Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Um, Richard Price…
Monday, March 17th by Shane
Wants to know what’s so happy about it
Since the drinking aspect of the holiday has already been taken care of here, I can’t really think of anything St. Patrick-centric to write about, so at least Price’s new book, Lush Life, has an Irish character. It’s the best I can do, people. Check out the NY Times review and gander at the first chapter. And then go get drunk. Unless you’re reading this while drinking, which is the saddest, nerdiest thing I can think of.
Kate Christensen is probably having a pretty good holiday, regardless of how many car bombs she’s going to drink. Christensen is considered an elite “chick-liter” but now she is also a prestigious award winner, taking the PEN/Faulkner Award for The Great Man. This is definitely a prize to hang on your mantle, and the fifteen grand she received should be good for at least a couple rounds of green beer.
More book fraud talk, which by this point has run its course at least until we find out all the lies Carol Burnett made up about Tim Conway.
From Galleycat, books as art. I hope you like erections.
Here is an open letter to Steve Jobs about using his Ipowers to creating a Mac version of the Kindle that isn’t stupid. There are some rumblings that this is exactly what Jobs is planning on at the moment, but since I still think books have many years before they become obsolete, I would encourage the man to just make a phone I can afford.
And finally, Booksquare kind of disagrees with my last statement. They think books are waging a losing battle and need to keep readers wanting more. Apparently video games are the blazing a trail right now, as are advertisers, and these kinds of methods are what books publishers are lacking, once again, because they’re old stuffy dudes who don’t know any better. So, how do books cross this threshold? They suggest some vague ideas like “book plus” but it is true that what books have, a story, may need to find a new path into our culture. What about free booze with every novel read? I’d sign up for that in a second.
