In no particular order . . .
All Hallows Read
Neil Gaiman proposes that we give each other scary books during the week of Halloween. I'm in. How about you?
I propose that stories by authors like John Bellairs and Stephen King and Arthur Machen and Ramsey Campbell and M R James and Lisa Tuttle and Peter Straub and Daphne Du Maurier and Clive Barker and a hundred hundred others change hands — new books or old or second-hand, beloved books or unknown. Give someone a scary book for Hallowe'en. Make their flesh creep…
(via Galleycat)
Free Samples of the 2012 National Book Award Finalists
The winners will be announced on November 14 in New York City. For more information, and to see all of the book covers, go to the National Book Foundation's site.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 was awarded to Mo Yan
From Nobelprize.org
Mo Yan (a pseudonym for Guan Moye) was born in 1955 and grew up in Gaomi in Shandong province in north-eastern China. His parents were farmers. As a twelve-year-old during the Cultural Revolution he left school to work, first in agriculture, later in a factory. In 1976 he joined the People's Liberation Army and during this time began to study literature and write. His first short story was published in a literary journal in 1981. His breakthrough came a few years later with the novella Touming de hong luobo (1986, published in French as Le radis de cristal 1993).
The Stories Behind the “Books That Matter”
An essay series from the members of AAUP
. . . But in every publisher or editor’s career, there are books that come to mind as the ones that mattered deeply. The books that stand out because of their impact on politics or the economy, on our need for justice and social equality, on our understanding of history and culture, on our knowledge of the regional and national issues of the day—a book that changed a reader or a community or a discipline, and sometimes a book that changed its editor.
Omnivoracious shares some little-known facts about DFW
5 Things You Didn't Know About David Foster Wallace – But Should
Personally, I don't understand how you can dislike the B-52s but I'll forgive DFW just about anything.
This just makes me so darn happy
Nicholson Baker on the joy of writing on rubber with a ballpoint pen (via BoingBoing).
Go read the whole thing. It's short and wonderful and I think you'll like it.
Has anyone yet said publicly how nice it is to write on rubber with a ball point pen?
UNP blog 