Watchmen Trailer Premiers Tomorrow Today

Click here to view (but be patient, it may take a minute or two).
(Image swiped from CHUD.com)

Book News, In Brief

The Wall Street Journal forgets its raison d'etre, recommending people borrow from libraries instead of buying at bookstores. Ah, but this'll learn 'em...

Instant karma! Financial woes are forcing The Wall Street Journal to cut 50 editing positions. Note to WSJ: Maybe nobody's buying your paper cuz they're reading it in the library.

Scandal! David Hessayon, author of the 50 million-selling Expert series (Gardening for Dummies, but loftier), has announced that "tending his own roses and shrubs no longer gives him pleasure." I betcha he still loves harvesting the ol' money tree, though.

Fanfic makes good. George Norman Lippert's James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing, an unofficial sequel to the Harry Potter series, has not only inspired a YouTube film adaptation and its own fanfic spin-offs, it has received J.K. Rowling's blessing as well. Lippert's next James Potter book, The Curse of the Gatekeeper, hits the net this September.

Book News, In Brief

The Comics Reporter admits that this is nearly impossible to verify, but is Google censoring pro-Palestinian comics?

Kiplinger.com has an article up comparing the Kindle to the Sony Reader. While Sony wins in all of the aesthetic categories, the Kindle holds more and has wireless options. But in the end, Kiplinger says that both e-books "cost too much for what they deliver."

Via The Boston Globe: "In a woeful time for book publishing, when sales are stagnant and reading for pleasure is declining, an unlikely first novel is climbing bestseller lists and causing a sensation. To the astonishment of writers, editors, and booksellers, David Wroblewski's The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is proving that readers can still fall hard for an old-fashioned literary epic by someone they've never heard of..."

Via Boing Boing: "This marvellous paperback chair is on display at Myopic Books in Providence Rhode Island...ZOMG I wish this was for sale."

Re: Race & Class

A janitor at Purdue University was observed reading a book about a 1924 riot between Notre Dame students and the KKK. The University charged him with racial harassment, likening it to reading porn at work(?!). Assorted civil liberties groups took up the cause, quoting from that pesky 'free speech' thingamabob, and now, almost a year later, the University has apologized...but only after making it clear to EVERYONE that they are committed to free speech.

Except where history books about unlikable hate groups are concerned.

Oh, and where porn is concerned.

But every other type of free speech? They're totally cool with those.

Quick side thought: Had it been a student at Purdue who was seen reading this book, it would've been no big thing. Students are intellectuals, naturally curious about matters of history and/or social unrest. But a janitor? Well, he had to be an ignorant racist.

That's class!

For the longer, less biased version of this story, click here.

Smart People Prefer 1984 To Anything B.C., J.C.

Via Publisher's Weekly:
Disinformation Readers Pick Favorites
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 7/14/2008 1:03:00 PM
Favorite book lists vary widely, as Sara Nelson points out in this week’s PW. Her editorial comments on two recent polls: one recent by Harris that queried just over 2,500 Americans about their favorite books and found the top two were the Bible and Gone with the Wind; and another by Disinformation.com that found the top two were Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Ralph Bernardo, managing editor at Disinformation, explained the results...Bernardo said Disinformation’s readership is diverse geographically, economically and racially; however, the group tends to more highly educated than the general population. Disinformation’s and Harris’s polls did share some favorites: both included Lord of the Rings, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Catcher in the Rye.

To read the complete article, click here.

Book News, In Brief

Barnes & Noble bucks the boutique bookstore trend, actually expanding their one and only rare books store.

Where are they now? The Guardian UK tracks down some high profile literary award winners who've disappeared from the public eye.

These two links were swiped from Fantagrapics' FLOG blog: Steve Ditko in Entertainment Weekly and Charles Burns in The New Yorker.

MichelleInkwell thinks we're gonna damage our lit cred by posting this one, so view it quick -- before she edits this. The Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics video game trailer is online.