The charges: tedium, long-windedness, philosophical unpleasantness
Save yourself 1,000 pages, kids: basically, it’s all the poor people’s fault! Life lessons learned right there!
~
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The charges: awful, awful prose
Actually, one good thing about calling The Da Vinci Code to mind is that doing so also calls to mind this fairly spectacular take-down of Dan Brown’s prose. We’re perfectly aware that Brown has spent the last decade laughing en route to and from the bank — that still doesn’t make The Da Vince Code any more worth reading.
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The charges: self-indulgence, cloying sentimentality
Break-ups are horrible. There’s no two ways about it. Sadly, not all of us have benevolent publishers to send us off on a global jaunt to inflict our angst on the unfortunate residents of countries whose names happen to begin with “I.” (Although, judging by the appearance of “EAT PRAY LEAVE” signs in Bali of late, there are more Gilbert-esque types out there than we might like to imagine.)
State of Fear by Michael Crichton
The charges: tinfoil hattery, dubious science
As far as learning about the issues surrounding climate change goes, we suggest that a novel whose underlying premise can be summarized as “LA LA LA IGNORE IT AND IT’LL ALL GO AWAY” is perhaps not the best place to start.
Piers Anthony, generally
The charges: rampaging sexism, general creepiness
Flavorpill has a confession to make here: we were quite big fans of Piers Anthony’s fantasy production line in our early teens, but while he’s got a way with a narrative, he’s also got a way with spectacularly over sexism. Revisiting his work, it’s remarkable to see just how objectionable his depictions of women are (especially in the never-ending Xanth series) — they’re almost inevitably either ingenuous sex objects, or nasty deceptive tricksters who are ugly to boot. And then, of course, there’s his hugely creepy 1990 novel Firefly, where, amongst other things, a five-year-old girl gets it on with an adult man. Ewwww.
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
The charges: ghastly self-help simplicity
Want to know the secret? Lean close, now. We’ll whisper it quietly. You ready? You sure? “THERE IS NO FUCKING SECRET! LIFE IS DIFFICULT. SORRY.” There. Now, let’s never speak of this again.
Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
The charges: privileged Upper East Side ghastliness, being responsible for the TV series
Things we have never really understood about TV/film/literature/etc include: the appeal of depictions of the apparently oh-so-dramatic lives of self-absorbed, overprivileged and fundamentally tedious rich people. Sigh.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
The charges: ubiquity
Actually, in fairness, there’s nothing especially wrong with this. It’s just that if we see one more dishevelled businessman reading it avidly on the subway, his face lit with the glow of hope that maybe just a little Jobsian stardust might somehow sprinkle onto his next start-up idea, we’ll dissolve into a puddle of existential despair once and for all.
Dollhouse: A Novel by Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian
The charges: its authors
Have we read this? No. Come on, gentle reader — we can only put ourselves through so much on your behalf.
Mission Earth (Volumes 1 to 10) by L Ron Hubbard
The charges: general awfulness, Xenu, etc
And finally, where to begin with this? Wherever you stand on the “Is Scientology a religion or a dangerous cult?” debate, the fact is that while L Ron proved disconcertingly successful as a “religious” leader, he proved rather less so as a prose stylist and storyteller — unless 1.2 million words’ worth of garbled, homophobic rantings about an imagined dystopian future are your idea of a good time, in which case strap yourself to the e-meter and get reading. http://flavorwire.com/289377/10-books-that-should-be-challenged-instead-of-50-shades-of-grey?all=1
watch in high quality please, it makes my face look better i promise. haha. Its a nice vlog of me talking about books that are good that are not Harry Potter, Twilight or other popular books out there that everyone hears about I know that when people recccommenndd thingss you dont normally check them out- but its something in life I’ve learned to do…. cause its really cool to.. haha… ok im done. just enjoy Video Rating: 4 / 5
Up until recently, the Google Play Store only supported carrier billing for applications and games. When Google added music, movies, and books to the Play Store they didn’t bring that functionality over. They finally announced its development last month, but no carriers were on board with carrier billing with those pieces of media.
That changes today, though, as Google announced on Google+ that Sprint has become one of the first carriers to sport the functionality. It’s no surprise they are the first considering their longstanding and fruitful relationship with Google.
They were the first (and are still the only) to bring Google Wallet, and they were the first (and are still the only) to bring Google Voice carrier integration.
We’re sure AT&T and T-Mobile will jump on board for widespread carrier billing before too long, but for now Sprint customers are an exclusive crowd of those who can get anything the Google Play Store has to offer without having to pay for it until they pay for their monthly bill.
(left) Hand-drawn Alphabet book handmade by William Harrison, Australia, 1894. 97/132/1 (right) E R Boyce, Beginning to Read, England, 1950s. 2007/108/1 Collection:Powerhouse Museum
In this National Year of Reading, it is appropriate that the Powerhouse Museum mounts an exhibition which celebrates excellence is Australian book design and publishing. While the Museum collection contains hundreds of books, including the two children’s books illustrated above (one hand made in Australia by 13 year old William Harrison for his niece in England, the other published in England but used in Australian schools), it holds very few winning books from the Australian Publishers Association (APA) annual Book Design Awards (BDA).
This is about to change, as research and development of the Cover story: 60 years of Australian book design display, has drawn our attention to the changing look of the book and the dramatic changes which have shaped the design, layout, printing and production of Australian books over the six decades of the Australian Publishers Association Book Design Awards (1952-2012). As these Awards promote and recognise creativity, excellence and innovation in Australian book design and production, it seems highly appropriate that the Powerhouse Museum now preserves aspects of this important legacy.
Held in conjunction with the 2012 Book Design Awards event (Thursday 17 May) and the 60th anniversary of the Australian Publishers Associations (APA) Annual Book Design Awards (BDA), Cover story showcases a selection of award winning and highly commended books, plus numerous BDA catalogues. The image on the cover of the 1998 BDA catalogue (illustrated above) and the conceptual caption, ‘Books: the best thing since sliced bread!’ printed on the back cover, playfully and metaphorically highlight the relevance and significance of books and reading in everyday life. This catalogue was designed by Dean Lahn in collaboration with conceptual photographer Andrew Dunbar. APA invited Lahn to design the catalogue as his book, Body Piercing (a self initiated project produced in collaboration with Andrew Dunbar), won both the Best Designed Book of the Year and Best Designed Jacket of the Year categories of the 1998 BDA awards.
1998 Book Design Awards catalogue, designed and typeset by Dean Lahn, Lahn Stafford Design, cover photograph by Andrew Dunbar. Reproduced courtesy Australian Publishers Association
Judging of the Book Design Awards was tough in the early years as the Association tried to improve overall standards. The comment from the 1953–54 judges was typical: “We found examples of first class printing, good layout, good binding, good jacket designs, and good illustrations, but unfortunately all these virtues were seldom combined in the same book …”
By 1967–68 the standard had lifted. That year the judges commented: “Partly as a result of the competition, nearly all books submitted were the work of trained and responsible designers and fewer books are now left to the anonymous chances of the composing room”.
In recent decades, the standard of entries has been high and competition fierce.
In 1993, The Australian Dream: Design of the Fifties, designed by Colin Rowan, won the Best Designed Book of the Year (see below) and Refreshing: art off the pub wall, published by Allen & Unwin in association with the Powerhouse Museum (also designed by Colin Rowan) won Best Designed Paperback priced below $25.00 in 1990.
The Australian Dream: Design of the Fifties, designed by Colin Rowan, published by Powerhouse Museum, 1993
Photography books and books about nature have also featured prominently among the award winning books, but since the mid-1990s, the Best Designed Popular Reference Book and Best Designed Book of the Year categories have been dominated by cookbooks. By 2002 a trend had emerged for cookbooks not to feature food on the cover at all. Within this group, the strong graphics of Damien Pignolet’s design for French (2006) and David Thompson’s bold simple design for Thai Food (2002) stood out from the crowd. The judges’ commented that the whole design of Thai Food, ‘from the particularly lush hot pink Thai fabric cover to the beautiful internals — elevated this book from a cookbook to an object of desire’.
The children’s book category of the Awards has also been strong from the beginning, with the best childrens’ books often having a sophisticated sense of fun which blurs the boundaries between adult and children’s literature. The Museum’s Cover story display features memorable award winning childrens’ books from the early decades including Animal Talk and other stories (1954-55), Ombley-Gombley (1969-70) and Storm-Boy (1974-75), through to the outstanding children’s picture book of 2007 – Shaun Tan’s remarkable The Arrival. The 2007 judges’ were ‘unanimous in (their) appreciation of this extraordinarily beautiful, haunting and original work of art’.
Even though sales of ebook readers continues to accelerate, the late 20th and early 21st centuries may well be remembered as the golden age of luscious, highly tactile, coffee table books. BDA judges’ comments over the last 10 years reflect this: “this is a book to hold close and enjoy” (2010), “cleverly designed to include stroking, coveting and ultimately treasuring” (2007), “the luscious feel of the book conveys a genuine warmth” (2006), “the whole design elevates this from a cookbook to an object of desire” (2002), “the attention paid to every detail makes this a complete package” (2000).
Cover story: 60 years of Australian book design opened on 14 May and will be up at least through to the 24 June, and maybe longer. The Powerhouse Museum Research Library holds more BDA award winning books, and these are available for viewing by appointment. Monday-Friday 9am-5pm. Tel: 92170258
The November 14, 1960 edition* of Publishers Weekly contained the article Children’s Books of 1930-1960 That Have Become Modern Classics. Acknowledging that those three decades were particularly good to the world of children’s lit they sent an informal survey to the children’s librarians of New York, Chicago and San Francisco to determine “which books of the post-Winnie-the-Pooh era . . . have proved to be so popular with children that they deserve to be called classics.” The librarians, for the record, were remarkably good at their predictions though they did have the odd misfire (Joan Walsh Anglund’s Love Is a Special Way of Feeling, anyone?).
Our polls of the Top 100 Picture Books and Top 100 Children’s Novels looked for different results. Perhaps in the future I will indulge in a Best of the Last 30 Years Poll, but for now this is a poll that determines what folks right here, right now, as of 2012 believe are the best books for kids out there. Oh, they’re doozies.
I’ve looked at the results, cleaned up the documents, and with the help of my incredible team of tally monkeys, with Eric Carpenter and Sondra Eklund going particularly above and beyond the call of duty, this is one heckuva new list. Things have changed. Things have stayed the same. And books are shifting like never before. All things being equal and the creek don’t rise, here’s the schedule for the coming month:
May 14th (Tue) – #100-91 Children’s Novels
May 15th (Wed) – #100-91 Picture Books
May 16th (Thur) – #90-81 Children’s Novels
May 17th (Fri) – #90-81 Picture Books
May 18th (Sat) – #80-71 Children’s Novels
May 19th (Sun) – #80-71 Picture Books
May 20th (Mon) – #70-61 Children’s Novels
May 21st (Tue) – #70-61 Picture Books
May 22nd (Wed) – #60-51 Children’s Novels
May 23rd (Thur) – #60-51 Picture Books
May 24th (Fri) – #50-41 Children’s Novels
May 25th (Sat) – #50-41 Picture Books
May 26th (Sun) – #40-31 Children’s Novels
May 27th (Mon) – #40-31 Picture Books
May 28th (Tue) – #30-21 Children’s Novels
May 29th (Wed) – #30-21 Picture Books
May 30th (Thur) – #20-11 Children’s Novels
May 31st (Fri) – #20-11 Picture Books
June 1st (Sat) – #10 – Both Picture Books and Chapter Books
June 2nd (Sun) #9 – Both Picture Books and Chapter Books
June 3rd (Mon) #8 – Both Picture Books and Chapter Books
June 4th (Tue) #7 – Both Picture Books and Chapter Books
June 5th (Wed) #6 – Both Picture Books and Chapter Books
June 6th (Thur) #5 – Both Picture Books and Chapter Books
June 7th (Fri) #4 – Both Picture Books and Chapter Books
June 8th (Sat) #3 – Both Picture Books and Chapter Books
June 9th (Sun) #2 – Both Picture Books and Chapter Books
June 10th (Mon) #1 – Chapter Book
June 11th (Tue) #1 – Picture Book
June 12th (Wed) – Children’s Poll Results
All this is done secure in the knowledge that at any point I may have to tweak this schedule and skip a day. However, I think that for the most part this is something we can do. Call me cautiously optimistic.
A couple notes about the results themselves. When I asked for the children’s novels results I requested but did not demand that folks list the first book in a series when they loved a series. However, I stipulated that in the event that the book was particularly good they should feel free to vote for it, whether or not it was the first. You will see that folks took me at my word on that one.
Also, you will some repeated background information if the books were on the polls before. That’s just for my own sanity’s sake. These things will be difficult to do, ten at a time. I’m also giving each book its own post with a final list with links at the end. I will also not list the ranking of the votes for each book within their posts. At the end of the release I will post the spreadsheet with all the vote rankings and you can assess for yourself whether or not one book or another should have actually have been on the list. I will, however, include the point spread.
In any case, my other blogging may be put on the backburner while I finish this but rest assured that it will resume full throttle when all is said and done.
See you tomorrow!
*Thanks to Eric Carpenter for informing me about the PW article.
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OH MY GOD, first time doing a readathon in forever. Why? Because I’m not good at them! But I figured: a week long one? With finals and AP exams already over? Challenge accepted! I have to post up a goals list so…here it is!
The Bout of Books Read-a-Thon was created by Amanda @ On a Book Bender on a complete whim in August 2011. It took on a life of its own and was such a hit that Amanda decided to do it again and turn it into a somewhat regular occurrence. There are no set dates for Bout of Books; rather, Amanda tries to work with Bout of Books participants to determine the best dates for them. However, there are a few things about Bout of Books that will always stay the same.
It is a week-long read-a-thon, usually from 12:01am on a Monday through 11:59pm on a Sunday in whatever time zone you are in.
Bout of Books is low pressure, meaning participants are only asked to push themselves to read more than they normally would during any given week. There is no competition between readers.
How much time a reader wants, and can commit, to read, tweet, or network with fellow bloggers is left to individual preference. All challenges and giveaways are optional.
Networking with fellow bloggers is actively encouraged, though never required. Co-hosts are there to facilitate blog hopping and interaction between participants.
Use Twitter to post updates throughout the read-a-thon. Everyone will be tweeting with the #boutofbooks hashtag.
MY GOALS YOU ASK?
Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
Purity by Jackson Pearce
Re-read Daughter of Smoke And Bone by Laini Taylor
The Rotary Club of Oamaru’s annual Booakrama opened at 9 this morning.
For the past few weeks members and friends have been sorting books donated by the public.
It’s a fascinating exercise which shows there are a few too many people with a Presbyterian approach to books – they’ve been kept where they’ve got damp or just kept too long so they’re dirty and musty and have to be taken to the recycling centre or dumped.
However while there are lots of those there are many more good books which will be snapped up by people whose search for a bargain contributes to the club’s main fundraising effort.
How good a book is and what it’s worth exercises the sorters. Is a signed, first edition of a Wilbur Smith hard back a treasure or just another quick read? Are these old books precious or well past their read-by dates?
We usually take the approach that the books have been given to us to be sold and it’s better to price them low and miss the odd windfall profit than to price them too high and have them left on the tables.
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FREEPORT (KDKA) — The case of the four overdue library books and the little girl who borrowed them is closed.
Four-year-old Katelyn Jageman’s four books were due back on Oct. 19, 2011.
The Freeport Area Library said after several attempts to retrieve the books, the case was turned over to police who made a courtesy call to the child’s home.
At a rate of ten cents a day over a 204-day period, Katelyn owed the library $81.60.
This afternoon, the child’s mother Erica Jageman returned the books, paid the fine and apologized to the library.
The book is now closed on the case.
The child had borrowed “Sleeping Beauty,” “Corduroy’s Halloween,” “Dora The Explorer: The Halloween Cat” and “I See The Moon.”
[Episcopal News Service] Through the years I’ve been part of several church groups in which participants were asked to share their spiritual autobiographies. While people usually told stories of their personal failures, successes, and lessons learned along the way, one evening my friend Jason turned the genre on its head in the most delightful way. He told his autobiography solely through the books he had read through the decades — the authors who had shaped his thinking, the epiphanies that had come to him through study, and the decisions he had made as a result of what he had read and pondered.
I suspect many Episcopalians could follow the lead of Jason, for we are a bookish lot. The Book of Common Prayer is our defining volume, of course, but our love of the written word is evident in many other ways as well. Our church calendars brim with book club meetings and discussion groups, and we seem to have produced far more authors than is statistically likely given the size of our denomination. I suspect the homes of many Episcopalians — myself included — harbor perilously balanced stacks of books on bedside stands and coffee tables.
In my own life, I can think of many books that have played a crucial role in my spiritual development. Kathleen Norris’s Dakota: A Spiritual Geography brought me back to Christianity after decades away; Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation inspired me to go deeper in my prayer life. I love Anne Lamott’s mix of reverence and sass and Coleman Barks’ luminous translations of Rumi. If I have the chance, in heaven I intend to personally thank C.S. Lewis, St. Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, and Henry David Thoreau.
For us bookish types, an armchair and reading lamp can provide just as inspiring a worship experience as a Gothic cathedral. Joseph Campbell, the great scholar of myths, described this particular form of devotion the best. When asked what spiritual practice he followed, he said, “I underline books.”
I also am quite certain that God shares this passion for reading, for why else would he use books so frequently to send messages? There’s the Bible, of course, but think of how often the right book seems to fall into our hands just when we need it most. Clearly God must subscribe to a wide variety of book review publications.
Then again, perhaps he simply browses the shelves at Loome Theological Booksellers (https://www.loomebooks.com/) in Stillwater, Minnesota. When I visited there recently, I was enthralled by the tens of thousands of books that line its shelves. Located in a former Swedish Covenant church, the store is the largest secondhand dealer of theological books in the world.
Current owner Christopher Hagen told me that the business was founded in 1981 by Thomas Loome, a theology professor who had caught the book-buying bug while in graduate school. His hobby became a full-fledged business after he started purchasing the libraries of Catholic monasteries and abbeys during an era when many of them were closing.
“He bought this church to store his growing collection of books and he and his wife raised their five children amid the stacks,” Hagen said. “As he bought more books, he just kept adding more shelves.”
Today nearly every square foot of the church’s balcony and main floor is crammed with volumes, creating such a warren of corridors and cubbyholes that patrons often must borrow the store’s flashlights to better decipher the titles. While much of the store’s business is conducted online, Hagen says that collectors come from all over the world to visit in person.
“This is what can happen if we let our book-buying habits get out of hand,” I said to my husband as we browsed. “Consider this place a warning.”
But I also know that neither of us is likely to curtail our literary indulgences. After all, one never knows when God is going to leave just the right volume sitting on a bookshelf at eye level, its spine slightly pulled out so we’ll notice it. It’s not as dramatic as a booming voice from the clouds, but it works.
– Lori Erickson writes about inner and outer journeys atwww.spiritualtravels.info/. She serves as a deacon at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City, Iowa.
Statements and opinions expressed in the commentaries herein, are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of Episcopal News Service or the Episcopal Church.
Back in the early ’80s there was an ad campaign for Paul Masson wine where Orson Welles famously uttered, “We will sell no wine before its time.”
The message was powerful; it conveyed, “We care so much about producing the highest quality wine that we refuse to rush the process. We won’t try to bring it out faster to increase profit. We won’t skimp on the craftsmanship that makes our wine so good. It takes time, and we will give our wine the time it needs.”
I couldn’t help thinking about that as I considered what I wanted to say today about the time and craftsmanship it takes to write a high quality book. I’m not talking about a book that everyone has to love. I’m talking about a book that has the basics: a solid story, well-developed characters, conflict that engages the reader, a satisfying resolution, well-crafted sentences and paragraphs, literate use of words, and a lack of typos and other egregious, noticeable errors. Even if it’s non-fiction, the basics apply except instead of characters, we need well-developed ideas.
With the proliferation of self-pub, online retailers are flooded with books that contain almost none of those basics. Books that scream “vanity” and “I just wanted to get rich quick.” Books that say, “I was too impatient, or too arrogant, or too ignorant, to either learn the very most basic writing techniques, or to get an editor’s eyes on this before it went public.”
I’ve said many times — I’m in favor of self-pub and e-pub and all the various ways writers now have to get their words out there.
But here’s the truth:
If you don’t pay attention to the quality control of your work, you’ll kill your writing career before it even starts.
Readers are not stupid. They may be downloading 99¢ e-books like crazy right now. But they’re already starting to figure out that something’s not right. Many of these books are poorly written and desperately need editing. (Even Amanda Hocking’s Trylle series, originally self-published, went through extensive editing at St. Martin’s before they re-released it.)
So why should you care? It seems many have the attitude of, “Why should I spend all that extra time and money on editing when people are going to buy it anyway?” Here’s why I think you should care:
If you self-publish a book that sucks, you may permanently lose potential readers. They pick up the book, it’s poorly crafted, they don’t like it — and they cross your name off their mental list of good authors. Down the road, perhaps you’ve become a better writer, perhaps you’ve finally decided to work with an editor, but unfortunately it’s too late for all those readers who are already convinced your books aren’t worth buying. Why risk that? Why not take the time to make sure your work is ready?
This idea of taking the time to properly craft a book applies to those in traditional publishing as well. Many of my clients become frustrated with me because I push them to make their proposals better and better; I may push them to write more chapters of their non-fiction books, I may push them to do a complete revision on a novel before submission. They’re anxious. They just want to get it out there. But I don’t work that way. I will sell no wine before its time.
I believe we need to keep holding books to a high standard. I want us all to keep insisting on quality reading material, not settling for whatever someone could slap together and impatiently upload to Kindle with barely a lick and a promise.
One of the main arguments writers use for self-publishing is the speed at which they can get their books up for sale. They’re proud of themselves for circumventing the laborious publishing system that — yes — takes forever. But many of them have nothing to be proud of. I’ve bought and read numerous self-pubbed books now, and in general the quality is noticeably inferior to what most traditional publishers are putting out. (And all of those self-pubbers who are doing it poorly are giving a very bad name to the handful who are doing it well.) Many are sacrificing craftsmanship for speed.
I’m with you on this one! I agree, with the sheer volume of books available on the market, those that are of superior quality and craftsmanship will stand out and be noticed. Even if going the traditional route will take me longer, I am willing to wait. I’d rather produce an excellent book over time, than a mediocre book quickly.
Some traditionally published authors have lost readers they can never regain, too. There are a few authors I won’t read because either 1) they were published too early (IMO) and their first few books were painful to get through, or 2) their first book was great but the second and third were disappointing.
I’ll usually plow through three books if I really want to support an author (or a publisher taking a chance on a genre I love). But after that I’m ruined for that author. I can’t force myself to read them even if my friends insist that they’ve gotten so much better.
Woohoo! I feel like cheering! I love your rally cry. I’m with ya sistah!
“Beware the lollipop of mediocrity. Lick it once and you’ll suck forever.” —Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys
I’m with you! I agree wholeheartedly and second what Gabrielle said.
I know that when people recccommenndd thingss you dont normally check them out- but its something in life I’ve learned to do…. cause its really cool to.. haha… ok im done. just enjoy 
I’m with you on this one! I agree, with the sheer volume of books available on the market, those that are of superior quality and craftsmanship will stand out and be noticed. Even if going the traditional route will take me longer, I am willing to wait. I’d rather produce an excellent book over time, than a mediocre book quickly.
Some traditionally published authors have lost readers they can never regain, too. There are a few authors I won’t read because either 1) they were published too early (IMO) and their first few books were painful to get through, or 2) their first book was great but the second and third were disappointing.
I’ll usually plow through three books if I really want to support an author (or a publisher taking a chance on a genre I love). But after that I’m ruined for that author. I can’t force myself to read them even if my friends insist that they’ve gotten so much better.
Woohoo! I feel like cheering! I love your rally cry. I’m with ya sistah!
“Beware the lollipop of mediocrity. Lick it once and you’ll suck forever.” —Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys
I’m with you! I agree wholeheartedly and second what Gabrielle said.