Unknown Rimbaud Text Found

The story is here.

From the article:

An unknown work by the French 19th-century poet Arthur Rimbaud has been uncovered in a newspaper back issue in his hometown in northeastern France, a local bookseller said on Thursday.

For those interested in learning more about that most interesting young man, there's the movie "Total Eclipse," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Rimbaud. Better yet (much better), there's the absorbing biography by Graham Robb, Rimbaud: A Biography.

Wow

The artwork of Matej Krén.

I Should Be Thanking My Lucky Stars

I guess I should feel blessed that I didn't get into Grad School for Creative Writing. Hanif Kureishi equates creating writing classes to mental hospitals.

The Library in the New Age

The New York Review of Books takes a look at the Library in the New Age.

From the story:

Information is exploding so furiously around us and information technology is changing at such bewildering speed that we face a fundamental problem: How to orient ourselves in the new landscape? What, for example, will become of research libraries in the face of technological marvels such as Google?

How to make sense of it all? I have no answer to that problem, but I can suggest an approach to it: look at the history of the ways information has been communicated. Simplifying things radically, you could say that there have been four fundamental changes in information technology since humans learned to speak.

Somewhere, around 4000 BC, humans learned to write. Egyptian hieroglyphs [pictured above: Pillar of Pompey near the Library of ancient Alexandria] go back to about 3200 BC, alphabetical writing to 1000 BC. Accord-ing to scholars like Jack Goody, the invention of writing was the most important technological breakthrough in the history of humanity. It transformed mankind's relation to the past and opened a way for the emergence of the book as a force in history.

Meet T.E.A.L.

That is, the Typo Eradication Advancement League.

Who Killed the Literary Critic?

Salon discusses the death of criticism.

Below the headline:

In the age of blogging, great critics [pictured above] appear to be on life support. Salon's book reviewers discuss snobbery, how to make criticism fun and the need for cultural gatekeepers.

Eight Comic Books to Read...

Before you die!

Quote of the Week

When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it.
- Marie de Sevigne

Taking a Few Days Off

Fear not, I'll return with gusto after the holiday weekend. In the meantime, why don't you go ahead and make yourself a comic strip.

A Leg to Stand On

You know there are a LOT of book covers and the like with a between-the-legs angle? It's true. Print Magazine puts one leg in front of the other.

Gutenberg! Gutenberg! Gutenberg!

Oh, not Steve. The other guy. The dude who made all those famous Bibles.

The Poetry of Barack Obama

Enjoy.

A Poem Relay

From the New Yorker's Book Bench comes this story about a poem being relayed to the Beijing Olympics much like the iconic torch is. The poem is “June,” by Shi Tao, an imprisoned Chinese journalist, that addresses the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square.

Killing Joke: A Critic at Large

The New Yorker takes a look at the marvelous and near genius Coen brothers and the marvelous and near genius movies they make.

Jon's Writing in SOMA Magazine

Go to your nearest book retailer and find a copy of SOMA Magazine. I've got a story in their latest issue, the "Travel Issue." I wrote about a few spots on Paris that aren't your run-of-the-mill bars, the most interesting, perhaps, is Paris's first oxygen bar, located at Bleu Comme Bleu. I also discuss a bookstore/bar and a place that still serves the devilish absinthe.

I Heart Miranda July

Omnivoracious has an exclusive video where July shares a kitchen-table "Book Talk" she recently had with the brand-new paperback edition of her very own story collection, No One Belongs Here More Than You.

There is a God, and He Likes Grammatical Symbols

Holy cow! You undoubtedly know how much I like the ampersand, as evidenced from earlier posts. I'm understandably excited then when I found this - a blog dedicated to the ampersand.

Quote of the Week

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.
- Anna Quindlen (1953 - )

Friday's Poem

Robert Service's "The Cremation of Sam McGee":

Ahhhhh........Mmmmmm.....CHEESE!

Shelf Talk highlights cheese-related books.

I Think It's Time for Me To Revisit This...

To write a musical comedy about the Donner Party. Seriously, should be a hoot.

100 Must-Read Books: The Men's Library

Real men read, or so says somewhat literate scrawny balding guys like me.

Pulp of the Day

An exciting pulp fiction cover posted each and every day can be found here.

Benefits of Bedtime Reading

The Guardian's Science Correspondent highlights the importance of reading to your kids.

From the story:

Reading to young children stimulates their development and gives them a head start when they reach school, according to researchers who have reviewed studies on the effects of reading. Apart from helping their reading, sharing a bedtime story with a child promotes their motor skills, through learning to turn the pages, and their memory. It also improves their emotional and social development.

And this:

Most important, though, said Zuckerman, is that reading aloud is a period of shared attention and emotion between parent and child.

For me? Reading with my kid is a hoot, oftentimes more for me than for her. For instance, I read Mo Willem's wonderful Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (the pigeon is pictured above) in a very poor accent that is similar to Speedy Gonzales. My kid says sometimes, "Uh, dad? Can you just read it normal?" Which is a shame, because I do a very good bad Speedy Gonzales voice and I also, when reading Sesame Street books, do a very good bad Grover voice.

Anywho, read to little people. It's good for them. It's good for you.

1001 Books to Read Before You Die

Run out and read them! Of course reading 1001 books will probably kill you. Whatever. Here's the rather thoughtful list. How many have you read?

Top Fifty Bible Stories

The list, according to Cliff Richard.

And, don't forget The Brick Testament, the world's largest, most comprehensive illustrated Bible...done in LEGOS.

The Wonders of Whichbook

What sort of book do you like to read? A conventional sex-filled long novel? A disturbing demanding bleak novella? Something beautiful and larger than life? Something funny and violent? On Whichbook, you pick the criteria in regards to broad subject matter and it finds the books you'll probably like. Find out what books you'll want to read next here.

If a Table of Contents Slide Show is What You're After

A table of contents slide show is what you'll get.

Want to Create Your Own Invisible Shelves?!

Here's how.

Top 5 Books about Presidential Campaigns

This, according to the one and only Karl Rove.

TypeRacer

Who will be victorious and type faster than any other? Play strangers or play your friends in the typing frenzy known as TypeRacer!

4 Must-Read Books for Aspiring Writers

This, according to Mental Floss.

Quote of the Week

Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.
- Harold Bloom

Friday's Poem

Rumi's Sufi poem, "Say I Am You":

Jon's Writing in Distinctly Northwest Magazine

With summer just around the corner, I'm excited about camping again (particularly with my little kid who does likes them s'mores). I recently wrote about camping in the great Pacific Northwest. You can view it here.

Pictured above: The Ohanepecosh River at Mt. Rainier National Park.

75th Anniversary of the Nazi Book Burnings

It happened on May 10, 1933. AbeBooks remembers, interviews three authorities on book burning, and showcases a reading list of book-burning books here.

Jon's Writing in Seattle Sound Magazine

The big ol' Sasquatch Music Festival is coming soon to the Pacific Northwest. There's going to be some great acts coming, including R.E.M. and The Cure. Another act that'll grace the stage are the hilarious and talented Flight of the Conchords. I wrote a short piece about them in the May issue of Seattle Sound.

To prove to you their hilarity, their ditty "Foux De Fa Fa":

Fear the Gay Penguins!

The story of gay penguins tops the list of this year's most challenged books.

From the story:

"The complaints are that young children will believe that homosexuality is a lifestyle that is acceptable. The people complaining, of course, don't agree with that," Judith Krug, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Read about the destruction of the lives of our children due to a fictional account of warm and loving gay penguins here.

Yet More on My Favorite Grammatical Symbol!

The delightful, the wonderful, the beautiful ampersand.

Jon's Book Review on Bookslut

You can find my review of the somewhat charming book, Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian, here.

Literature Map - The Tourist Map of Literature

There's kind of a fun little program here. Type in a name of one your favorite authors. It highlights other writers that write in a similar vein.

The Ten Best Books on Architecture

This, according to The Independent.

Pictured above: Central Chinese Television (CCTV) Headquarters, designed by Rem Koolhaas & Ole Scheeren; engineered by Ove Arup.

The Baron of Bibliomania

Meet Sir Thomas Phillips (pictured above). He was a bibliomaniac. It ruined his life. The Guardian has his story.

From the article:

The books and documents took over the house. The family - two wives, three daughters of the first marriage - knew their place: second best to the books and to boxes, some of which stood for several years waiting to be unpacked. They were pressed into service, unpacking, sorting, and stacking shelves. The walls of the once-fine house were stained and peeling; there was never money to pay for repairs. Regular visitors - for Sir Thomas, for all his faults, was unfailingly generous to serious scholars - noted mournfully as they escaped down the almost impassable track towards Broadway that the state of Middle Hill House was even more grievous now than the last time they'd seen it, with every room filled with heaps of paper, manuscripts, books, charters, lying on the floor or piled up against walls, on tables, chairs and beds.

Newspaper Blackout Poems

From the imaginative mind of Austin Kleon.

Ten Essential Baseball Books

The list, according to the Baseball Toaster.

Quote of the Week

Use your imagination not to scare yourself to death but to inspire yourself to life.
- Adele Brookman

Friday's Poem

Jimmy Stewart reads his poem, "Beau":

Free Comic Book Day!

It's May 3rd.

Unsure of what free comic to get yourself? Fear not, Salon is here to help.

Hoaxes Hit Bookstores

"Hi, Barnes & Noble?"
"Yes."
"This is, uh, Maya Angelou. I need an emergency root canal before my reading tonight."
"Okay."
"And I don't have any money."
"Uh-huh."
"So, could you, you know, wire me some money?"

Spider-Man's "Birth Certificate"

On the Library of Congress blog there's a story about their newest acquisition.

From the story:

“Spider-senses” all around the Library were set tingling when we learned that the Library had just acquired 24 pages of original 1962 drawings from “Amazing Fantasy #15,” which marked the first time the world’s most famous web-slinger, Spider-Man, would appear in print anywhere. The Spider-Man origin story in “Amazing Fantasy” was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko; the pages are Ditko originals, complete with pencil erasures and white-out opaquing fluid.

The Artwork of Peter Callesen

Wow. One piece of paper - one amazing design.

Pictured above: Impenetrable Castle (detail), 2005.

In Defense of Hipster Literature

Well said, Max Ross of Rake Magazine, well said.

From the story:

I like McSweeney's.

This may come as a surprise, because I don't wear tight jeans. And even though I have thick-framed glasses, it's because I'm near-legally-blind, so if I had puny little wire-frames the lenses would stick out like half an inch, and I'd be all self-conscious about it. You can call my tortoiseshell frames trendy, even pretentious, but the fact is I need them, and that they look so good on me is purely incidental, a symptom of my otherwise-already-fantastic features. (I've been led to believe, maybe because of the movie Juno, that McSweeney's readers are prone to tight denim and unnecessarily thick spectacle frames. Greasy hair and a moth-eaten scarf might round out the picture. A plaid wool skirt over the tight jeans, for the ladies. Hipsters, if you will. Dirty, dirty hipsters.)

I like Mcsweeney's.

Jon's Writing in Touring and Tasting Magazine

The latest issue of Touring & Tasting is out and I've got a small feature within the publication about a local event, the Washington Wine Highway. The Washington Wine Highway, an event that highlights wine and the national recognized regions within Washington State that makes great wine - Walla Walla, Puget Sound, Yakima Valley, Red Mountain and Columbia Valley. By the way, Washington is the 2nd largest producer of wine in the country. So why not imbibe in some wine crafted by Adams Bench or Major Creek Cellars? Or perhaps Desert Wind Winery? Or maybe Zefina?

Enjoy, you crazy oenophiles!