Aug 4 2010

RIP, OneManga

It is with mixed emotions (about 55% irritation, 45% resignation) that I say goodbye to OneManga, the popular manga scanlation site that shut down for good last week. Now, it's possible that the ...

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Aug 3 2010

Hiss, boo

Seriously, I am so disappointed in you, NPR. As part of their obnoxiously condescending "My Guilty Pleasure" series, author Helen Simonson has contributed an essay on her love for Georgette Heyer...

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Aug 2 2010

Seriously, dude? Thucydides?

While checking out the Horn Book Blog, I followed a link to this Harvard Magazine profile of literary agent Andrew Wylie. I was mostly impressed by Mr. Wylie's seemingly colossal ego*, but I thin...

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Aug 2 2010

Watch me suspend the ol' disbelief

In a strikingly Hollywood-ish bit of casting, Daniel Craig—a.k.a. the current James Bond—has signed on to star in the upcoming American remake of Steig Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. ...

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Jul 29 2010

Truth in advertising?

Whoa. The women at GoFugYourself recently featured British socialite-turned-bestselling author Katie Price modeling a truly impressive outfit to promote her new book Paradise. I'm not sure about...

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Jul 28 2010

A prize-winning novel interpreted via nail polish

I'm not sure what's up with the sudden trend toward literature-inspired nail polish, but whatever: I like books and I like nail polish, so I'll just roll with it. I'm particularly impressed by th...

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Jul 27 2010

27 days and counting...

Portland, Oregon's Powell's Books is hosting a midnight release party for Mockingjay, the third and final book in Suzanne Collins's bestselling "Hunger Games" trilogy. The shindig will start at 9:...

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Jul 27 2010

Jane Austen's Fight Club

I'm no fan of the endless Jane Austen book parodies currently glutting up the market, but this... I have to admit it, I cracked up.

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Jul 26 2010

The price is right

Quick-on-the-draw Kelley Armstrong fans should whip over to SF Signal and enter their Waking the Witch giveaway. The contest ends at 10:00 PM (Central Time) tonight, so you've still got a little ...

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Jul 26 2010

Release the merchandising tie-ins!

Sadly, I grew so bored by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics that I didn't bother to read the last six or so issues. I have 'em... and I might get to 'em eventually... but it'll need to be a slo...

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Jul 23 2010

Wave of the future?

According to The New York Times, Amazon.com announced on Monday that they've been selling more titles for its Kindle e-readers than hardcover books during the last three months—143 e-books for eve...

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Jul 22 2010

So dorky, seriously.

My standards are not high when it comes to book trailers, but this one—it's for James Patterson and Maxine Paetro's Private, and a slightly longer version is currently popping up on Hulu—is partic...

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Jul 21 2010

Behind the times

How did I miss this? The 2010 Bulwer-Lytton contest results were released late last month, and this year's winner is (as they always are) a delight:For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's a...

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Jul 20 2010

Manga for the rich and famous

Huh. If you're artistically inclined, this might be worth investigating: according to AnimeNewsNetwork, the Italian fashion label Prada has announced a Manga-themed contest in celebration of its ...

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Jul 19 2010

An embarrassment of popcorn-worthy riches?

The most recent "Trailer Park" post on Cinematical features four book-nerd-friendly movie trailers: Howl (based on the obscenity trial over Allen Ginsberg's poem of the same name), an adaptation o...

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Jul 15 2010

Upscale goth

Check this out:This, dear readers, is a $30 nail polish set inspired by Morticia Addams. Specifically, the Morticia Addams of The Addams Family Musical, a Broadway production starring Bebe Neuwir...

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Jul 14 2010

I want one.

Sadly, this Epic Win FTW submission isn't a real book:But on the up side, one of the comments informs me that this is, and doesn't that almost make up for it?

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Jul 13 2010

My Little Ponies gone wild

Today is apparently Embrace Your Geekness Day, and someone at Buzzfeed decided to celebrate by collecting 50 of the most geek-tastic My Little Pony dolls. Most of them are movie-related, but ther...

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Jul 13 2010

RIP, Harvey Pekar

NPR put together a really nice obit for Harvey Pekar, the author of the American Splendor series, most of which focused on the day-to-day reality of life in Cleveland. Mr. Pekar was found dead in...

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Jul 12 2010

Build your own book review

I had never heard of Common Sense Media before yesterday, but their purpose statement sounded innocuous enough: they're a nonprofit organization dedicated to "improving the lives of kids and famil...

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Jul 12 2010

Home improvements

Behold the Bookshelf Apartment. Sadly, it's not a real, lived-in space, but a structure built for the "Small Spaces" exhibition at London's Victoria & Albert Museum. I so want to live there. Or...

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Jul 10 2010

White Cat, by Holly Black

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Bookstores are currently overflowing with YA novels about vampires and werewolves, but the majority of the “monsters” in these books seem like fundamentally nice guys. They care about their ...

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Jul 9 2010

Used books on the cheap

Dude, this sounds so cool: the online used-book retailer Once Sold Tales has opened a brick-and-mortar store (well, less bricks and mortar and more a corner of one of their warehouses, but whatev...

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Jul 8 2010

Made of awesome

Aw... I recently found out that Washington State's Grays Harbor Transit System is letting kids participating in the Timberland Regional Library's summer reading program use their library cards as ...

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Jul 8 2010

Pride and Prejudice and cell phone apps

AustenBlog has posted a generally-positive guest review by some dude named Douglas R. Burchill of the new Pride and Prejudice and Zombies video game for the iPhone. If you're looking for the shor...

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Jul 7 2010

Summer Reading: Kids' Comics Edition

The School Library Journal's blog Good Comics for Kids has published their list of recommended summer reading for 2010, and I agree with about 70% of their suggested titles. (Which isn't a bad r...

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Jul 6 2010

Insatiable, by Meg Cabot

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Meg Cabot's new novel Insatiable is full of nods to the current vampire craze (love triangles, seemingly ordinary heroines with mysterious abilities, broody-yet-hot dudes with weird dietary habits...

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Jul 6 2010

Did we really need another one?

Wait. So there's really going to be a new Three Musketeers movie, this time starring Milla Jovovich as Lady de Winter and that dude who played Percy Jackson as D'Artagnan? Wow... that was one of...

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Jul 2 2010

Brace yourselves, horror fans...

If you're looking for a genuinely creepy take on the vampire genre (versus, say, a mopey, dopey, heavy-on-the-sixpack-abs one), check out the trailer for Let Me In, the upcoming film remake of the...

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Jul 1 2010

Wonder Woman goes business casual

Starting this week, Wonder Woman will be wearing a new outfit: DC Comics has nixed the superheroine's iconic costume in favor of pants, a shirt, low heels, and a jacket. Oddly, I think she looks ...

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