Dec 23, 2011

Friday Round-Up

Each week I round-up all the (mostly book-related) articles/blog posts/book reviews/websites/videos that entertained me during the week. Enjoy!

Articles

IndieBound Reader App!

My heart cries with Egypt: "Thousands of Rare Books, Journals, Writings Burned at Institute d'Egypt In Cairo"

My favorite type of list: "The Most Overrated Books of 2011"
My second favorite type of list: "The Most Overlooked Books of 2011"

David Foster Wallace showcases his early writing talents in a response to a fellow Amherst College student's Letter to the Editor back in the 80s: "Stick Them In Your Ear"

Suggested Chanukah romance novel titles, to compete with the onslaught of Christmas romance novel titles (sadly none of these actually exist): "Love Among the Latkes"

"Favourite covers of 2011" post from The Casual Optimist.

Book Fetish gift guide on BookRiot - what to get the booklover in your life. I'm going to ask the Chanukah armadillo for this literary pin-up calendar.

Cartography

Okay, okay, I know - two weeks in a row of something not entirely book related, but I think I should just add "cartography" to the list of "other" things that might be mentioned on this blog and be done with it.

Matador has a great article featuring this blog that features amazing maps. That is all.

Quizzes

Thanks to Molly over at Adventures of a Blonde Librarian for recommending this quiz: Famous Female Heroines (in children's books). I got 9 out of 10, having never read the final book on the quiz. Obviously now I'll have to pick up some Robin McKinley.

Which Austen Heroine Are You?


Videos


Book TV - Top Nonfiction Authors and Books - premiers on C-Span this Saturday.

My personal favorite book trailer of the week.



Also, both of these things are not like the other - book reviews.



Websites

ReadIt1st is a website where you can sign up to receive newsletters about what movies coming out are adaptations of books. You can pledge to read the book first or read the book whenever you want, but either way, read the book and get the news about the movies.

BookSneeze is a way for bloggers to receive free books in exchange for a book review. While not for everyone, it IS another way to get some free books. The catch is you have to blog your review, whether good or bad, stating that you received it from the publisher, and you have to post it on a commercial site, and send these links back to BookSneeze. Lots of Christian/Religion/Spirituality-focused books, just FYI.

Ryan Gosling Works in Publishing

Ryan Gosling Likes Libraries

Ryan Gosling Reads YA

For New Yorkers: NewYorkBoundBooks.com is a new website dedicated to bringing you "all things New York for readers and writers". I'm not entirely sure what that means, but it's the online offshoot of the former brisk & mortar in Rockefeller Center, as well as the online stomping grounds of Barbara Cohen, former owner & operator of said bricks & mortar.

The English Spelling Society. I want to be supportive, but reading over the site, I'm more than a little confused what exactly it, ya know, does. Maybe it's just me, but I was actually a little put off by its aggressive, almost anti-English, tone. Or perhaps I was oddly sensitive the day I discovered it.

1 comment:

  1. I love reading your weekly roundups :) The fire in Egypt is a travesty...I was struck by the quote about how a huge part of history has been destroyed...and I'm constantly amazed how human beings seem to destroy their own worlds almost as quickly as they are built. Very sad.
    All I can say about the literary calendar is "Oh my" ;)

    ReplyDelete

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