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Scoop.it!
I can vouch for most of these, having both read and seen them. Book-to-screen transfers can be so disappointing.
The only shaky one on the list is the “The Hunger Games” because of its awful use of the "Blair Witch" camera technique. I literally had to leave the theater because it made me nauseous. At least I don’t have to watch the next two to know how it all ends. Just one of the perks of being a reader. No comment yet.
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Before Occupy Wall Street rattled the money merchants, Herman Melville and the Beats shook the city's foundation with gumption and glee.
"The savage angels kept arriving, stoking the fetish for music, art, and literature flickering in the endless nightscapes."
Bartleby, the Scrivener: a hero? a role model? a Beatnik before his time?
I could comment on this, but "I prefer not to." Delete the scoop?
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Hear the "persistent voices behind squelched literature."
"Any book worth banning is a book worth reading." Delete the scoop?
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“A very famous writer once said, ‘A book is like a mirror. If a fool looks in, you can’t expect a genius to look out.’" - J.K. Rowling
Happy Freedom to Read Week Delete the scoop?
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I shared this on Diigo yesterday and it's already had 84 views. The timing on this couldn't have been better. This week I've been teaching seniors about copyright and making them use public domain images for projects (that still need to be attributed, BTW).
Today's takeaway lesson, especially for bloggers: Take your own salami picture. Delete the scoop?
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Too bad the prize is only $2,000 because I'm going to win this in the next few days. I have enough papers in the system (90 X 8-10 pgs. each) that still need to be graded that I'm quite confident the prize will be mine.
Guess they don't offer more of an incentive because if they did, the one who wins (me) would stop using their service because she has RETIRED.
Stay tuned for the results. Delete the scoop?
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This fall has already brought a bevy of big books. In fiction, we've seen "NW" by Zadie Smith, "Telegraph Avenue" by Michael Chabon, "This Is How You Lose Her" by Junot Diaz, and "The Casual Vacancy," J.K.
I need my day job to stop being a night AND a weekend job so that I can actually read some of these. I haven't even read Ken Follett's newest one and he's already got another one coming soon. Now Michael Chabon with a new one, and Rowling...
I haven't read a chapter of a single book in two months, having been delugued with other paperwork. I catch myself talking about books that are "so three months ago." Delete the scoop?
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"Writing is easy: All you have to do is start writing, finish writing, and make sure it's good. But here's some vastly more useful wisdom and advice from people who seriously know..."
All of my "Scoopies" who owe me a favor--you know who you are--could turn a few of these into posters for my classroom.
My favorite one is #8: "I try to leave out the parts that people skip." -- Elmore Leonard.
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"Daily quote from a favorite book, thematically matched with a song."
Perfect timing to stumble on this, just after spending the day planning curriculum with some great new colleagues. Prufrock is just on the horizon. Nice to see it's not Crash Test Dummies. That would have been too easy, too obvious.
"In a minute there is time/For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse."
"I am old" ... 
Enid Baines's comment,
August 19, 2012 10:32 AM
I am really enjoying this site. Every day has been work off the beaten path.
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In Australia a great statement was made in a street installation turned pop-up library with the “Literature Versus Traffic” art display.
This pop-up library has one illuminating objective: “[Take] control of the streets and [become] the conquerer of the public space.”
The taxi drivers early in on their shifts must be thinking, "And miles to go before I read." Delete the scoop?
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All 47 endings to Ernest Hemingway's 1929 masterpiece A Farewell To Arms will be published in a new edition next week.
Note: The book came out in July.
"Getting the words right" was Hemingway's reason for the endless editing. Anyone who writes a lot understands this.
Writing is a bit like polishing silver. It takes a great deal of time and effort to make it shine, especially when trying to clean up the fine details in the design. I know it sounds paradoxical, but my break from grading papers is reading books. After spending hours trying to decipher meaning in heavily tarnished pieces, I find relief in works that shine with clarity and depth.
The end of this article reveals a not-so-surprising fact: Hollywood can't tolerate an unhappy ending. Sounds like Paramount writers rewrote a few times themselves. Delete the scoop?
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Fascinating letters. Interesting correspondence.
In this letter, Gene Wilder suggests a few costume alterations for "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory."
The line that particularly strikes me is the one about the "once elegant now almost baggy trousers." While there's something to be said for the importance of personal appearence (after all, "[s]lime green trousers are icky"), what really matters is character.
I also learned it's better to match the shoes with the hat than with the jacket. That would be so fey. Delete the scoop?
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National Book Festival writers reveal their favorite titles and explain what makes them so special.
Sharing a favorite with R.L. Stein gives me "Goosebumps." Delete the scoop?
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The author of “Harry Potter” and, now, “The Casual Vacancy” says her favorite literary character is Jo March: “It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo.”...
"I don’t read “chick lit,” fantasy or science fiction but I’ll give any book a chance if it’s lying there and I’ve got half an hour to kill."
Really? Not a fan of fantasy? okaaay... And Dickens? She'd want to meet him? Hmmmmm...
Still, I would like to read her new book. I mean, if she cried while writing the ending of her own book... Delete the scoop?
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This is just a short list of most mentioned songs, movies, TV shows, etc. in literature. It gives just a snapshot of what appears over on Small Demons, a site filled with hours of trivia.
Go to the Featured section of Small Demons to discover how many times a song has been referenced and the excerpt where it appears. Then prepare to spend way too much time digging through other connections that lead to more breadcrumbs, etc.
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Bookworm or not, you can't help but enjoy these black and white illustrations of literary quotes by Evan Robertson.
It's not the deepest statement he ever made, but Sartre wins, with Hemingway a close second.
I'd buy the teapot, though, and not just because it's from "Prufrock," my favorite poem. I happen to like tea served British style, with milk. Delete the scoop?
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To Scott and many others, Zelda was one of a kind. She was very nearly his literal Daisy, and his desire, jealousy, and obsession for her brought us several great novels. Quite the muse.
I'll soon be rereading "The Great Gatsby" for the n-th time, but I never tire of it. In fact, it gets better with age. Closest thing to poetry in prose I've ever encountered.
On another note, I've had thousands of students, but I've never had anyone named Zelda. You'd think such a popular gal would have inspired numerous others to name their offspring after her. I mean, come on, "Apple," really?
Even my name is more popular than hers. I've actually met two people named Enid, one of whom was a roommate's aunt. And there is that city out west... Delete the scoop?
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"A midtown concierge has written an odorous ode to New York City’s distinct smells — and boy, does it stink! From pastrami sandwiches to pizza to the unwashed guy you don’t want to sit next to, it's not for the faint of stomach"
Scratch and sniff goes gross, but I'd say Harry Potter's Bertie Bott's Jelly Beans are even more disgusting.
What I find more shocking than the aroma choices is that she had trouble finding a publisher so had to do it herself. Seems like the more a work has shock value, either because of crassness or language, the better it sells. (e.g. "Go the Bleep to Sleep," "Fifty Shades...")
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Curating eclectic interestingness from culture's collective brain... __________________ Scott never was one to mince words: "Who in hell ever respected Shelley, Whitman, Poe, O. Henry, Verlaine, Swinburne, Villon, Shakespeare ect when they were alive. Shelley + Swinburne were fired from college; Verlaine + O Henry were in jail. The rest were drunkards or wasters..."
And when he said this: "100% American (which means 99% village idiot)," he had no idea that nearly 100 years later, we'd be looking to him and his literature to help us, the village idiots, define the American Dream.
I scooped this from one of my favorite sites, Brain Pickings, which hosts the literary jukebox, always a unique paring of music and literature. Do check it out.) Delete the scoop?
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"Cats – with all their mysteriousness and adorableness and softness – have served as muses for some of the most brilliant writers in the world for centuries."
The photo here is of Neil Gaiman, author of "American Gods," (a pretty good read if you know Norse mythology) and himself "a god among the best of nerds."
I, too, am a cat person and I do a lot of my computer work with Felix the Cat on my lap. These pictures of authors draped in cats reminded me of my own cats-gone-by, one of whom even sat high on my shoulders as I wrote (à la Edward Gorey).
Knowing what I know about Mark Twain, I'm not sure I completely believe his claim, "When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction." I do, however, accept Edward Gorey's declaration, “Books. Cats. Life is good.”
One of these days I'll get down to Key West to see Hemingway's six-toed "love sponges." Delete the scoop?
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"From “yada yada yada” to “master of your domain,” Seinfeld unleashed more while-you’re-drinking-with-buddies quotable idioms than just about any other sitcom ever. The “show about nothing,” which ran from 1989 to 1998 and is still in heavy rotation in syndication, was also one of the smartest sitcoms ever to grace our airwaves. One way this “smartness” manifested itself was in references to literature and/or books, ranging from subtle to hilariously overt." ___________ Quotable, indeed. Seinfeld, the smartest show about nothing, should have ended with this line from Shakespeare's Macbeth:
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player Delete the scoop?
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Artist Alicia Martin's tornado of books shoot out a window like a burst of water from a giant hose.
The video (near the bottom) shows the books' pages fluttering in the wind, so I'm guessing it's a temporary exhibit. I wonder if it's supposed to represent all of the awful writing out there that should be tossed out the window and into the moat.
I know my colleagues and I feel like we've graded this many pages just in the last three weeks and we're still buried at the bottom of the pile. If only we could toss it all into the moat.
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A social media hoax outwitted an anti-tax group and galvanized voters in Troy, Michigan.
Great lesson in reverse psychology! In preparation for Banned Books Week (Sept. 30-Oct. 6), be sure to enjoy the 3-minute video on this story (scroll to end).
Ray Bradbury certainly would appreciate. Delete the scoop?
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I was more than a bit surprised to learn about the transformation of the iconic Dante-esqe landscape that was the Valley of Ashes and the scene of a crime in "The Great Gatsby." The book "Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World’s Fair on the Brink of War" tells how it happened (among other things).
Knowing what happened to the site of the Chicago World's Fair (see "Devil in the White City"), I was curious to find out what became of the NY site since then. Is it a great park, as one politician envisioned? Yes and no... This article provides detective-level detail to answer that.
One piece of the article especially struck home for me because the route to my WV village can either be pastoral or industrial. First timers get the steel mills.
Asher asks: "Why would they have turned off the main road? I don't know, but it's not too far a stretch to imagine that Gatsby and the Buchanans would have done this precisely for the scenery, because they wanted to show off the full stark vision of New York City's valley of ashes to their visitor Nick Carraway. Who hasn't sometimes taken the long route on a car ride to impress a guest?"
I know why Tom took that detour. He had some scenery of his own to enjoy. Delete the scoop?
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