Oooh, how exciting is that Patrick Rothfuss announcement, eh? ^^ I almost feel bad posting the Bookbits after it…
- Let’s start off with a memorable typo and a three-armed woman. I love my Romance section!
- Always wanted to read the classics, but never had any time? Try Book-A-Minute Classics. Thanks, Simone, for the link; and Hayley, here’s the link for Jane Eyre.
- Speaking of classics, flavorwire.com showcases some beautiful vintage dust jackets. They also have the 20 Most Iconic Book Covers Ever.
- Lists! Flavorwire.com again: 10 online alterna-dictionaries. Although the Music Dictionary’s sample is missing – and now I’m dying to know what the word is, since the definition is there (“In the repertory of the troubadours and Trouvères, a song dealing with a lover’s morning departure from his beloved after an illicit tryst”). Jay McInerney picks 5 Essential New York Novels on thebrowser.com. Also, Doubleday Dashboard lists 11 literary holidays we should all know and observe (next one, Hobbit Day, is on Sept. 22nd)(we just missed Roald Dahl Day). The Guardian lists 10 master spy novels, in honor of the film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
- Speaking of Roald Dahl… Here’s the Guardian quiz on him (I scored 9/10!). And there’s uproar over the Dahl family’s Save the Hut campaign – Roald Dahl’s writing hut has fallen into disrepair, and the family hopes to raise the funds to recreate it at the Roald Dahl Museum. I must say I share the skepticism; surely they have enough royalties coming in that the hut didn’t even need to fall into disrepair? Or am I being economically naive, as usual? The Independent, meanwhile, has a slideshow of other famous literary sheds.
- Awards! The Mind Book of the Year, for books on mental health issues, went to Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me by Bobby Baker.
Interview! Well, the Guardian has a Q&A, in any case, with Booker shortlisted author A. D. Miller. Who has rather more to say than number 2 in the series, Sebastian Faulks. For those of you warming up for NaNoWriMo, A. L. Kennedy (of Day and The Blue Book fame) talks about writing.
- And finally, Michel Houellebecq is M.I.A. (link goes to an article in Dutch), although his friends say tout va bien. Still, it would have been well-mannered to inform, for example, the Borderkitchen crew in person, non?