Someone said in a Facebook authors’ group that hey, we were all in competition with one another. Yeah, no. That’s zero-sum thinking, and it does not quite work with books and stories — especially now. It’s 2019. Books have shelf life. Scarcity is not ubiquitous Yes, some things are governed by scarcity. For example, people buy maybe one house. They either buy this one or that one. (Let’s not discuss the superrich who buy several houses....
Though unless you’re a historian with access to rare book archives, you’re probably in the clear. We found that three rare books on various historical topics in the University of Southern Denmark’s library collection contain large concentrations of arsenic on their covers. The books come from the 16th and 17th centuries. — Read on www.popsci.com/poisonous-books
If you’re a science fiction fan like I am, here’s a new reading list: Novel Winner: Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Nominees: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Marian Wood) The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review) Fire with Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen) Hild, Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata (Mythic Island) A Stranger in Olondria, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer) The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker (Harper)...
Resolution time. It’s the occasion to institute changes. Or at least resolve to change. It doesn’t always work out, does it? The diet gets dropped. The fingernails get bitten. The cigarettes get smoked. The exercise gets blown off. And that’s that. Right? Maybe not. If you’ve ever had trouble shaking an addiction or behavior that ends up not serving your needs, you might find some hope (and results) in this analysis of addictive behavior, courtesy of Hyrum Smith, founder and creator of the Franklin planning system....
People love “Top” lists – Top 100 Movies of All Time, Top 100 Novels, 100 Most Powerful People, 100 Richest People, Billboard’s Top 100 Songs, Top Grossing Blockbusters … In a mainstream culture, being in the “top” is something of an honor. On the web, there have been recent “Top” lists, too. Two in particular have received a lot of attention: the Technorati 100 and, more recently, the Feedster 500....