Roger Ebert has discovered the Macmillan Reader's Edition of
The Great Gatsby and he hates it:
"This is an obscenity." Macmillan Reader's Editions are
geared to ESL students. Ebert thinks that's a really bad idea: "Why not have ESL learners begin with Young Adult novels? Why not write books with a simplified vocabulary? Why eviscerate Fitzgerald?"
[more inside]
posted by CCBC
on Jul 8, 2011 -
247 comments
Last August (2009), the "ephemeral artists" of
Nothing Happened Here staged a
mobile public reading event,
meandering around the town of San Luis Obispo, CA with
The Reading Chair, and a group of folks reading
a variety of stories, poems and tales. The group has planned
Typing in Public to take place tomorrow (May 15, 2010), in the same little town. The event is primarily focused on
people writing on typewriters around town, but people can also share comments via
Twitter,
Flickr, or texting the event coordinators. To spark some inspiration, the group has received submissions from a variety of people, including
Gerald Casale for
Devo,
Paul Frommer writing in
Na'vi (with translation to English),
Dr. James J. Duderstadt, President Emeritus, University Professor of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, writing on
the library as the poster child of the it revolution, and plenty more.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on May 14, 2010 -
8 comments
It’s only natural that if you wish to present yourself as a well-read person, a certain degree of complete bullshit is required. There’s no shame in lying about what you’ve read. There’s only shame in getting caught. Then you look like a doofus, and an illiterate one at that... How to lie about books.
posted by Artw
on May 28, 2009 -
73 comments
Pages Unbound is a portal for serialized web novels, similar to web comic portals such as
Buzz Comix and
Top Web Comics, if not nearly as fancy. It is a new project by
Tales of MU author
Alexandra Erin. Note: Tales of MU and some of the novels found on Pages Unbound may be NSFW, as they contain explicit material of various sorts. MU, specifically, is concerned with LGBT issues and racism in a fantasy setting.
posted by Caduceus
on Dec 18, 2007 -
9 comments
"Welcome to the Archive of the Now. The Archive of the Now is an online and print repository of recordings, printed texts and manuscripts, focussing on innovative contemporary poetry being written or performed in Britain. It is part of the Brunel Centre for Contemporary Writing, at Brunel University in west London, UK. At present, the Archive consists of readings by 65 UK-based poets. This number will continue to grow, and includes newly commissioned, recently acquired and historical recordings."
posted by jayder
on Oct 22, 2006 -
5 comments
KidPub is an enchanting little website that I rediscovered after rediscovering a list of my circa-1995 bookmarks. (And it looks today almost exactly like it did then -- you can even see a bit of Siegel influence) KidPub is a place for children to post their stories, poems, etc. Most of the authors seem to be in the 9- to 12-year-old age range, and the stories have titles like "
The Mystery of the Circus Clown" and "
Crazy School". A cute site to remind you of the importance of reading and writing for children.
posted by oissubke
on Nov 11, 2002 -
9 comments
Tests show U.S. children lag behind A careful reading of this page reveals that for many of America's schools, children lag behind some 16 other countries in math and in science. However: not all states contributred data. But the important thing is that a few schools and areas were right up there with the best in the world.
Perhaps then we ought to study those that work instead of bashing our educational system in general.
posted by Postroad
on Apr 4, 2001 -
18 comments
