Some things I wanted to show you
Interesting links for August
August is for work, to be honest. I went out of town for a weekend at the end of July, and have no other set plans until 3 weeks into September, which means now is my chance to get things done so I can take off at the end of the year without guilt. And so I can catch up on paying for some house projects.
Ever since Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee I have been obsessively on Twitter (the social media platform where the algorithm is best trained to show me politics and current events). It feels like a big cultural shift is happening and I am HERE for it.
— No One Buys Books : This is really talking about the traditional publishing industry, so is obviously missing a big piece of people-who-buy-books. “I think I can sum up what I’ve learned like this: The Big Five publishing houses spend most of their money on book advances for big celebrities like Britney Spears and franchise authors like James Patterson and this is the bulk of their business. They also sell a lot of Bibles, repeat best sellers like Lord of the Rings, and children’s books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These two market categories (celebrity books and repeat bestsellers from the backlist) make up the entirety of the publishing industry and even fund their vanity project: publishing all the rest of the books we think about when we think about book publishing (which make no money at all and typically sell less than 1,000 copies).”
— 55 Things to Know About Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s Pick for VP : I have a lot of favorites, but am partial to 6, 15, 30 and 35.
— Governor Tim Walz Put a Little Free Library in the Minnesota Capitol : “The gesture, produced in cahoots with the Little Free Library organization and Minnesota public librarians, was a pointed response to the hundreds of attempted book bans that have been running roughshod over America’s stacks. And better yet? The governor’s little, free symbol foreshadowed a big, free policy change. In May, Walz signed a Minnesota law “banning K-12 schools, colleges, and public libraries from complying with [book] removal requests… based solely on the viewpoint, content, message, idea, or opinion conveyed.” The act meaningfully protects LGBTQ+ books from the crosshairs of conservative censors.”
— A surprisingly exciting story about composition and street photography in Paris : “But while editing some pictures I found myself contemplating on why I make certain decision.
Like, why does a particular street corner catch my eye?
Or, why do I frame the scenery a certain way?
At this point in my artistry, many of these important yet subtle decisions happen on autopilot. I just snap the picture on the go and the final image is more or less already set in my mind.”
— Literary Friendships : This link will take you to all the articles on LitHub that are tagged with literary friendships. Like this one about Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot or this one about Arthur Conan Doyle or this one about putting ex-partners in your book.
— The Puzzle as Propaganda : “Interactive features could also play a more direct role in political persuasion by reinforcing the themes of radical propaganda and testing the knowledge of their participants. Quiz broadcasts on Radio Cairo’s African Services, for example, tended to focus on questions that portrayed Egypt’s Nasser regime in a positive light. Requests for “the date that the Suez Canal was nationalized” and “the names of the protagonists of the policy of neutrality” reinforced the themes of Egyptian propaganda and rewarded listeners who regularly engaged with it. The Afra-Crosstic puzzles in The African Review follow this model closely. A large number of questions focus on the struggle against empire, from the locations of colonial atrocities like the Main Rouge attacks to the names of prominent African nationalist organizations.”
— What The New York Times Missed: 71 More of the Greatest Books of the 21st Century : “Since no one asked us (rude), despite the Lit Hub staff being entirely made up of novelists, nonfiction writers, academics, book editors, journalists, critics, publishers, poets, translators, booksellers, and other literary luminaries (no librarians, alas), we decided to make our own list of books the Times list missed.” My favorites include Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell* and A Little Life* and There There*.
— How Food Played a Role in the Rise of Patriarchy : “As Kate Pechenkina, archaeologist and senior author of the paper, noted: ‘During early farming, females contributed a lot to food production. [Men and women] eat the same things, and they’re of more or less equal standing.’ But at the end of the Neolithic era and through the Bronze Age — which began in China around 1700 BCE — the menu shifted. Or, at least, it did for women. While men continued eating grains and meats, the latter disappeared entirely from women’s diets and was replaced with wheat. Women’s bones also started showing a type of osteoporosis and an indicator of childhood malnutrition — implying they were treated poorly even as young girls — and their burials gradually included fewer and fewer treasures compared to men’s.”
WATCHING:
The Hobbit Appendices* (first movie, I love all this behind-the-scenes stuff); The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug* (extended edition, obviously. Spencer is reading the book to me); various Olympics; Flight Attendant S2 (chaotic but good); The Hobbit Appendices* (second movie while I futzed about online); The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies* (peak Peter Jackson absurd fight scenes); Cuckoo (good, though I’m not sure even the filmmakers understand it); Twisters (the tropiest movie that has ever been made)
READING:
The Last Murder at the End of the World* (not terrible. Felt like a lot of guesswork for a mystery); One Perfect Couple* (I love a thriller I can read in a day); The Hobbit* (Spencer’s choice to read to me while I cook); Damn Fine Story* (craft/writing book; I should read more of these)
( *these are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through any of these links I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you )