For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath? Saleem Sinai? Hamlet? Krapp? Oedipus? Oscar Wao? Antigone? Raskolnikov? Any of the characters in The Corrections? Any of the characters in Infinite Jest? Any of the characters in anything Pynchon has ever written? Or Martin Amis? Or Orhan Pamuk? Or Alice Munro, for that matter? If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble.
Last week before the London Book Fair, the affable library advocate Neil Gaiman opened his Digital Minds conference key note with these words: “In 1976, I was a punk rocker, and I had a band because that is what you did…”
It gets even better after that, with tales of calendar collectors, Douglas Adams on proto-ebooks, encyclopedia salesmen, early Kindles, and, yes, dandelions. Watch it if you would like to reinforce your publishing optimism.
Love,
-H-dude
Neil Gaiman is brilliant. His words are brilliant… This speech is inspiring. :)
“In the U.S., a half million free books will be handed out in towns and cities across America all on one day — April 23, 2013 — by enlisting 25,000 volunteer book lovers to help promote reading by going into their communities and personally handing out specially printed copies to light or non-readers and to those without the means or access to printed books.”
I’d really love to participate in this next year!
Same! I’m looking for NJ libraries & library staff who are participating. Send ‘em my way, won’t you?
World Book Night (created by Canongate publisher Jamie Byng, who met with me last week at the London Book Fair) is a labor of love, further proof of librarians’ commitment to (literally) getting books into peoples’ hands.
so glad this has so many notes on it. It’s better than seeing a stick thin girl who apparently has a ‘perfect’ body posted all over my dashboard.
she’s gorgeous
My hero. That should be a role model girl to look up to, not skinny chicks from fashion shows.
This girl is absolutely gorgeous, but a “stick girl” isn’t always anorexic and is also absolutely gorgeous. You shouldn’t judge without knowing. People think because someone is skinny that automatically they are ill and anorexic. Someone skinny is just as much a normal sized person too. Who’s to say what’s normal and what’s not? You’re all so right, she is so beautiful…but a skinny girl is just as beautiful and that’s really unfair that you people don’t exactly think the same.
^^^^^^^^^^
shes brave and gorgeous
I want to be like her
Love her. People need to realize there is more than one body shape on this planet and they are all beautiful.
Storybook gown constructed entirely out of recycled and discarded children’s Golden Books. Designer Ryan Novelline created the bodice from the golden spines of these classic children’s books and sewed together the skirt from their illustrated pages.
My god. It’s like gorgeous nostalgia.
This is one of the most beautiful dresses I’ve ever seen.
Here's where I come to get away from the craziness of life and enjoy my fandoms, fashion, the nifty fifties, book news and anything else that just happens to interest me. I love Disney, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, F. Scott Fitzgerald. I sometimes write short stories and I love my hot tea.
