Once more, been a while since I have done one of these. I will admit that working on the "Signs the economy is bad" series often takes more time. In addition, for that series, stories are plentiful, so it is easy to take more time in picking out which stories to highlight. For the "Reading about the reading life" series, the stories are not as time sensitive; I tend to pick longer pieces of possible interest or trivia and other not so common things. Those are a bit harder to find. Anyways, thanks to my four readers for staying tuned.
On a final note before we get to the stories, I am moving this feature to appear on Sundays. My main posting day for this blog is on Fridays, so I want to avoid this series crowded up with "Signs the economy is bad," which I also do on Fridays and/or with other reviews. Besides, to be honest, Sunday is a better day for "Reading about the reading life" with a nice cup of your favorite hot beverage or glass with your favorite cold one, or perhaps a spirit or two.
So, without further ado:
- Over in India, the booksellers of a specific town have been there for years selling used textbooks and second hand books to college students and others in small book stalls that line up the street. Now their living may be at risk with the advent of things like e-books and PDF's. Story via The Hindu (India).
- Via ReMezcla, a profile for 5 Latino-run bookstores in New York. Keep in mind these are independently owned stores. As the author writes, "These businesses not only have books that reflect our communities, they’re also finding ways to speak to our needs."
- This story was a little bit different than the usual fare here. Sure, we see a lot of stories ranking books on this or that. Celebrity cookbooks are no exception. However, this ranking ranks celebrity cookbooks by how many animals they kill in order to prepare the recipes in the books. Via Vox. Yep, find out how many cute and not so cute animals need to be killed so you can prepare some fancy recipe by the likes of Paula Deen, Rachel Ray, Gordon Ramsay, and more. The ranking was done in academic paper, so this is serious stuff. (Here is the link to the actual academic article, which is pay walled. If your library does not have access, you can likely get it via ILL. The link can get you the citation to put in a request).
- On a serious issue, here in the United States at least, "The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining" (quoted in this piece out of Vulture). I've often said that I would like to learn at least three to five more languages (I am already fully bilingual, and have a smattering of French I could step up with effort) so I could read some of the world's books in their original languages. I do read in translation when I can, but as the article points out, the U.S. lags hopeless behind when it comes to getting translated works from anywhere. Plus, do not even get me started on fact a significant part of U.S. population speaks and reads in Spanish, and you can't even find a single decent place to buy books in Spanish in the U.S. that is not isolated, a pain to find if it even exists, so on.
- Meanwhile, in a town called Phoenixville, two guys are doing something totally insane. They are opening a new independent bookstore in the age of Amazon. Story via The Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA). I hope they succeed. A good independent bookstore is always a good thing.
- In what can only be described as a First World Problem, some essay writer kind of whines when they quoted their own daughter in an essay, without asking, and now the daughter flat out tells her "don't you quote me anymore." Story via LitHub. This could have been avoided if mommy would stop making excuses such as "my impulse is to write about those toddlers, about her mothering, and about the memories that rise up" and instead would mind her own business, or at least ask for effing permission before using someone else's material. I think we can safely label mom's behavior as fuckery.
- Speaking of fuckery, Book Riot has a piece on the bad behavior of book dealers who go into used book sales, often small charity used book sales, who basically act like rude vultures making the place unpleasant for locals and other more normal buyers. Even here in small Berea, when the public library has their Friends of the Library Book Sale, you see one or two of these mofos taking up space and preventing others from looking over the books or such. Their scanners are now on their cellphones (an app) but they are still just as obnoxious. If I see one too many of them, I just leave. Book sale folks do need to clamp down on this behavior. I am not saying ban them, but certain rules of courtesy and behavior need to be enforced.
- This article asks what relationship Shakespeare had with books? We know that in his plays he drew from a very broad variety of sources. However, he never actually did things like refer to books in his will (books would have been very valuable at the time, so did he own any?) nor any of his contemporaries describe him having books. Via Lapham's Quarterly.
- Book and product reviews at times can get mean, contentious, so on. However, there is one area where reviews are often very pleasant and mellow. We are talking about marijuana reviewers, especially now that many places have legalized its recreational and/or medical use. Story via LitHub.
- Some of my readers may know that I read erotica. I am pretty open minded in what I read, so yes, I may read some "strange" or unusual piece now and then. I've never reviewed the more "weird" things I've read here though I am reconsidering that stance. So while I think about it, here is the story of a guy who went on a quest to find Amazon's worst erotica. Story via VICE. By the way, if you want to replicate the quest, often a lot of that worst erotica (and some good ones too) can be had for free (as in really free, not "free with Kindle Unlimited" free bullshit) if you are willing to look. I know I have a few sitting in my Kindle, so stay tuned, maybe a few new reviews.
- On an uplifting story, some librarians are working to encourage more reading in children. Very often you may find yourself stuck in some place without a book. It can be worse for children being stuck in a place without a book, like a laundromat. If you've ever been to a laundromat, the dead time while you wait for your laundry can be hard. Plus if you have children in tow, even harder. So these librarians seek to make it easier and get kids to read more by bringing books to the laundromat. Via Mother Jones. Now this is a great idea. You know, if the whole academic librarian gig does not work out, I'd be willing to go read books to children in a laundromat.
This week we have a couple of items in Spanish I found interesting:
- Libropatas has a nice piece on bookstores in Spain 150 years ago.
- Libropatas also takes a look back at the by now classic Espasa encyclopedia, which at one point it was claimed if it was not in the Espasa, it did not exist. Time has sure flown, and now we have things like the Internet, Google, and if you need an encyclopedia, I suppose Wikipedia would do. I have memories of seeing Espasa volumes here or there when growing up along with other Spanish language encyclopedias put out by companies like Salvat (Wikipedia of all places has a very short entry on that Salvat encyclopedia). I could probably write a blog post/piece on memories of encyclopedias I used to have growing up at home and in my school to do school work. Anyhow, getting back to Espasa, the last time I saw a full set was at a previous workplace, and they were getting ready to weed it out. Much like today libraries weed out old editions of Britannica, old tomes of Espasa often get to go unless you are in a large research library with space and justification to keep a work like an old Espasa set or say a 10th edition of Britannica. Having said that, reading old editions of Espasa, much like Britannica's 10th edition (I am trying to come up with a close comparison point for my English reading friends) is quite a literary experience if you are willing to do the reading. At one point I was. I used to read the encyclopedia I had in my room as a kid back in the day. Not necessarily cover to cover, but reading an entry here or there. Again, something I could write about some other time.
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