I am so, so late to the party on this one, but nonetheless: I loved John Hodgman on Jon Stewart. I loved (still love) him as the stodgy PC to Justin Long’s faux-cool Mac. (Nobody else thinks Long is Trying Too Hard?) But I couldn’t get more than a few pages through The Areas of [...]
Great piece in the New York Review of Books about blogs. We, you and I, are not its intended audience—if we were, the author Sarah Boxer would not have to define “blog,” “LOL,” “WTF.” Yet this is interesting reading: Bloggers assume that if you’re reading them, you’re one of their friends, or at least in [...]
Yesterday I mentioned The Girl’s Guide to Kicking Your Career Into Gear. I mentioned that though I can’t vouch for the book, I can totally vouch for the authors. Here’s the opposite situation: a book that will change your life, though I don’t think I like the author very much. Jobs That Don’t Suck is [...]
On Tuesday I attended a career seminar/book signing held by Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio, author of the The Girls Guide to Business series. Their latest book, The Girl’s Guide to Kicking Your Career Into Gear (yes, their series doesn’t have an apostrophe but the book titles do–go figure) is about how to ask for [...]
I get so much traffic to my post on Kanthapura and it seems most people are looking for Cliff’s Notes or something. Then I found this post by Manu Saxena, a plot summary of the book, of sorts: The story, at the beginning, is very boring. That sort of sets the tone for the entire book. The language [...]
Just kidding. He’s still in prison. (Huh? Catch up here.) But a commenter pointed me toward this recent video of Attila in prison speaking with author Julian Rubinstein. (Chris on viewing the video: “This guy is all over the place! I think we share a brain type.”) So other than the fact that I’m apparently [...]
This week’s tool helps writers get what they arguably need most (next to a pen and notebook): more books. I have a problem with books, and Friends of the Library 25-cent sales, and yard sales and used book stores. My problem is that I have too many of them. So clearly I need Paperbackswap.com the [...]
It would be tough to dislike this book.True, it starts slowly–after the prologue, where we meet our hero Attila Ambrus as he is breaking out of Hungarian prison, we are treated to slightly less interesting fare–Attila growing up, Attila going to juvie, Attila sneaking into Hungary by hitching a train–okay, that part isn’t bad. But [...]
I just finished Water for Elephants last week. This is the New York Times bestseller, the one that looks like it should have an “Oprah’s Book Club” ribbon printed on the front. In short, the kind of book I try to stay away from. (So I’m a book snob. Sue me.) Yet on a whim [...]
New York Magazine links to a Cleveland Scene piece about trying to track down the elusive Bill Watterson, the Calvin and Hobbes creator who virtually disappeared from public life after retiring from his comic strip. Also included is a biography of Watterson. I for one never knew all this about him. I knew the guy [...]