My way or...

Via Libraryland

Banned Books Week

U.S. Requests to Remove Books from Libraries, 2007-2009 Libraryland

Banned Books Week

Banned Books and Authors:

'We believe attempts to censor ideas to which we have access--whether in books, magazines, plays, works of art, television, movies or song--are not simply isolated instances of harassment by diverse special-interest groups. Rather they are part of a growing pattern of increasing intolerance which is changing the fabric of America.

'Censorship cannot eliminate evil. It can only kill freedom. We believe Americns have the right to buy, stores have the right to sell, authors have the right to write and publishers have the right to publish Constitutionally-protected material. Period.'

Via

The Most Controversial Magazine Covers of All Time

Webdesigner Depot

Through Beatnik Eyeballs

Via Mark's Scrapbook of Oddities & Treasures.

Scans from Frolicsome Flowers

Scans from Frolicsome Flowers - They See the Wonderful 'Rajah Rug,' story and illustrations by T. Benjamin Faucett (New York: A. L. Burt Company, 1924).

Via "A Journey Round My Skull "

25 best book to film adaptations

25 films that made it from the book shelf to the box office with credibility intact."

Amish Romance Novels Provide Stolen Kisses, But Not “Women’s Rights”

Meet the hottest new women’s fiction subgenre: the Amish romance novel. Seeing as “the church has traditionally viewed fiction as distracting and deceitful,” the Wall Street Journal reports, Amish romances are largely written by non-Amish women, for non-Amish women. These so-called “bonnet books,” essentially, are romance novels for modern women who want to live vicariously through an Amish character’s modest romantic transgression against her religious community.

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Vintage book illustration

Vintage book illustration

Hump-Day found poem

Judith Fitzgerald

2 David Adams Richardz ;)

God, realizing
That stone tablets are so B.C.,
Decides to text
The Ten Commandments:

1. no1 b4 me. srsly.
2. dnt wrshp pix/idols
3. no omgs
4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)
5. pos ok - ur m&d r cool
6. dnt kill ppl
7. :-X only w/ m8
8. dnt steal
9. dnt lie re: bf
10. dnt ogle ur bf's m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.

ttyl, JHWH (bff!)
ps. wwjd?

From The Globe and Mail's In Other Words
h/t to my friend Matt

What We Talk About When We Talk About Book Covers

I asked Peter Buchanan-Smith to take on the redesign of Raymond Carver’s backlist for the 25th anniversary of Vintage Contemporaries. He came up with the perfect idea: using the stunning and luminous, suburban night photography of Todd Hido for the covers.

Some of my books

My books - a set on Flickr

Here is a small sample of my library. My life consists of trying to abide by the 'one book in, one book out rule'. So far I'm not succeeding.
I have more books than I'll ever read in this lifetime so why do I keep buying more? And when I want a particular one I can never find it. I keep telling myself that this addiction is more benign than most but if I ever have to move I'll be kicking my own ass. Via Nag on the Lake

The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham

In 1954, shortly after his 80th birthday, William Somerset Maugham was shown the in-house abattoir of a Swiss clinic in Vevey and then injected with the minced foetus of a freshly slaughtered sheep by means of a large horse-syringe into his buttocks. Other patients who had sought to recapture their youth in this manner were: Charlie Chaplin, Noël Coward, Thomas Mann and Pope Pius XII.

Read more at 3quarksdaily

On This Day - Leslie McFarlane Died

On This Day - Sept. 6, 1977 - CBC Archives: "To young detectives worldwide, he was known under the pseudonyms Carolyn Keene, Roy Rockwood and most famously Franklin W. Dixon author of The Hardy Boys series. Author Leslie McFarlane, who passed away on September 6, 1977, was one of the most successful Canadian writers of all time. Working for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, he penned 21 volumes of The Hardy Boys, initiated The Dana Girls series and wrote seven Dave Fearless novels. In this interview with CBC Radio's Peter Gzowski, he discusses his career as Canada's best-selling author."

Vonnegut explains drama

Via Nag on the Lake

Lovely

Libraryland - retropop: (via tiptop)

The Ultimate Guide to Modern Writers

Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Experience

It is no secret that we live in the Golden Age of Fantastic Literature.

With more books published in the genre than ever, plus an ever-increasing availability of obscure titles on the internet, a dedicated fan of science fiction and fantasy literature might think he died and went to heaven.

Not only are the pulp masterpieces of the 30's and 40's easily acquired (for the most part), but the whole history of the genre can be sampled and read in any order, and enjoyed as thoroughly as one likes - and on top of that more than 3,000 new books are published every year, with at least a hundred of utmost quality by new and promising writers.