At a meeting of the Tolkien Society at the University of Cape Town where I got all three of my degrees, a woman said plaintively, “I just couldn’t get into…Continue reading50 Incredibly Tough Books
Revisiting ‘The Hobbit’, Noble Smith writes at Huffpost, is like sifting through the deep piles of loot in a dragon’s hoard: there’s always something new to discover about J.R.R. Tolkien…Continue readingA Hobbit by any other name
Take the Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana… The story of the gray lady began in 1937, Buzzfeed reports, when a janitor reported seeing a floating apparition of a woman in…Continue readingHaunted Libraries
I have a cup complete with Shakespearean insults, such as: “long-tongu’d babbling gossip”, “quintessence of dust”, “idol of idiot worshipers’, and “I do desire we may be better strangers.” But…Continue readingShakespearean insults delivered by cats
Most authors have heard about the Bechdel Test for a story: 1. It has to have at least two women in it, 2. who talk to each other, 3. about…Continue readingDo I pass the test?
Arielle Calderon of BuzzFeed suggests some things she thinks belong in every book-lovers home. Actually a lot of them leave me either cold or indifferent. But I do like these.…Continue readingBookworm’s Dream Home
A bookstore in Nanjing, China was blasted for “corrupting minors” and using gimmicks to attract customers, The Want China Times reports. The store said the posters were part of a…Continue readingBookstore blasted for naked reading
Buzzfeed discusses 20 books that are almost impossible to adapt to the screen, though people still sometimes try. My own historical fantasy, The Secrets of Jin-shei, would also be a…Continue readingBooks into movies, NOT
Because 99% of the time the books are better than the movies, Buzzfeed said when it posted this a few months back, you ought to read these before you go…Continue readingBecause the books are better…
School is when we should really be making kids read, because there are so many great books out there with brilliant stories and profound messages behind them, The Guardian says.…Continue readingWhy isn’t more YA fiction read in schools?