MetaFilter posts tagged with Books and brokenlink

Books that never were

blahblahblah — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 20:38:21 -0800

Famous books that never existed: The Necronomicon, A First Encyclopaedia of Tlön and others by Borges, The Planet Gobblers, The Book of Counted Sorrows, S. Morgenstern's A Princess Bride (unabridged), the library of the Comte de Fortsas, and The Case of the Giant Rat of Sumatra; among others in a tradition dating back many centuries. For a fairly complete list of books that don't exist, check out the Invisible Library, which also features essays on the subject. [prev.]

Origins of meteorology

mediareport — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 21:44:55 -0800

Weathering the Weather: The Origins of Atmospheric Science A "glorious selection" of strikingly beautiful pages from classic publications about meteorology. [via plep].

3 young writers achieve acclaim years after their deaths from cancer

escorter — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 07:19:32 -0800

Although cancer got these three young writers before their books were published, their now-acclaimed work -- from children's inspirational to humorous fantasy to coming of age (book and movie) -- was brought to life by the efforts of parents or a brother or friends.

G.O.P. D.O.A.

Miyagi — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 18:25:15 -0800

G.O.P. D.O.A. , the new novel by Brooklyn-based Contemporary Press, just got denied a reprinting by St. Louis-based Plus Communications. Although they printed the first edition less than one month ago, the publisher says that their religious clients would be upset by the book's 'language' and have refused to reprint it.

I guess that is in the same spirit as Rev. Breedlove's attempt to rekindle the tradition of book burning earlier this month.

What is the future of the US stock market?

muppetboy — Fri, 14 May 2004 18:14:16 -0800

Why Stock Markets Crash : Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems. Professor Didier Sornette of UCLA has some very interesting things to say about stock markets. In his book, he explains how his "theory of cooperative herding and imitation [...] has detected the existence of a clear signature of herding in the decay of the US S&P500 index since August 2000 with high statistical significance, in the form of strong log-periodic components." Although his timing has been just a bit early, the theory, the predictions to date and the pictures are all pretty uncanny. This is easily the most interesting book on the stock market I have ever read and provides interesting and believable hypotheses about things I never imagined could have rigorous explanations. For an overview, here is an interview with the author.

Conservative Bestsellers And Liberal Bestsellers

MiguelCardoso — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 17:22:45 -0800

Forget Fiction And Non-Fiction, Bud: Is The Book Liberal Or Conservative? The National Review's bestseller list (scroll down and click) is starkly divided into "Conservative Bestsellers" and "Liberal Bestsellers". Is this a quirky innovation and deliberate provocation or just plain stupid and sad? Does such a dichotomy in fact exist? How would the literature of the world fit into such a classification? (This isn't the end of the world as we know it, is it?)

Gay Princes, Spiritual Weakness

ewkpates — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 09:29:00 -0800

Gay Princes defeat NC Parents. Parents object to library book about two gay princes, concerned because being gay "is not part of their beliefs." Presumably books which discuss other things not part of their beliefs could also be an issue. Is this a basic confusion about the purpose of a library, or is any temptation just too much temptation?

sentence pun here

serafinapekkala — Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:04:36 -0800

Man sentenced to read "To Kill A Mockingbird." For spitting at a cop and disorderly conduct, a PA man is jailed and required to read and write a report on Harper Lee's classic. What other books might be fit punishment for certain crimes? (via Obscurestore)

fantagraphics in trouble? help em out!

Peter H — Thu, 29 May 2003 08:42:12 -0800

UH OH, Fantagraphics Books in Seattle, home of chris ware, dan clowes, r. crumb, charles burns and a host of other awesome comic artists is facing desp erate times!

Best of Best of Lists

Ufez Jones — Wed, 14 May 2003 10:27:50 -0800

List of bests permits you to keep track of how much you've read, seen, or heard according to all of those fun "X Greatest X's" of all time. A recommendation feature may be soon to follow.

Mockingbird Redux

adrober — Sat, 10 May 2003 23:44:44 -0800

Unpublished Coda to Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird." Via McSweeneys.

readers

srboisvert — Tue, 11 Mar 2003 21:58:43 -0800

Top readers in America. Do you read anything other than metafilter? [via aldaily.com]

Jeff Vandermeer

inkeri — Thu, 30 Jan 2003 03:21:55 -0800

Jeff VanderMeer is not only a great author of weird sf, and a creator of the mysterious city of Ambergris, but has an alternative official site where he makes merciless fun of himself and the whole idea of author web pages. The site includes bad poetry, a secret subsite of the "webdesigner" Garry and a strange alien baby project, just for starters.....

Modern First Editions

MiguelCardoso — Mon, 25 Nov 2002 01:25:46 -0800

If You Were Rich Would You Collect Modern First Editions? Well, it's difficult to browse Christie's upcoming auction of 20th century books and manuscripts; the stock of a well-known bookseller such as Ken Lopez or even go "bargain-hunting" at Amazon without understanding their appeal... [More inside.]

acridrabbit — Wed, 04 Sep 2002 10:47:53 -0800

Elephants are people, too. A new book by Steven M. Wise, Drawing the Line, marshalls the latest research on animal cognition in arguing for legal rights for some animals, especially gorillas, chimps, elephants, and gray parrots. The author's previous book, Rattling the Cage, forcused on primates, as many researchers and animal rights activists do. After all, we share at least 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees. Other researchers are expanding our knowledge of animal cognition in the octopus, dolphins, even dogs. See also: Next of Kin and When Elephants Weep.

ed — Thu, 30 May 2002 07:51:18 -0800

In Philadelphia, the ratio of students to librarians has increased dramatically. Schools are not only cutting the jobs of librarians, but they are failing to hire those who are qualified to perform the task. Some people, including principals, seem to have the notion that school libraries are a nonessential facet of high school education or are adopting idiosynchratic measures to keep school libraries in existence. The Toronto District School Board, for example, has decided that it will only offer a full-time librarian to schools with more than 710 pupils, leaving school libraries that are closed half the time or that remain substantially inaccessible to students. Laura Bush's Foundation for America's Libraries is an admirable idea, but will merely talking about the importance of libraries hammer the point home? What does it take to convince administrative types of the importance of school libraries? Where did the idea of the school library go astray? And what can we do to ensure that a reasonably accessible school library is there for any student who needs it?

Brilliantcrank — Thu, 18 Apr 2002 07:01:36 -0800

Authors Guild seeks to stop Amazon from selling used books. It's the analog version of RIAA vs. Napster!

"Amazon's practice does damage to the publishing industry, decreasing royalty payments to authors and profits to publishers. In time, as we pointed out to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos when it first began this practice over a year ago, the financial loss to the industry could affect the quality and diversity of literature made available through booksellers. If profits suffer, publishers will cut their investments in new works, and authors facing reduced advances and royalties will have to find other ways to earn income. "

Read Jeff Bezos' email to Amazon Associate Members.

Blake — Fri, 12 Apr 2002 13:41:32 -0800

Good Riddance to Oprah's Book Club, and Her Literary Amateurism Norah Vincent says Oprah's opinion in matters of literary taste is amateurish to say the least and she presumed where she should not have, and wouldn't want her sticker on his/hers book either.
Just for fun adds People who dislike Oprah's Book Club dislike it for the same reason that they dislike Barnes & Noble. The fact that the two do a brisk business isn't accidental, and the two represent the same pernicious homogenization of American life that makes existential despair all but unavoidable.
Pompous?

Blake — Sun, 17 Mar 2002 08:16:56 -0800

Down-to-Wire Deal Heads Off Book Burn
As a follow up on This Thread, Victor Kamkin Inc., the Rockville bookstore that became a mecca for those in search of materials on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, got a three-week reprieve so the Library of Congress can look through the bookseller's 1 million-piece collection to determine what should be saved.

jonmc — Sun, 24 Feb 2002 16:25:16 -0800

During my day's aimless surfing I was feeling a mite wistful, and it did my heart a load of good to stumble on the internet home of Funny Face mugs. I also found the Mr. Men and Little Miss Club. Both of these bits of pop culture were objects of devotion to me as a tyke. Looking at the sweet simplicity of the products today, it amazes me how easy it was to invest plastic mugs and simple line drawings with meaning and personality. I wish there was a place for them in today's Kiddie Kulture which seems to be about filling in all the blanks before the kids get to use there imaginations.

kirkaracha — Sat, 02 Feb 2002 15:12:52 -0800

Alexandre Dumas on film This AP/CNN article says Dumas’ books make good movies, but aren’t being read as much as they used to be. Do the changes the movies make improve the books, or would more faithful adaptations be better?

sudama — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 08:16:54 -0800

projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE projet is a collection of independently-produced books and zines traveling and exhibiting across North America in a vintage Airstream trailer. The project is accepting submissions for the 2002 tour.

jacknose — Mon, 14 Jan 2002 09:06:42 -0800

Mea sorta culpa. Let the hunt begin. First, Stephen Ambrose was accused of plagiarizing one book, and then another. After he apologized and challenged "critics to find other unquoted borrowings," they promptly did. It looks like Ambrose is being outed by his fellow historians, or maybe The Sins of Stephen Ambrose are coming back to haunt him. (BTW, in the print community, plagiarizing is like double-posting. This post happens to be an e-post-ilogue)

hellinskira — Fri, 30 Nov 2001 13:23:36 -0800

I realized all this when I worked in a bookstore for a year, but it still makes me sad. Who do you think is writing the classics of tomorrow today?

Ms Snit — Sun, 11 Nov 2001 05:48:57 -0800

As a youngen, I was very much enamored with Ken Kesey's questioning soul and his flare for the wild. His novels provided much comfort as I tried to navigate my way through those conforming years we all know as high school. May he RIP.