Oct 6 2010

Higher and higher

Salon has posted a fascinating (and quite angry) article on the rising price of new e-books. I'm not sure that two e-books costing more than their printed-and-bound equivalents qualifies as a "tr...

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Oct 5 2010

I do like the "Stupidity" title card, though.

Check out the upcoming, gender-swapped movie adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest:It looks like a music video. And (it must be said) kind of a low-budget music video.

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Oct 5 2010

Kate Spade gets literary

If you're very, very wealthy and therefore don't mind dropping $325 on a novelty item, may I suggest these Kate Spade "Book of the Month" clutches? Sadly, they don't come with copies of the actua...

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Oct 4 2010

Maybe This Time, by Jennifer Crusie

2010-10-04-maybe-this-time-by-jennifer-crusie

A new Jennifer Crusie novel is always cause for celebration, and Maybe This Time—her first full-length solo effort since 2004's Bet Me—is no exception. In this lively re-working of Henry James's novella The Turn of the Screw...

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Oct 4 2010

I was hoping this trend would be beyond tired by 2012.

Twentieth Century Fox has purchased the film rights for Seth Grahame-Smith's novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. (Grahame-Smith also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and is therefore the...

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Oct 1 2010

I'm pretty sure this is contradicted by Hogwarts: A History, but...

The students of Hogwarts are embracing modern technology.

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Sep 30 2010

Ooooh, hardcore!

Well, dear readers, here are a couple of movie trailers based on books that wouldn't quite make the Wordcandy A-list. First, I Am Number Four:It's that dude from that terrible-looking Beastly mov...

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Sep 29 2010

At least Harry Potter didn't make the list...

In honor of Banned Books Week, here's the list of last year's top-ten most frequently challenged books (according to the American Library Association):1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren M...

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Sep 28 2010

Hipster cruelty

I am very fond of bookends, but I'm only mildly tempted by these "Glass Half Bookends" from Urban Outfitters:They look cool, and they're supposed to double as vases (although putting flowers in 'e...

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Sep 27 2010

The passion of the gnomes

Well, the trailer for Gnomeo and Juliet is out:On the one hand, there's an A-list cast (well, except for Ozzy Osbourne). On the other, there's Elton John music and that inexplicable (and totally ...

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Sep 24 2010

Consider that shark officially jumped

It's been a few weeks since I last experienced that "Wait. It's not April 1st, is it?" feeling, but it's back:Apparently, this Twilight-inspired road safety sign in Portland, Oregon is, like, a r...

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Sep 23 2010

Chatting about the common cold

Salon.com has a fascinating interview up with science journalist Jennifer Ackerman, author of Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold. I had no idea I'd find the subject so interesting, bu...

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Sep 23 2010

Why does Voldemort's hissing always, always make me laugh?

Speak of the new Harry Potter movie and a new trailer appears:

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Sep 22 2010

So many bad ideas in one place...

Speaking of the book-to-movie transition, the fine people at BuzzSugar have put together a list of 15 Books To Read Before They're Adapted For the Screen. At least at this point, I'm only plannin...

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Sep 21 2010

Artemis Fowl the movie: MIA

Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch column has posted an article guessing at the next YA book to be adapted for the big screen. Most of the story is pure speculation—will Hollywood ever made a 3-D ad...

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Sep 21 2010

Looking to waste some time?

Have I got the iTunes app for you: several "classic" Choose Your Own Adventure titles have been launched recently as interactive reading experiences for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Even as a...

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Sep 17 2010

Get thee to a bookstore

How did this slip by me? I know last month felt like it was all Mockingjay, all the time in the kids' lit world, but seriously: how did I miss this?Author Norton Juster and illustrator Jules Feif...

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Sep 16 2010

Just like in Scooby Doo

As you all know, I have many problems with fake books. One, they're fake books. Two, what are you supposed to keep in them? They're tiny! Three—and this is particularly true in this case—they'...

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Sep 14 2010

Ah, gimmicks

Yet another snippet of Disney Princess news has come my way: a sing-a-long version of Beauty and Beast will be shown in a limited number of theaters on September 29th and October 2nd. Hopefully t...

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Sep 14 2010

Romeo and Juliet + Zombies = Inevitable

NPR has posted a review of Anne Fortier's novel Juliet, a modern, completely re-imagined take on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I'm not sure I'll read this—the cover is totally boring, and I am ...

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Sep 13 2010

Eat, Pray, Love, shop

Meg sent me this link to a limited-release line of three Eat, Pray, Love-inspired fragrances on Friday, but the maker has already sold out. The sprays are apparently still available in some store...

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Sep 10 2010

"Best of 2010" already?

The 2010 Hugo Awards for outstanding science fiction or fantasy works were given out this week. The best novel award was a tie this year—China Miéville's The City & The City and Paolo Bacigalupi'...

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Sep 9 2010

Safety first

Check out this owl-shaped bookend from Etsy artist Aprilfoss:Pretty cute, huh? And, at $26, relatively affordable. Aprilfoss's owls come in a wide variety of colors and fabrics, and each one sho...

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Sep 9 2010

Witch-hunting for fun and profit

Cinematical is linking Noomi Rapace (who played Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) to an upcoming American project called Hansel and Gretel: Witch ...

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Sep 8 2010

From one creepy extreme to another

These oddly melancholy images of obese Disney princesses are popping up all over the Internet. (They're drawn by Aly Bellissimo, the artist behind the questionably-SFW Creepy Miranda blog.) I wa...

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Sep 7 2010

Down for the count

PublishersWeekly recently posted an interesting article about chain bookstores' ongoing attempts to stay profitable during the economic downturn. Of the three major U.S. book chains (Books-A-Mill...

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Sep 7 2010

Now in glorious Technicolor

Cinematical informs me that Lionsgate Films is pondering three directors for their upcoming Hunger Games movie adaptation: Gary Ross (Pleasantville), David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse), and...

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Sep 3 2010

Like Gokusen, but even stranger?

AnimeNewsNetwork informs me that a live-action(!) television adaptation of Deka Wanko (the current manga from Gokusen creator Kozueko Morimoto) is in the works. Now, I haven't read Deka Wanko (l...

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Sep 2 2010

Don't do it, guys.

A television adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series, created without involvement by the author?This, dear readers, is a Very Bad Idea.

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Sep 2 2010

Weirdness collides!

If you check out the website for Icelandic musician Bjork, you can see the video for her song "Moomins and the Comet Chase". It's part of the soundtrack for the movie based on Tove Jansson's chil...

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