Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The quick, brown fox jumps over...

It's the last day of August and that can mean only one thing - thirty days has September, April, June and November, all the rest...uh...something, something, thirty-one.  As you can see, I can never remember the rest of that catchy memory aid, and I know I'm not the only one.  I don't usually suggest kid titles in this blog, but whenever I see the word "September," and I automatically start bopping my head to "thirty days has ...," and then I think "doh! why can't I remember the rest??," I think it's time to offer a very useful title that readers of all ages can appreciate.  Appropriately enough, the title is Thirty Days Has September: Cool Ways to Remember Stuff.  It's full of helpful tips to remember a cornucopia of basic information: from the above calendar jingle to easy and fun ways to recall your times tables (sound silly?  well, what if the electricity went out and the battery in your calculator died, and you needed to figure out  pronto what 9 x 12 equals?  not so silly now, is it?)  So, if you need to impress your niece who's majoring in astronomy, dazzle her by rattling off the correct order of the planets from the sun.  How?  By remembering "my very excited mother just served us nachos" - hold the guacamole.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Quiz time

If you're a fan of Ray Bradbury, you may already know that he is turning 90 this week.  But how well do you know his books?  The Guardian newspaper has put together a short quiz about some of his famous works, so here's your chance to rev up some brain cells and test how much you remember about Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and others.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Where art thou, Shakespeare?

For all you language lovers out there, the folks at the Oxford English Dictionary have just announced over 2000 new words to be added to the beloved tome.  Some of the new entries?  Hold onto your head: vuvuzela, bromance, staycation, buzzkill, cheeseball (not the edible kind), defriend, tweetup, bargainous (you have GOT to be kidding about this one!), overleveraged, quantitative easing (huh??), frenemy, and my personal favorite, chillax.  So, if you've just been defriended after becoming overleveraged, arrange a tweetup with someone other than a frenemy or a buzzkill, plan a staycation that doesn't involve any vuvuzelas, and chillax about that bromance your uncle is having - at least he isn't suffering from hikikomori.

Can writing make you rich?

Forbes has come out with a list of the top ten highest paid authors.  No surprises here - just proves that readers love thrillers, romance and vampires.  Maybe I should write a book about a vampire lawyer (some would say they already exist) who falls in love with a possessed cat, and together they solve international crimes against the living dead.  I could even throw in a wise and bespectacled professor who offers sage advice to the vampire / feline duo as they struggle with their unconventional romance.  It could work...

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

New art books

Today I was walking by a cart of books in the process of being cataloged, and my eye was caught by two titles: Japanese Woodblock Prints by Andreas Marks and Botany for the Artist by Sarah Simblet.  Both are beautiful books, and whether you're an artist or you just like looking at lovely pictures, there is plenty of eye candy to satisfy everyone.    

Monday, August 2, 2010

To text or not to text?

I have to confess something - I don't understand the obsession with texting.  I can chalk it up to my age, but I know plenty of texters who are older than me.  I could say I'm not a fan of mobile devices, but my Droid phone is pretty darn cool.  Perhaps what really annoys me the most about texting  is the deterioration of a basic human function - vocal conversation.  I say "vocal" because I know lots of people will argue that texting is conversation.  Ok, maybe so.  But when I go out to dinner and see a family sitting at a table with mobile devices in hand, and about the only time a word is uttered is when the server stops by, I just feel sad.  When a friend told me that she had gone out to eat with family she hadn't seen in a long time, she felt like the kid who sees others passing a note but isn't included.  Why?  With the exception of one other person at the table, everyone else texted throughout the entire meal.  Were they texting business associates, friends, roommates?  No, they were texting each other at the table.  I wonder, if a device runs out of power during this dinner, will the ability to engage in a face-to-face conversation kick in?   

I suppose I shouldn't worry about future generations and how they will communicate with each other.  As one author points out, texting is just another step in the evolution of communication.  Whether you're into texting or not, check out Txting: the Gr8 Db8 by David Crystal.  He feels more positive about the whole text messaging phenomenon than I do, and I find that reassuring...for now.