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Messages 22-21 deleted by topic administrator between 02-16-2007 12:56 PM and 08-04-2006 02:13 PM |
Bookninja  11-28-2005
12:28 PM ET (US)
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Here come the lists
A bucketful of writers offer up their best of the years.
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Bookninja 08-05-2005
07:04 AM ET (US)
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In related news: what are the famous people reading?
The Observer asks a clutch of famous and quasi-famous people what they are reading. Highlights include Franzen gives n+1 (a great journal) the courtesy of a reach around, Harold Bloom taking the opportunity to plug three of his own books, and the fact that Heather Hunter can spell, much less read at all.
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Bookninja 06-09-2005
07:06 AM ET (US)
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Harmful books
In response to the US conservative list of the most harmful books of the last century, an editorial at Toronto's eye magazine comes up with it's own list.
The net result of all this harm: labour unions, welfare states, female doctors and lawyers, increased acceptance of homosexuality and a history guided more by modern science than thousand-year-old religious doctrine.
Naturally, we think these are all good things, because our definition of harm is more objective: we would never drive cars off cliffs, take bubble baths with electric appliances, or call Shaquille O'Neal a "punk-ass bitch," because we know these things would certainly result in our deaths. As such, our list of Most Harmful Books would include titles that actually inspired or resulted in grievous harm of some kind.
Some brave choices in there (must have been written by Bert Archer). Can't wait to see the letter bag. (Check out their summer reading list here.)
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anne f walker
06-01-2005
10:01 PM ET (US)
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The Kinsey Report? Fuck! Or I guess, more accurately, only fuck with appropriate heteronormativities and positions and frequency. Holy Fuck Batpeople! that's a scary list! Edited 06-01-2005 10:05 PM
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Tom
06-01-2005
06:06 PM ET (US)
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To their credit, they did have a link to Amazon for each of the top ten books
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cfg 06-01-2005
02:16 PM ET (US)
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This list (and I include the honourable mentions here too) reads like a partial who's who of important thinkers this century. If some of these were also charismatic fanatics who were responsible for massive human atrocities, then all the more important not to forget the twisted path of logic that led them there.
Poet and philosopher George Santayana's 'those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it' is often cited in connection with Auschwitz and Dachau, as a matter of fact.
Anyone else note the panel of all-American judges?
On another note, I'd love to write a book that gets on a most-dangerous list.
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killer
06-01-2005
01:44 PM ET (US)
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I'm surprised, actually, that this group of right-headed nutbars didn't feel the need to list the Koran.
One of the judges is Phyllis Schlafly, President of Eagle Forum, and famous for her anti-feminism, anti-ERA agitation.
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Bookninja 06-01-2005
12:35 PM ET (US)
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Harmful if swallowedI find this article harmful but who am I? The top ten most harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries decided by a panel of...well, who am I? Should these books be muzzled or put down? You be the judge. Personally, I'd like a mite more information. Why are these books harmful? Do they bite? Are they poisonous if eaten? Please. HomeEdited 06-01-2005 12:36 PM
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Bookninja 06-01-2005
06:51 AM ET (US)
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And I wonder how many women these guys are reading
The newsman should be the thinking man, right?
They both already have more books than they know what to do with. "I'm afraid I find it very difficult to part with a book," Snow says. "I've kept more or less everything I have ever read." Recently, he paid £1,000 at auction for a collection of every work of poetry Faber has ever published. "I just couldn't bear to see it go," he says. "But I've never been able to take them out of their boxes. I've got nowhere to put them. They're in my office, actually. My office is full of poetry." Marr, by contrast, says he throws away "all fiction that I know I will never read again ... Life is just too short." He only keeps "the really good stuff". "So what is the really good stuff?" Snow asks. "Proust!" replies Marr.
Actually, that was a pretty good deal. I'd part with £1,000 for that box.
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Bookninja 12-07-2004
10:52 PM ET (US)
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Remember that Aussie favourite books thing?
Tolkien won it, right? Well, now a salmon of doubt has been cast over the whole voting process. See, some nutbar evangelist on the list too, and in a place that would make him Australia's third most popular author -- over people like Patrick White and David Malouf.
Now perhaps there are thousands of Stringer enthusiasts out there - there must certainly be a quite a few Stringer voters - but I found it hard to track down one of his books in my regular bookshops. Clearly the Christian fundamentalist vote has come out in force - much as it did it last month in the US presidential election.
Block voting like this casts the whole exercise into doubt. Given that there were 5000 titles nominated, it would be interesting to know exactly how many votes managed to propel the Reverend Stringer to such dizzy heights.
Hm. I knew they were a pious people, but...
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Bookninja 12-07-2004
12:10 AM ET (US)
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Oz loves the fantastic
A list of Australia's favourite books shows a distinct lean toward the fantastic: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Hitchhiker's Guide, the Holy Bible.. the list goes on.
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Bookninja 09-14-2004
01:16 PM ET (US)
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Watershed fiction
(As opposed to the waterstained fiction I have stored in boxes...) What fiction is most important to women's lives?
It is in the nature of lists to boil down eventually to a somewhat predictable run of titles - the kind of list that emerged at the end of all the excitement of the BBC's the Big Read. So we held our breath as interviewees confided that Jackie Kay's Trumpet had helped them at a moment of intense grieving, that Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces was the most important book they had ever encountered, that Meera Syal's Anita and Me had helped them through a family catastrophe. Who would have thought that Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting or Will Self's Great Apes had proved invaluable in times of crisis? In the end, though, the unfamiliar titles were eclipsed by the more familiar ones.
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Bookninja 04-14-2004
09:37 PM ET (US)
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Suuuure She's Read Them...
Celebs pick their favourite books for National Library Week - the Sleepiest Week Ever!®
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Bookninja 12-21-2003
10:41 PM ET (US)
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One Would Think He'd Never Want to See Another Book So Long as He Lived
Globe Books editor Martin Levin wants a few books for "Christmas..."
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