Monday, June 27, 2011
Lists, we like lists:
- After last week’s decision in New York, Byliner presents a list of readings on “Marriage in America” that come in many sizes and colors.
- Largehearted boy, a website I check regularly, has compiled summer reading lists from all around and on all kinds of topics. I like the list from Wired’s Underwire blog, called “10 books that will fry your mind this summer.”
- Flavorpill reminds us that the science fiction field “has widened in the past thirty years or so to be more inclusive” of mold-breaking authors. You may find authors you were missing out on in their gallery of “10 Diverse Sci-Fi Authors You Should Know.”
Sundry news:
- JK Rowling’s Pottermore website, to launch in October, has drawn speculation and buzz. We’ve now learned that the site will be the only vehicle for the sales of e-book versions of the Harry Potter series. Bookselllers that have made fan spectacles out of Rowling’s book releases are dismayed to be excluded from the e-book market.
- The Financial Times runs a piece by Jan Dalley in which she visits with Philip Roth, who will be awarded the Man Booker International prize tomorrow, for his body of work over half a century. The article has been quoted across the Twitterverse as saying Roth admits he doesn’t read fiction, but a closer read of the text suggests more complexity on his attitude toward his craft and even being interviewed.
- Jose Antonio Vargas shared his undocumented immigrant status with student newspaper reporters at Mountain View High School, where he got his own start as a journalist, six weeks before releasing his story to national media. The students apparently kept his secret. They state the revelation seemed unplanned and that it made them feel bonded with Vargas.