*Are grocery stores the new libraries? In some towns, yes.
*Just when it seemed the media circus surrounding Amanda Cox couldn't get any more ridiculous, then came the news that a book featuring her views on spirituality, 9/11 and her poetry will be hitting stores later this year. Written by Rocco Girlanda, an Italian lawmaker who befriended the woman after her imprisonment for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, it is the first step to what Knox hopes is a post-prison career of writing.
*Here's some vintage TV goodness. University of Kansas professor James Gunn interviewed Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling for his series "Science Fiction in Literature," but due to legal issues, the interview never aired. Now the never-seen footage is on YouTube.
*Seems like there's a graphic novel for everything nowadays - here's an interview with Catherine Anyago, the woman who just turned Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness into one. "I wanted to draw the reader in with seductive imagery," she explains, "and then show them that even in the most beautiful of settings, terrible things can happen."
*What do Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and Kurt Vonnegut all have in common? (Apart from being some of the greatest male writers of modern day, of course.) They all have memorial libraries - at least, Vonnegut almost does. His is set to open this autumn in downtown Indianapolis. The part library, part museum will include displays of first editions of his work, his Purple Heart, a replica of his writing studio and, perhaps most heartening (or disheartening, depending on which way you look at it) to aspiring writers, some of his rejection letters. "We have boxes of rejection letters, letters saying 'You have no talent and we suggest you give up writing,'" Vonnegut's eldest daughter Edie said.
*It's official - John Cusack announced he will played Edgar Allan Poe in upcoming film The Raven. Director John McTeigue describes the story thusly: "There's basically a serial killer loose in 1850s Baltimore, and he's using Poe's stories as his methodology, so then he leaves clues at each murder and says it's up to Poe to find him before he kills (again)." How very Se7en it sounds.
*Has the digital print industry made the ultimate coup? Remarks by Nigel Portwood, chief executive of the Oxford University Press, sent shockwaves through the literary world after he was asked if the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary would be appearing in print. "I don't think so." The Press hurriedly responded to the resulting outcry with a statement that no plans have been formalized concerning the next edition's release, which likely will not take place for at least another decade.
3 comments
Want to know why Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty of murder?
The English translation of the Massei report can be downloaded from here:
http://www.perugiamurderfile.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=259
did you see this article on the bbc news website about libraries?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/willgompertz/2010/08/what_next_for_the_local_librar.html
I hadn't seen that - thanks! It's a good read.
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