July 30, 2013 On the Shelf A Battle for Souls, and Other News By Sadie Stein “But ultimately, I decided that the committees overseeing these sorts of things (editorial, sales, marketing) would never approve this. ‘The title is hard to read,’ they would complain. ‘The book is hard to read,’ I would silently retort. ‘That’s one of its principle merits.’” A glimpse into the process of cover design. Stephen King on opening lines. The London Fire Brigade blames a 10 percent increase of handcuff-related calls on Fifty Shades of Grey. Speaking of London: “In one corner sit the tut-tutting ‘serious’ readers. In the other, flirtatious undergraduates with their iPhones and social lives. At the heart is the battle for the soul—and control—of the British Library.” Libraries team up with airports in a campaign called, appropriately enough, Books on the Fly. Here’s how it works: “Scanning a QR code, available on cards throughout the airport, sends users to a site where they can access the Kansas State Library’s eLending service. Visitors without a library card are directed to Project Gutenberg’s mobile-optimized site, where they can download titles in the public domain.”
July 29, 2013 On the Shelf Chocolate, Jerks, and Other News By Sadie Stein We all know OMG has some years on it, but, as it turns out, so do unfriend, outasight, and hang out. Some leaves, woman holding a birdcage for some reason, and seventeen other contemporary book-cover clichés. According to a study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, bookstore sales may benefit from the aroma of chocolate. “One unexpected development of becoming a writer is meeting literary heroes … Unfortunately, sometimes they turn out to be asses, or they hit on you.” [WARNING: the following is disturbing.] The frontispiece of this nineteenth-century book reads, “The leather with which this book is bound is human skin, from a soldier who died during the great Southern Rebellion.” And it is not an idle boast; rather, it’s an example of the (hopefully) lost art of anthropodermic bibliopegy. Read at your own risk.
July 26, 2013 On the Shelf Austen Ousts Darwin, and Other News By Sadie Stein Jane Austen is indeed replacing Darwin on the £10 note. Margaret Atwood has written an opera, fifteen years in development, about the poet Pauline Johnson. The letters of Roald Dahl, spanning most of his life, will be published in 2016. This map, a “chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the comings and goings of characters in the The Great Gatsby,” is lovely.
July 25, 2013 On the Shelf Wearable Books, and Other News By Sadie Stein Meet The Wizard of Jeanz. It consists of twenty-one volumes, each a chapter of The Wizard of Oz that, when unfolded, turns into an article of clothing. Designer Hiroaki Ohya says he was “disillusioned with the transitory nature of fashion … [and] struck with the permanency of books as objects that can transport ideas.” Yesterday it was book-inspired ice cream; now we have Harry Potter beer. Pilsner of Azkaban, anyone? Speaking of (well, sort of), J. K. Rowling explains how she lit on the pseudonym Robert Galbraith: a combination of Robert F. Kennedy and Ella Galbraith, her childhood alias. On spirants, those consonants which involve a continuous expulsion of breath. The bad house guests in literature.
July 24, 2013 On the Shelf This Overdue Library Book Wins, and Other News By Sadie Stein Library, Kentucky School for the Deaf. Herewith: the Man Booker Prize long list. “I just happen to love ampersands,” says David Gilbert of his decision to title his new novel & Sons. Arrested Development’s Jeffrey Tambor, as it happens, is part owner of LA’s estimable Skylight Books. Continuing with this week’s theme of overdue library books … a volume that was checked out in 1823. “I think if we add it up at our current rate of ten cents a day, it would be $6,000,” says librarian Stan Campbell.
July 23, 2013 On the Shelf Wine for Dummies, and Other News By Sadie Stein Wine for Dummies (yes, like the books) is a real thing, and will shortly be presented to any host who invites me to dinner. In case you were wondering, this summer, Bill Gates will be reading, among other things, The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger and Japan’s Dietary Transition and Its Impacts. Scrapbooks compiled by Ernest Hemingway’s mother throughout his childhood have been made available by the JFK Library. Someone has returned The Real Book About Snakes to Champaign County Library forty-one years late, with a fine in cash. Writes the conscientious borrower, “Sorry I’ve kept this book so long but I’m a really slow reader! I’ve enclosed my fine of $299.30 (41 years—2 cents a day). Once again, my apologies!!”