Literally Blogging

   In the Philippines, bookends are a definite rarity unless you call those flat steel things as “bookends”. Aside from that, it is a pity we only sell the cheey superhero bookends here in the Philippines.This is the reason why I went ga-ga over the bookends in Barnes and Nobles six years ago and had the willpower to go over a thousand miles back home with the gargoyles below in my backpack. Aren’t they cute? I consider them one of the things I would probably run back home to get if ever my house is ever set ablaze.
 
  
I know …read more

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Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Roughcut) by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
More Information: www.freakanomics.com
      With my head always stuck in the clouds, I have always been a fan of fiction. It was brought about my fear of treading into the territory of real world books and especially the realm of numbers. In addition, it didn’t help that my college text book branded with the disability of innumeracy or being mathematically challenged because I was a marketing communication student. However, one day I lost my way in the bookstore and found my self in the …read more

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It may not be if the “Million Author Project” has its way. Their goal is to create various manuscripts contributed to by as many people as possible. Hence, “million authors.” It isn’t difficult; the rules are simple and you can contribute as little as a sentence.
From the site: “The Million Authors Project is an experiment to test the collective minds of several thousand people, all working together to create a written work. The goal of the project is to end up with a written novel, novella or short story for everyone to enjoy, written one page, …read more

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Book clubs are all over the place right now. They are sponsored by private individuals, bookstores, schools, churches, and are even online. If you love to read, you have probably considered joining a book club.
But what if you live somewhere where there isn’t an existing club? Don’t despair. You can still belong to a book club. You will just have to start it yourself. And don’t panic and run the opposite direction.
This easy guide will get you going so you can start your own book club. The two books below will …read more

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Rhys noted the other day the passing of Muriel Spark, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. “The New York Times,” just published their obituary on Ms. Spark, and had some interesting comments.
Her work, unlocked from her innermost memories of her experiences before and after her conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1954, built a canon of short, sometimes macabre, sometimes humorous novels that sought to pare away the absurdities of human behavior. In her writing, evil is never far away, violence is a regular visitor and death is a constant companion. Her themes were generally serious but nearly …read more

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I have no idea whatever came over me the other day. I was thinking back to high school and college, and the kinds of literature I liked. As a side note, I took Russian, and at the time, spoke it fairly fluently. Because of that I developed a fondness for Russian literature. And that led me to reading more about Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.
Akhmatova grew up during a very difficult time in Russia’s history. She learned on a close and personal level, the cost writers sometimes pay when they write within an oppressed society. …read more

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It didn’t me. I found it to be a subject of rather low interest. It seems that everyone ends up in court over some success, one way or the other. Author Dan Brown was accused of using parts of another book in his amazingly successful book, The DaVinci Code, but the London court ruled in Brown’s favor. This will, no doubt, have some impact on copyright law in the future. And I doubt it will hurt future sales of Dan Brown’s novels.
The DaVinci Code Keeps Up Its Winning Ways

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No matter how you slice it, modern literature finds its beginnings and roots, in small literary magazines. Online and in hard copy, the literary journal has stood as the symbol of the “starving artist,” symbol for writers but it remains the true way to legitimate literature. Identity Theory, an online Weblog, that is a small literary publication, is a great example and a good source for both readers and writers. Whether it is fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photography or other digital arts, Identity Theory may be the place for you.
Identity Theory is a regularly published, web-based magazine of …read more

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Few expressions of literature reflect our humanity more than poetry. It has a way of succintly and directly, through metaphor and symbolism, rhyme and meter, that exposes our most innermost selves. It speaks to the individual and it speaks to society. April is National Poetry Month and the 30 days of April barely seem long enough to explore all that poetry is.
If you haven’t explored poetry, thinking it too stuffy or perhaps too vague, take some time to rethink that stand. Poetry has a way of speaking to our hears and souls the way few forms …read more

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About three months ago, I found a wonderful book club online. Well, maybe book club isn’t the best description. It is like a giant wish list that… well, that’s not really it either. Let me try again. This book club had resources to help me find books that I might be interested in… but that wasn’t all. The name of this site is Book Browse and it is a great Web site for readers who need a little organization and love to hear about new books.

Let’s face it. When you go to your “Local Bookstore,” …read more

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