Blog-Jacking: Mollygood

No One Wants to Read a Book Written By W.
Originally posted by Whitney on 11/7
For all the jokes about President Bush being borderline retarded that have been made in the last eight years, you would think that the man would leave well enough alone once he left the White House and stopped being the world's chief source of ridicule.
But no. Our 43rd commander-in-chief wants to publish his memoirs as soon as he gets out of office, despite the fact that no one is buying books in this bad economy, and no one wants to buy a book written by the guy who gave us this bad economy. So that's a double neg.
To finish this article, click here.

Book News, In Brief

We did not forget Louis Braille's birthday on January 4th. In fact, we're offended at the accusation. We sent him a card. He must not have seen it.

Financially, this holiday season is going to be crap. The publishers have admitted it. The big box stores have said the same thing. So why are certain booksellers claiming everything's going to be alright? (My guess: They're either lying, high, or still practicing that The Secret bullsh*t.)

The next time you visit online print-on-demand publisher Lulu.com, you may be surprised at what you find. They're not printing books. Well, not at the moment, anyway. When internet watchdog Valleywag contacted Lulu to ask what was up, "a customer-support rep said that the company had known about the ordering bug for a week, and might not fix it for another week." Valleywag's conclusion: "Lulu doesn't have enough actual customers to worry about letting them conduct business with the company." Ouch.

Writers H8 Prop 8

Publishers Weekly has a nice piece about the literary community's reaction to California's approval of proposition 8 -- the proposition banning gay marriage. The potential ramifications apply to breeders, too.
An excerpt:
John Rechy, the Los Angeles-based PEN International Award-winning gay author expressed a sense of outrage and betrayal by the passing of Prop. 8. Noting what he called fear tactics used by its backers in their ads, Rechy said, “Of course it helped Prop. 8 to use a harmless children’s book (King & King) about gay marriage in its campaign of minority intolerance. My fear now is that all of gay literature will be more closely scrutinized, and that free speech will become even more endangered.”
To read the whole darned thing, click here.

Writers <3 Obama

The AP's got praise for the President Elect from everybody. Toni Morrison (Song of Solomon), Jane Smiley (A Thousand Acres), Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything Is Illuminated), and Ayelet Waldman (Daughter's Keeper) all drop early Valentines in Barack's mailbox.
Hell, the Obama love is so strong, it's even pouring in from dead authors. In the same article, Ms. Morrison speculates as to how James Baldwin (Go Tell It on the Mountain) and Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man) "would have reacted."
Click here to read.

R.I.P. Michael Crichton

October 23, 1942–November 4, 2008

Author Du Jour:President Elect Barack Obama

Biography:
(Stolen whole from Wikipedia)
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and President-elect of the United States of America -- 44th president of USA... :) Obama is the first person of African-American descent to be nominated by a major American political party for President, and the first person of African American descent to be elected President of the United States of America. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he became the first black person to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate in January 2003. After a primary victory in March 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He was elected to the Senate in November 2004 with 70 percent of the vote.
As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, he helped create legislation to control conventional weapons and to promote greater public accountability in the use of federal funds. He also made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. During the 110th Congress, he helped create legislation regarding lobbying and electoral fraud, climate change, nuclear terrorism, and care for returned U.S. military personnel. Obama announced his presidential campaign in February 2007, and was formally nominated at the 2008 Democratic National Convention with Delaware senator Joe Biden as his running mate. Obama won the 2008 presidential election and will take the oath of office and become the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009.

Bibliography:
(Again, from Wikipedia)
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
Barack Obama in His Own Words


Brief clip of Obama talking about books/his favorite book as a child:


Obama's 11/04 Acceptance Speech:

Part two

Don't Forget to...

Tuesday's Tip for Flailing Writers:A Story Idea -- Ripped From Today's Headlines!

News item, care of the AP:
ATLANTA – A judge has ordered Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter to resume documenting her mother's personal papers, which are at the center of a family feud among the civil rights icon's surviving children.
Bernice King and brother Martin Luther King III again faced off in court Friday against another brother, Dexter King.
Dexter, CEO of King Inc., wants a judge to order Bernice, the administrator of her mother's estate, to turn over personal papers, including intimate letters between Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr.
The documents were part of a $1.4 million book deal with Penguin Group for a memoir about the civil rights matriarch, but that deal fell though earlier this month after the family missed a deadline from the New York-based publisher to turn the documents over. It is unclear now whether the documents can or will be used for any future such deals.

Story Idea:
Title: Little Women Bitches
Plot: Set in New England Atlanta during the Civil War fifty years after the Civil Rights Movement, the novel follows the adventures of the March sisters King siblings as they struggle to pursue their dreams the publishing rights to their deceased dad's dream.

Book News, In Brief

The Guardian UK is a bastion of fact-based, unbiased reporting...except when they're writing about books. Then it reads like a mash note. From Thursday's edition: Who is your literary crush?

This news item is dedicated to those of you who say that porn is 'victimless.' Three Firefighters Hurt In Adult Bookstore Blast. (Aw, what the hell? I'll also dedicate it to those of us who think porn is 'hot.')

Not having learned a goddamned thing from their failed foray into selling videos online, Google has announced plans to open an internet bookstore. Lord knows they could use the extra income. They just paid out a $125 million settlement to publishers angered over their unauthorized Book Search feature.

Recommended Reading:Comixology's Later On, Maybe We Can Talk Sometime. You Know, If You Don't Hate Me.

In this brief blog post, self-described 'Arrogant Comic Book Pundit' Tucker Stone uses his long-lasting love of a 'guilty pleasure' comic -- Batman: A Death In The Family -- to illustrate the magical moment we all felt as kids when we discovered the artform, sport or hobby that would change our adolescent lives for the better...

Excerpt:
It's fun when you're a kid, to find that comic—or piece of music, or skateboard, or, if you're really awesome, bottle of Boone's Farm—and remember how pure it was to enjoy something with such zealotry and relish.

...and then the way that relationships and the responsibilities of adult life eventually eclipse that love, but never diminish it...

Excerpt, again:
It's not that comics aren't exciting to read anymore—obviously, I wouldn't be writing about them for comiXology if they weren't—but no, even the best comic can't emotionally compare to the excitement of being an adult...If anything, that sense of perspective makes that time period that I fondly look back on now that much better.

It's a funny, charming, self-effacing and semi-sentimental piece -- and it's well worth the three minutes it'll take you to read it.

Interested?

Click here

Book News, In Brief

Channel 7 in Denver, CO hedges its editorial bets: Economic Downturn Good, Bad For Used Bookstores

In an effort to promote youth literacy, The Bucks County Courier Times states the obvious: The More Children Read, The Better They Become At Reading, then resorts to scare tactics: Reading Difficulty Could Land Your Kid In Jail!

Doubleday lays off 10% of its employees, blames 'conspiracy.' No, wait -- they blame 'the lack of a conspiracy': The delayed delivery of Dan 'Da Vinci Code' Brown's next novel. (Note: no presidents', vice-presidents' or board members' jobs were affected. Phew!)

I'm usually on the side of the nerd, but this here's ridiculous: Taichi Takashita launched an online petition aiming for one million signatures to present to the government to establish a law on marriages with (comic book) characters.

Blog-Jacking: The Guardian UK

Ooh, that looks better
Originally posted on 10/29 by Aida Edemariam
In response to fears that publishers are trying to dumb down literary fiction, one blog asked readers to take it that little bit further and redesign their favourite classic as a trashy bestseller. Here are a selection of some of the entries.



To see the rest, click here.

Tuesday's Tip for Flailing Writers: A Story Idea -- Ripped From Today's Headlines!

News item, care of livescience.com:
Oddly, Americans Fear Snakes More Than Disease
Diabetes affects 24 million Americans and an increasing number of children. It can lead to limb loss and heart attacks. Yet people are more afraid of snakes and flying.
In an online survey by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), conducted in August and released today, people revealed far greater fear of events that are much less likely to affect them. Percentage of respondents who fear:
* Being in a plane crash: 16 percent
* Snake bites: 13 percent
* Being hit by lightning: 5 percent
* A shark attack: 4 percent
* Getting a disease: 5 percent.

Story Idea:
Title: Snakes on a Plane...Crash!
Plot: A group of diabetic reptile wranglers are flying across the Atlantic when their jet is struck by lightning, stranding them and their snakes in the middle of shark infested waters. Carnage ensues....and a love story is awkwardly shoe-horned in...copious flashbacks are used to try and flesh out one dimensional characters...footnotes detailing unusual trivia about various marine animals are used to try and bring the book to 'proper novel length'...oh, and Sam Jackson is in there somewhere, dropping eff-bombs like autumn leaves. The end.

Book News, In Brief

A new book, The Dracula Dossier, speculates a link between Jack the Ripper and Bram Stoker. This is, of course, complete and utter horseshit, but kudos to the author for finding an effective hook. If only he'd chosen to feature a pouty, pale, teenage Dracula on the cover, TDD would've been a bestseller for sure.

November 1 marks the start of National Novel Writing Month. The ridiculous idea behind this shameless software sales gimmick is this: Write a novel -- from start to finish -- in just one month. Then spend the next eleven months sending unread query letters to uninterested agents, editors and publishers.

And I thought Obama was geek-chic. Via AFP: Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso complained on Sunday he cannot find enough time to devote himself to his lifelong hobby -- reading comics. Aso, who takes comics on trips abroad, said he finished reading two weekly magazines last week but has yet to find time to read two others.

Book News, In Brief(a.k.a.: Are You There Oprah? It's Me, Inkwell)

Et tu, Oprah? It's official. Amazon's e-book, the Kindle, is Ms. Winfrey's "favorite gadget". And over at her Oprah's Book Club website, she's giving out $50 off coupon codes to all interested parties.

But wait -- didn't Oprah see that article in the LATimes about Amazon.com listing their Obama mask under the heading "terrorist"? Well, if she didn't, someone really oughta spam her about it. There's a reason liberals shop locally, O!

While they're at it, would this unspecified, spamming someone also whisper into the Big O's ear that she needs to bug Simon & Schuster for an advance readers copy of Chis Cleave's Little Bee? This fictional account of a young Nigerian refugee in modern day London contains everything Oprah looks for in one of her book club picks: social/political relevance for today's readers; a fresh literary voice; a lead character who overcomes hurdles without and within; and a role for Danny Glover in the inevitable film adaptation. Inkwell's own Kathleen says, "This is going to be the book of the year. I know it."

Grant Morrison Reflects Upon His Recently Completed All Star Superman

Click here and here for parts one and two of a soon-to-be ten part interview.

Need more? Click here for what is arguably the best review/dissection of the series thus far.

Book News, In Brief

The publishing world gasps as the inevitable occurs: The internet drives book sales in China.

A new study shows that the Teen Lit sales boom is not the product of page-turning pubescents, but of Forever 21-shopping adults who wish every night was prom night.

Libraries, worried that they're becoming nothing more than a pit stop for stingy internet users and DVD borrowers, are preparing to try something drastic. They're going to stock the books that people actually want to read. Via The NYTimes: Urban Fiction Goes From Streets to Public Libraries

Speaking of libraries, have you heard about the librarian who was fined $500 for promoting a Shakespeare comic book that his daughter did? S'true. Via UPI.com: Robert Grandt was forced to admit he violated the city's ethics code when he placed copies of his daughter's book on a library display table at Brooklyn Technical High School and recommended it in a newsletter. Silly librarian. You need to quit that public service job and join one of the many branches of the publishing industry. Nepotism is de rigeur here!

Why Do I Want to Hump J.K. Rowling?Let Me Count the Ways...

1. Because for every corny thing she does: "J.K. Rowling will help launch The Tales of Beedle the Bard by hosting a tea party." she then goes and does something infinitely cooler: "Rowling has waived her royalties for the book, with net proceeds from the sale to go to the charity she co-founded, the Children's High Level Group, which works with vulnerable children in eastern Europe."
2. And then there's the glasses. Hot!

(Quotes lifted whole from the Shelf Awareness daily email.)

Tuesday's Tip for Flailing Writers:A Story Idea -- Ripped From Today's Headlines!

News item, care of WAPT, Missouri:
White Women Push Suicide Rate Higher
The suicide rate in the U.S. is on the rise, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University. Researchers found that the overall rate rose 0.7 percent from 1999 to 2005. But the rate for white women ages 40 to 64 rose 3.9 percent.

Story idea:
Title: Suicide and the City
Plot: Four professional, narcissistic, middle-aged, White women jump Manolo Blahniks first into this season's crazy new fad: killing themselves. (Okay, so this one's going to need a bit of padding out if it's going to fill a mass market, but how tough could it be to script twenty-some-odd chapters of their sex, booze and shopping exploits?)

Starf**king: Cinematic Bookstores

From TheStarOnline:

We walk past the Fairmont and down two steep blocks of Mason Street to enter the Argonaut Book Shop, at 786 Sutter St. Based on their study of production notes from the film, Leventhal and Kraft are certain that this shop was the inspiration for the Argosy Book Shop in "Vertigo," where Scottie meets old Pop Leibel, proprietor, California history buff and explainer of Madeleine's family secrets.

"My dad knew Hitchcock," explains Argonaut owner Robert Haines Jr., who, like Pop, specializes in rare books on the Gold Rush and old California. He says his father, Robert Haines Sr., who founded the store on Kearny Street, was the director's model for Pop Leibel.

"There's a scene where Pop pulls out a Zippo and taps a cigarette - and that's just what my father did," he says. "For the last 40 years, I've had people coming in here, asking, 'Is this the shop where Alfred Hitchcock' did so and so?' "

"And it is," Leventhal says. "Hitchcock once said, 'This is what a bookshop should look like,'" referring to the original shop on Kearny.

To read the entire article, click here.

(A tip of the cyber chapeau to RareBooksNews.com for the initial heads-up.)