THE PRESENT VIEWS OF THE FORMER, WHICH GAVE RISE TO THE PRESENT DISPUTE. IN A WORD, AN UNPARALELLED DISINGENUITY, AND (TO MAKE USE OF A VERODOBBSICAL FLOWER OF RHETORIC) A GLARING IMPUDENCE, ARE SET IN A FAIR LIGHT."

LONDON: M. COOPER, G. BRETT, R. AMEY, 1745

(thanks Sharon!)

cultural literacy is not an option

Great article on the importance of reading and a defense of 100 books and why our children should read them. He's right.

By the known rules of ancient liberty

"The Freedom of the Press" was George Orwell's proposed preface to his book Animal Farm. An excerpt:

Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news — things which on their own merits would get the big headlines-being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.

indeed

Beautiful libraries.

razzle dazzle

If you're an amazon associate, you'll find Amazon's shiny new widgets interesting.

artopsy

Brian Dettmer carves into books revealing the artwork inside, creating complex layered three-dimensional sculptures.

sit n' learn

I want this chair.

librophile

While it may seem like an oxymoron, library porn does exist.

tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are

Ahem.

--> steps onto quasi-soapbox <--

Folks, it is a shame and a disgrace that a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll showed that one in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.

I realize that I have a great bias when it comes to reading, but I cannot understand how so many people can go a whole year without reading a book. There's not one book out there that strikes yer fancy? Not one? In the entire panoply of literature, there's not a single story or history or biography that you've been a little curious about and wanted to know more?

Jesus H. Christ. People, reading good books helps stem the tide of idiocy which daily washes over the world. Go learn something deep and meaningful and articulate. Please.

--> steps off of quasi-soapbox <--

If you need some assistance in developing your new reading habit, try Daily Lit, a service that sends you chapters of books regularly by email so you can read a little at a time. It'll probably be the best email you ever read.

go Llewelyn

The trailer for No Country For Old Men is out. If you haven't read this book by Cormac McCarthy, get thee to a bookstore. Although the writer's fans don't always get along, the movie looks like it'll please all. Except the squeamish, of course.

For those who missed Oprah's interview of Cormac discussing his latest book, The Road, you can view it here. (note: you must sign up to watch the videos. Trust me, it's worth it.) By the way, The Road has been awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

priceless

Great read

The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (also called The Jefferson Bible) was an attempt by Thomas Jefferson to glean the teachings of Jesus from the Christian Gospels. Jefferson wished to extract the doctrine of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.

assisting English majors nationwide

It doesn't often happen that the author of a famous book actually says what the book is really about. We should listen when they tell us. Of course many don't, but in a way that's what remains compelling about some books--even the authors themselves cannot enforce a particular meaning on the reader. At any rate, Ray Bradbury, who recently won a Pulitzer, has refreshingly told the world that Farenheit 451 is not what you thought it is about.

judging books by the cover

This is quite cool.

lofty

I could get some serious reading done in this room.