Woot! Two bits in two weeks. Let’s hope it’s a continuing trend. 
A study shows that one in six children fails to read books because of all the texting, emailing and Facebook/Twittering they’re doing. To be fair, I think the same can be said for adults. The true question is: are they reading any less because of it? In the same vein, another study shows that bookworms tend to be “better at both relationships with others and understanding of the world in general” than those who don’t read – when they can get their noses out of their novels, of course. ^^
- Lists! Cosmic Log has 10 summery science books, for those of you that still have vacation left to them. And for UK football fans, here’s the Guardian’s Top 10 Footie Fictions.
- Neil Gaiman and HBO are due to partner up for a TV series of American Gods. (This might be old news, though. At least, the rumours about it are old.)
Awards! The Hugo Awards have been handed out! The Best Novel winner is Connie Willis for her interconnected books Blackout / All Clear. See the entire list of Hugo winners here. The James Tait Black Memorial awards (the oldest literary awards in the UK) were handed out to Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China (a.k.a. Pearl Buck in China: Journey to the Good Earth) by Hilary Spurling (Biography) and The Lotus Eaters by Tatjani Soli (Fiction).
- Here’s hope for all you NaNoNovelists: Erin Morgenstern landed a big contract for her debut The Night Circus after writing the first draft during NaNoWriMo 2005 – but she kept working at her idea, despite 30 rejection letters, and you can read her work next month! Only 2 months left until this year’s novel-writing madness… Also, I’ve heard rumours about a lovely upcoming ABC action involving NaNoWriMo novels (from writers here in the Netherlands) and our EBMs, but I’ll just give you this morsel of gossip and leave it at that until we have everything confirmed and double-checked and stuff. How mean am I, eh? ^^
Tags: awards, biography, Bookbits, bookworms are better than anyone else, Fiction, gossip, HBO, lists, NaNoWriMo, novels vs. texting, Science, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Sports