The most peculiar things happen when one’s inalienable right to internet access is denied, as mine was for the past days while in (whisper it) Tehran. Not only did someone comment on a post here, thereby dispelling fears that this site’s commenting system was ill-installed, but that someone happens to be a someone who is [...]
This week’s prize goes to Joseph Jenkins for The Humanure Handbook This is marked at $16.49. No, that’s the amount you have to pay.
We know how bibliophiles are a little compulsive – as in obsessive compulsive – so Tim Spalding’s library project is a curse. Library Thing is a social cataloguing experience; essentially, it allows the average compulsive amongst us to catalogue our most noble of extravagances and, what’s more, with its built-in cross-referencing tool, lets OCDs / [...]
Dubya-Emdee [dub' -yuh -em -dee] n. an imaginary threat, upon which is based an extreme action. Susan Henderson, writing in McSweeney’s The Future Dictionary of America.
I’m going to Hell anyway, so this should merely accelerate the process. My first nomination for the newly inaugurated “Dumb Book Concept of the Week” award goes to Don Colbert (and his agent) for The What Would Jesus Eat Cookbook. Don, if you’re looking to corner the lucrative Far Right Christian Fundamentalist reading market, you’re [...]
has started quite a racket over at The Believer: a monthly column startlingly entitled “STUFF I’VE BEEN READING”. Now, I like Nick – despite his Gooner inclination – and quite a bit since he decided to jump inside my head and take notes of what was going on in there. The resultant book, High Fidelity, [...]
if your house was burning down (or caught in a hurricane or other Natural disaster), which book would you take with you? This is an oft-asked question, and an erroneous one. For one, reproduction – and reproducibility – culls this inquisitiveness: every single book is replaceable. The contemporary world of the bibliophile is without loss; [...]
Thomas Asbridge’s profile as a new, upcoming popular historian with a purpose was already significant before his appearance – opposite Tony Robinson – on a programme debunking that Dan Brown book. His acadmic standing is founded upon his timely The First Crusade: a new history; “timely” as it is part of a new wave of [...]
A couple of quick ones. First, isn’t that horrendous Dan Brown “book” an idiot’s idiotic version of Umberto Eco’s The name of the rose? Also, do you really want to advertise your lack of discernment by owning a copy? “So, why bother with such a close reading of a worthless novel?” See “Dismantling The Da [...]
Sequels – and new editions – usually signal the end of scholarship: the new edition of Wolin’s Politics & Vision detracts from the urgency of the original. What of Harold Berman’s Law & Revolution II? Victor M. Muñiz-Fraticelli has prepared a review here.
