***Interesting Articles

DiscussionsClub Read 2017

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***Interesting Articles

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1RidgewayGirl
Déc 23, 2016, 9:24 am

Post them here. If they're interesting, or at least interest you. Also good if they are about books, authors or the literary world, although that's not a rule or anything.

2FlorenceArt
Déc 24, 2016, 10:52 am

It's the time of year for many annoying things, among them "the xx most yy zz of the year" posts. This one actually contains some interesting sounding reading recommendations. I have one on my wishlist already, and several have been reviewed on CR 2016.

Ars Technica: 12 engrossing nonfiction books from 2016 that will expand your brain

3.Monkey.
Déc 25, 2016, 4:44 am

That does sound like an interesting list, thanks! :)

4Book-Dragon1952
Déc 26, 2016, 2:56 pm

>2 FlorenceArt: Thanks, my brain can always use some expansion! I'll be reading a few on that list.

5.Monkey.
Jan 1, 2017, 5:46 am

6ELiz_M
Jan 1, 2017, 8:57 am

https://electricliterature.com/welcome-to-the-monkey-house-teaching-the-2016-ele...

A teacher explains why it makes sense to apply literary analysis/criticism to the 2016 election and political discourse. I appreciated his discussion of the importance of understanding how literature works.

7japaul22
Jan 7, 2017, 7:45 am

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/06/florida-librarians-accused-of-crea...

Good for these librarians! As someone who probably checks out the books that rarely get checked out, I'm grateful they're trying to keep them.

We go to the library about once a month and my kids check out about 10 books each. I always make a quick browse through the shelves and check out some things. I rarely read these books, but I like to help keep circulation numbers of real books up!

8RidgewayGirl
Modifié : Jan 12, 2017, 9:12 am

>7 japaul22: I read about that in a post that condemned the librarians as imposing their rarified tastes on the innocent public, who just want graphic novels and vampire romances, thank you very much. I'm also firmly on the side of those librarians, having more than once wanted to borrow an older novel, only to find it not in the library's collection. I do understand the issue of limited space and I'm all for new books being added, though, so I have no solution to offer.

Here's news of Marlon James's next project. It sounds interesting. He's clearly not one to rest on his laurels and write the same kind of book over and over.

http://flavorwire.com/597192/marlon-james-follow-up-to-a-brief-history-of-seven-...

And there's a scandal going on in the world of publishing. I'm usually excited about this kind of thing, because it means that publishing is still important enough to get over-excited about. Unfortunately, this time it's just about giving a bigger platform to the so-called alt-right (neo-Nazis have rebranded, guys!).

Vox has a good summary of what's going on.

http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/1/3/14119080/milo-yiannopoulos-book-deal-simon-s...

I'm not convinced of the conclusion of the article. The idea that a corporation is too large to be held accountable seems an easy excuse, and not necessarily a compelling one.

9wandering_star
Jan 12, 2017, 10:04 am

Both very interesting articles! Thanks for posting.

The ActionNow newsletter had a suggestion that rather than boycotting Simon & Schuster, a more effective approach would be to "ask television shows, podcasts, book reviewers, and more, to refrain from talking about it at all. I love the idea of just ignoring it. No think pieces or hot takes! Let's all read a different book instead and move on."

10kidzdoc
Modifié : Jan 13, 2017, 7:06 am

Thanks for posting links to those articles, Kay. Fantasy is outside of my usual reading zone, but I'll probably give these books by Marlon James a try.

Yesterday's NYT also featured an article about the Milo Yiannopoulos controversy: Political Storm for Publishers

11janemarieprice
Jan 15, 2017, 12:29 pm

Here is a bookshelf I think we could all use:

12kidzdoc
Jan 15, 2017, 12:31 pm

13AnnieMod
Jan 26, 2017, 1:58 pm

From today's Guardian (via the Folio group here in LT): Bibliomania: the strange history of compulsive book buying

15baswood
Fév 14, 2017, 11:38 am

>14 tonikat: thanks for that.

16RidgewayGirl
Modifié : Fév 16, 2017, 12:07 pm

17FlorenceArt
Fév 16, 2017, 3:12 pm

18RidgewayGirl
Fév 21, 2017, 12:05 pm

Here's an article railing against "readable" books.

http://www.themillions.com/2017/02/against-readability.html

After reading and thinking about this piece, I think it boils down to "readable" is anything the author of the article disliked or found insufficiently confusing, while the novels he approves of were that specific kind of self-consciously obscure male-authored tome (only two of the approved authors are women). He does single out Version Control by Dexter Palmer as worthy, but I found it easy and pleasant to read. He also heaps especial scorn on the Ferrante and Knausgaard books.

Anyway, it does seem like an article written to elicit a reaction.

19Simone2
Fév 24, 2017, 1:38 am

>18 RidgewayGirl: Interesting. I think he does have a point. Many of the 'readable' books he mentions, I have read with a lot of pleasure and I would recommend them, but how many of them made me think of them for days afterwards or do I still remember vividly half a year later?
I do not think they are worse for this, and to me personally it is often enough to be grabbed by a book and enjoying it while reading, but I do see his point.

20stretch
Fév 24, 2017, 10:01 am

>18 RidgewayGirl:: The equally incomprehensible article in praise of readability:

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/in-praise-of-readability/

I think these articles are talking past each other. The previous one is bemoaning the over-prominence of workmanlike prose resulting in bland storytelling. This article is talking about how something can be both simple to follow and really well-written, striking, etc. But hey contrast.

21Simone2
Fév 24, 2017, 10:48 am

>18 RidgewayGirl: >20 stretch: I keep thinking about this article and whether I agree or not. Now I am thinking of all those beautiful things I read in this so called 'readable' books that stick with me nevertheless. Thinking of Here I Am right now with all those beautiful (and yes, readable) dialogues and all that I learned about jewish Americans as well...

22wandering_star
Fév 24, 2017, 9:32 pm

Article by Deborah Smith, who translated The Vegetarian among other things, on the challenges of translated stories from (smuggled out of) North Korea:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/24/north-south-korea-language-bandi-t...

23thorold
Mar 1, 2017, 12:32 pm

The Royal Society of Literature has published its survey of consumption of literature in the U.K.

http://rsliterature.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/RSL-Literature-in-Britain-Tod...

The findings aren't very surprising, for the most part. They asked people to "name a writer, living or from the past, whose work they would describe as literature". So of course most of the people who didn't say JK Rowling said Shakespeare or Dickens, and they concluded that women and non-white writers were under-represented...

24RidgewayGirl
Avr 12, 2017, 12:36 pm

Here's an interview with Hilary Mantel, in which she goes into detail about the circumstances under which each of her novels was written. I think her remarks about A Place of Greater Safety were especially interesting. She also talks about the third Cromwell novel.

https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6360/hilary-mantel-art-of-fiction-no-2...

25Simone2
Avr 13, 2017, 12:21 am

>24 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, I just finished Wolf Hall!

26RidgewayGirl
Avr 24, 2017, 11:26 am

http://indiemap.bookweb.org

Here's a way to find the nearest independently-owned bookstore. I've bookmarked this to refer to when I travel.

27RidgewayGirl
Mai 6, 2017, 10:11 am

http://awfullibrarybooks.net

Just librarians talking about the books in their collections. It's a strangely addictive site.

28dchaikin
Mai 8, 2017, 8:03 pm

Do semicolons make you pretentious?

https://apple.news/AUAdVR0huRsevrBjHOwXIew

29thorold
Mai 9, 2017, 8:39 am

>28 dchaikin: That's one of those cases where a silly clickbait headline completely undermines the point of an article. The author did some superficially interesting, but possibly rather pointless number-crunching, but all that most people looking at the article will see is that it (a) contains no evidence for or against the proposition that semicolons cause pretentiousness and (b) misses the point of Vonnegut's extravagant image (which is of course that multiplying ±1 by -1 is meaningless).

30dchaikin
Mai 13, 2017, 12:48 pm

Yeah, headline definitely undermines by article. The numbers are cool, though.

31VivienneR
Mai 15, 2017, 2:09 pm

I've noticed this happening in recent years. This is the first article I've read on the topic:

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/books-just-keep-getting-longer/?utm_source=...

32thorold
Mai 15, 2017, 2:30 pm

Two book-stats articles in succession both citing Ben Blatt! If you didn't know better, you might almost think he had a new book to promote...

33RidgewayGirl
Mai 15, 2017, 7:47 pm

>31 VivienneR: I'm unconvinced. I think that books are becoming less tied to a certain page length, so some are a lot shorter than ten or twenty years ago, and some are a lot longer. Authors are freer to tell a story and have it end when it's over.

But I do agree that prominent authors are able to write overly long books now, but I think that's due to the reduction of the number of copy editors and editors in publishing houses, and their declining power.

That's this woman's opinion, anyway.

34VivienneR
Mai 15, 2017, 8:17 pm

A reduction in the numbers of editors is a very good explanation. I've noticed the page increase recently, but thought it was because the fonts are inclined to be bigger. I know I have difficulty reading the small print of older books, especially paperbacks.

35RidgewayGirl
Mai 15, 2017, 9:44 pm

>34 VivienneR: I was working in a bookstore when trade paperbacks started appearing. We all agreed that they'd never take off. Who would pay more for a larger paperback? So glad we were very wrong!

36Oandthegang
Mai 23, 2017, 7:50 pm

I remember years ago someone I knew in the book trade complaining about the increasing length of books, which she put down to word processors (yes, it was that long ago). If you don't have to put pages in the typewriter or keep yourself supplied with writing paper it is easy to just run on and on, particularly as what you've written can be so easily altered at any time with minimal effort. On a manual typewriter or when writing by hand one thinks more slowly and carefully. That was her theory, and it seems plausible. But yes, I agree, a good editor should keep this stuff in check.

37cindydavid4
Mai 24, 2017, 9:33 am

Thats a very plausible theory - and I'd add that the writer must be really committed to his subject or work because typing on typewriters can be very frustrating, esp if you keep making typos (remember the days of carbon and what you had to do when you wanted to correct something?)

39VivienneR
Mai 26, 2017, 11:39 pm

>36 Oandthegang: Good point! Although word processing now provides a convenient word count.

>38 RidgewayGirl: And as you know, I am one of those Denise Mina readers. Thanks for that interesting link. She is quite a character.

40stretch
Juin 15, 2017, 9:25 am

This has me stupid excited: Laver Burton Reads

The Podcast: https://art19.com/shows/levar-burton-reads

41RidgewayGirl
Juin 16, 2017, 9:21 am

>40 stretch: Thanks, stretch!

42thorold
Juil 1, 2017, 8:23 am

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/01/book-helped-come-out-gay-edmund-wh...

"'At last I felt I fitted in’: writers on the books that helped them come out"

As usual with this sort of thing, most of them cite each other's books, but there are one or two unexpected items, Colm Toibin citing Goytisolo, for instance (Darryl, please note!).

43kidzdoc
Juil 1, 2017, 2:05 pm

>42 thorold: Thanks for posting that article, Mark. I saw it when I glanced at the online edition of The Guardian, and I'll read it sometime next week (I'm working in the hospital this weekend).

45AnnieMod
Août 18, 2017, 9:22 pm

>44 FlorenceArt:

I loved that article. Every time when I hear "this and this classic is trash", I cringe - not all books are for everyone and not everyone can understand all books at all time. And that is ok. I cannot stand some of the classics - but that does not make them bad books per se.

47deebee1
Nov 7, 2017, 3:19 am

48RidgewayGirl
Nov 7, 2017, 3:08 pm

>47 deebee1: Thank you!

49VivienneR
Nov 8, 2017, 2:10 pm

For anyone who read - or plans to read - Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, you might find this an interesting article that was published to mark Aboriginal Veteran's Day, November 8th. It is about one of the two young men who inspired Boyden's story.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/john-shiwak-inuk-war-hero-1.4391762

50RidgewayGirl
Déc 18, 2017, 6:49 pm

There are a ton of "best of" book lists at this time of the year, but here's one all about the best covers of the year.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/books/review/best-covers.html?smid=tw-n...

51lilisin
Déc 18, 2017, 11:42 pm

>50 RidgewayGirl:

I liked these covers a lot, thank you.