Reading is one of my great pleasures, but 2011 was definitely not a stellar year for me and books. School is to blame, of course; between the required texts and assignments, I had very little time to read for the sheer enjoyment of reading. Still, I managed to sneak in 11 books for fun among [...]
Tag Archives: Books
Still room for odd book titles
The wonderfully quirky Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year has a new winner: Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way, by Michael R. Young. The prize is given by British trade magazine The Bookseller, a leading trade magazine for the book industry with a website providing news and comment about the [...]
Odd title wins
In case you missed it, the winner of the prestigious Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year has been chosen. Drumroll, please. It is Daina Taimina’s Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes. No doubt you are as surprised as I that Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots and Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter did [...]
Thank a teacher
“If you can read this, thank a teacher.” This is how a post linked to by my friend and colleague Joan Vinall-Cox began. While blogger Ralf Schwartz suggested that the best way to thank your teacher is to teach others “by further developing what your teacher has taught you,” I think an equally excellent option [...]
Writing from the heart
Now, this is expressive writing! Other People’s Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See (edited by Bill Shapiro), which I commented on recently, has many examples of writing that touches the heart. Here are some that appealed to me: “I love that you sent me an actual letter. I can feel your [...]
Life takes action
Through the serendipity of the web, I somehow came across a blog called 37 Days. Asheville, North Carolina writer Patti Digh asked the question, “What would I be doing today if I only had 37 days to live?” after her stepfather was diagnosed with lung cancer, and died 37 days later. She later turned the [...]
Love is a 4-letter word
Has anyone read Four Letter Word: Original Love Letters (edited by Joshua Knelman and Rosalind Porter)? Although one reviewer said it “unleashes the romantic in all of us,” I didn’t find it that way at all. Confession: I am a hopeless romantic. Actually, make that hopeFUL romantic. So I looked forward to reading this collection, [...]
More odd book titles
This is such a great contest: The Diagram Prize‘s Oddest Book Title of the Year. Its 2009 winner is The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-miligram Containers of Fromage Frais. I’m sure you are wondering, how could that possibly have beat out Baboon Metaphysics (#2) and Curbside Consultation of the Colon (#3)? Such is the nature [...]
War on weasel words
The quest to rid employee communications of buzzwords and management-speak never ends, so it’s always encouraging to find support. Of course, it’s unlikely those who speak in “methodologies” and “strategic imperatives” will read books like Don Watson‘s Death Sentences: How cliches, weasel words and management-speak are strangling public language, but having Don’s words out there [...]
Thanks, Studs
I have author/historian/actor/broadcaster Studs Terkel to thank for a shining moment of glory. Studs (real name Louis) died on Friday at the age of 96. During a game of Trivial Pursuit, my opponent practically rubbed his hands with glee at the question he was going to ask me. “Oh, you’ll NEVER get this,” he laughed. [...]