Citizen Reading: 17 October 2016
17 October 2016
A weekly selection of reading and book news, sometimes with completely inappropriate commentary.
A review of "the first social media photo-sharing app exclusively for book lovers," Litsy. I have no way to use apps, but they also seem to be getting a bit too specific for my tastes.
"Four life lessons I learned from reading The Girl On the Train": I enjoyed this article 100 times more than I enjoyed the book.
Booklist: Spotlight on first novels.
How curation is helping drive discovery. I got all sorts of giggles out of this article. A whole article to get around to the point that "personalized curation" might be the way to go when making your culture consumption choices. Um...like maybe talking to other humans you know and like to see what they're reading, watching, and listening to?
A book reviewer's bill of rights. Amen! I particularly enjoyed this rule: "The right to like a book by an author who is a shithead" (and particularly that the shithead they use for the example is Jonathan Franzen). Tee hee.
20 reasons why you should read literary magazines. Again, Amen! I've always kind of wondered why public libraries don't collect literary magazines more. I mean, really. I know it's not the popular thing to say these days but maybe they could buy just a few fewer copies of James Patterson, and pick up a literary magazine subscription instead?
Amazon now launching its own...grocery stores?
Agatha Christie lives on in movies, forty years after her death.
NetGalley has acquired Bookish.com. I never really know how to comment on these app/book recommendation website/publishing acquisitions stories. Mainly I just can't keep up with them all.
J.K. Rowling says the Fantastic Beasts movies will last for five installments.
What do you think about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature?
Six new literary horror collections.
Literary maps for Sherlock Holmes and Charles Dickens.
Svetlana Alexievich, writer of the superlative Voices from Chernobyl, has been shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize (formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction).
An interview with Nicholas Carr (I'm in the middle of his new book, Utopia Is Creepy).
NONFICTION BOOK NEWS
Okay, I MUST HAVE THESE BOOKS.
Learning American history through its ghost stories.
Jeffrey Kluger will write a book about the Apollo 8 space mission.
An author gives you his choice for Worst. President. Ever.
New York Times: three excellent books on long-term investing; a new biography of Hitler; a review of Tracy Kidder's new book about Paul English; Two new books about the Suez Crisis in 1956.
Oh god, more nonfiction from James Patterson.
New memoirs from "the poor white."
AND NOW: YOUR OBLIGATORY NEIL GAIMAN LINK
Neil Gaiman announces a new picture book!