Here’s a neat list maintained by a small lending library in Maine. It lists famous people and their favorite book(s). Some of the people are even quoted and expound as to why they picked what they did.
I’ve always wondered what you could learn about somebody if you could study their TBR pile, but this is pretty fun too. Some folks picked some heavy stuff, but I was surprised by a few such as General Colin Powell’s first pick.
A few weeks ago a very colorful and fun article made the rounds on many blogs. Schott’s NY Times article was about a self-confessed “book abuser” and sparked many create comments and posts across the blogosphere. Well know, folks are taking him to task about the similarities between his article and an essay that appears in Anne Fadiman’s book “Ex Libris.”
Here’s an informative post about it that I found via Books, Inq.
It’s a shame. Looks like the rash of plagerism by professionals over the past couple of years will keep eveyone under the microscope. I mean even if Schott didn’t copy, the burden of proof will always be on him to prove otherwise and regardless of the truth, his name has a smudge on it now.
You have today and tomorrow to put your name in the hat to win over at Reading Matter’s latest contest.
I pass that along because 1. it’s a fun blog to keep up with and 2. I’m a fan of this specific contest’s “subject”. You are simply to list the title of a fictionalized account of some real-world historical figure or person. I’ve always enjoyed reading these kinds of books and have added two title to my wish list, just based on comments.
By the way, if you win then you get a copy of Heather Rose’s The Butterfly Man, currently only available in Australia and New Zealand.
Here’s a neat list posted by the folks at Publisher’s Weekly; it charts the current most popular books in the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy and Sweden.
It’s pretty interesting to see how many titles are from this side of the pond. But also how many titles from over there that we all have read over here. I guess nothing is as universal as a good story.
Nut what’s with the Czech Republic’s non-fiction selections? Not even a cookbook could make the list?
