Borders files for bankruptcy, both in the US and in Australia. Which reminds me – if you can, help the bookshop around ABC Amsterdam’s corner!
- Next to “twuffing“, my new favorite word is “lendling”. A future division of libraries? Just remember that your favorite ebooks can also be found on our shelves.
Awards! There are Grammys for audio books (as in “Spoken Word” albums), and this year they went to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth, read by, among others, Jon Stewart, and Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies read by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton (both books/albums on order!). The Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize went to Artichoke Hearts by Sita Brahmachari. Thank you marketing departent for the link. The William E. Colby Award (for military fiction or non-fiction) was given to Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. The Man Booker Foundation is honoring the late Beryl Bainbridge with a posthumous Booker prize. You can vote for your favorite shortlisted Bainbridge book here. And Powell’s Books customer favorite awards, the Puddly Awards, were handed out to The Help by Katherine Stockett (Fiction) and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Nonfiction).
- Double nostalgia: play the Great Gatsby game, Nintendo 8-bit style.
“I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled ’science fiction’ ever since, and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal.” Fifteen things Kurt Vonnegut said better than anyone else, according to avclub.com.
- A very tardy mention of BBC2 program Faulks on Fiction (2 episodes still to air, on Saturdays – Martin Amis has already made a considerable stir in it). I shall stand in the corner with the dunce hat on now. Perhaps I can make amends by telling you of upcoming literary highlights on the BBC? Thank you Simone for the note; she also spotted the odd-man-out in this year’s Romantic Novel of the Year nominees.
- Lists! The Guardian featured on-trend John Stammers’s Top 10 Love Poems. In keeping with the love-theme (it was, after all, Valentine’s day on Monday), Flavorwire highlighted the Best Literary Sex Scenes Not Penned By A Great Male Novelist (lousy title, but some great writing). Here are also Dan Vyleta’s Top 10 Books in Second Languages (although he calls them “exophonic authors”, which is rather more lovely).
- Quiz! The Guardian has a Brooklyn-themed literary quiz. I scored a paltry 4 out of 10, sigh.
R. I. P. Children’s book writer Brian Jacques died on February 5th, aged 71. You can read obituaries here and here. The Rogue Crew, the 23rd installment of his popular Redwall series, will be published in May.
- And finally, simply because it’s sooooooo pretty, the Streamlined Art Deco Keyboard. Makes me want to write a steampunk novel Right. Now.