The Sporting Scene: Nails Never Fails

The New Yorker has a great story about the life and times of Lenny Dykstra, a former beloved baseball player and what he's up to these days. What he's up to is this - after being a day trader, after he hung up his glove, he's decided to create Players Club, a magazine specifically for pro athletes. It'll be a magazine about finance, luxury living, and other items of interest to pro athletes.

From the story:

“You’ve got the ten per cent who are going to find their way no matter what,” Dykstra said of the athlete population. “And you get the ten per cent that are fuckheads no matter what—we’ll paste an ‘L’ to ’em.” The rest need guidance, and Dykstra, who will write a regular column called “The Game of Life,” is prepared to give it. “This will be the world’s best magazine,” he said.

The Internet's Effects on Journalism

From the Associated Press, a story about how the internet has changed journalism, sometimes in unexpected ways.

T.C. Boyle Honored

T.C. Boyle, my favorite novelist, is featured in a recent issue of The Daily Trojan after being honored at University of Southern California. The Friends of USC Libraries featured the distinguished fiction writer and USC professor of English at its recent Forty Seventh Literary Luncheon.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, a few Irish-themed links...

Biblio Ireland, an authoritative guide to Irish books.

Library Ireland, a free online resource for Irish antiquities, biography, folklore, genealogy, history (general, local and social), literature, and much more besides.

Ireland Literature Guide.

The Irish Playography, presented by the Irish Theatre Institute.

James Joyce's Ulysses for Dummies.

And, of course, three Muppets sing "Danny Boy."

Top Ten Books on Boredom

Care of the Guardian.

From the intro:

"Boredom has always fascinated me. I suppose it is the Heideggerian sense of 'profound boredom' that intrigues me the most. What he called a 'muffling fog' that swathes everything - including boredom itself - in apathy. Revealing 'being as a whole': that moment when we realize everything is truly meaningless, when everything is pared down and all we are confronted with is a prolonged, agonizing nothingness. Obviously, we cannot handle this conclusion; it suspends us in constant dread. In my fictions I am concerned with two archetypes only, both of them suspended in this same dread: those who embrace boredom and those who try to fight it. The quotidian tension, the violence that this suspension and friction creates naturally filters itself into my work."

Quote of the Week

You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.
- Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Friday's Poem

Emily Dickinson's "There's a Certain Slant of Light":

Typology: A Phemenology of Early Typewriters

An interesting essay care of Xavier University's Richard Polt.

Time to Look Back at Time Magazine

Time is celebrating their 85th anniversary this year. They're taking a look back at some of their best and worst covers since the magazine's inception. The cover above was from September 8, 1961.

The Hooker Prize

Now that the governor of New York has resigned due to his involvement with high-priced prostitutes, it's time for the Hooker Prize! AbeBooks counts down the best books about prostitutes.

Is It Possible to Write a Good Rock 'n' Roll Novel?

Kevin Chong, at CBC, ruminates.

Newspaper Circulation Plunging - Big Time.

Editor and Publisher has a story about the continuing fall of newspaper circulations across the nation. Some tidbits:

+ In just four years the top newspapers in the U.S. have collectively lost about 1.4 million copies in daily circulation.

+ The industry has lost about 10% of circulation overall in the past four years.

+ The Los Angles Times lost 20% of daily circulation, The Boston Globe lost 20%, the San Francisco Chronicle 30%.

+ Though most are dropping, precipitously, some are actually on the rise. USA Today is up 2% and so is the New York Post.

I wonder - will my daughter read a stack of newspapers when she grows up on a lazy Sunday morning with a stack of warm waffles nearby? Or will she just point and click?

Best Typefaces of 2007

The list, according to Typographica.

And, by the way, there's a difference between a font and a typeface. From the story:

The physical embodiment of a collection of letters (whether it’s a case of metal pieces or a computer file) is a font. When referring to the design of the collection (the way it looks) you call it a typeface.

The feature, therefore, is a celebration of new typefaces than new fonts.

Oh, and BibliOdyssey has a swell selection of lace typography.

100 Best Last Lines from Novels

The American Book Review picks their favorites.

Ever Wonder About the History of Photobooths?

Me either. It doesn't mean, however, that it's not rather fascinating.

Letter-Inspired Fiction

Well, Esquire redeems itself slightly after the fake Heath Ledger diary/reported fiction thing. They're starting to create fiction using letters they receive to the editor. The first crack at a letter-inspired piece of fiction is Bret Anthony Johnston.

The World's 50 Most Powerful Blogs

According to The Guardian. Surprisingly absent from the list - mine. Sources tell me, however, that I'm the 53rd most important blog, right after this one.

Book Lovers Ask, What's Seattle's Secret?

Ah, to be a book lover in Seattle! My hometown was featured recently in The New York Times about how Seattle is helping shape the book publishing industry. How?

The Three Big Reasons:
Amazon
Starbucks
Costco

It doesn't hurt that we have great independent bookstores, a super Central Library and lots of smart people that live here.

Update: A Seattle bookseller details the dark side of Seattle's rise in the publishing world.

Sexy Sirens Amongst the Stacks

Did you make it this past weekend to the annual Naughty Librarians' Convention?

Primer: Alan Moore

The AV Club gives readers a tutorial on the life and work of Alan Moore, the mind behind the comics Watchmen, From Hell, and Lost Girls, among others.