Writing Life: September 2007 Archives

Amazon is gearing up an eBook initiative, including a $500 eBook reader and a proprietary content format. As we prepare to be underwhelmed, PC World has the first take.  The idea of an eBook has always intrigued me, but years and years have gone by, and it's generally gone nowhere.   Sony already has one of these literary gadgets, and a quick look at it here tells me it's not designed by someone who really loves books. It's a cold, grey, fragile-looking tablet.  My dream for an ebook reader: waterproof, durable, opens and lays out like a book, color screen, 30 hours of battery life, backlit for evening reading without a light, notes capability, wi-fi access & internet browsing, ability to add notes to word docs for editing, and availability of every book in print via some sort of online store.  An eBook Apple might have come up with.

Update: more on the Amazon launch here.  Looks like Penguin is one of their big content providers; Penguin of course has Penguin Classics, which would include lots of material out of copyright. Given the digital rights management issues around music, likely to be similar or worse with books, it wouldn't surprise me if Amazon continued previous ebook efforts to emphasize a lot of non-copyright content.

This New York Times review reminds us that if you haven't thought of something new to write about, you just aren't thinking hard enough:

The narrator of "An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England" is an accidental firebug "with blood and soot on his hands." He committed the unspeakable crime of burning down Emily Dickinson's house. Thus he threw Amherst, Mass., into turmoil, not only because he violated the legacy of the college town's cherished literary Belle but also because he killed "two of its loafered citizens" in the process.

One of the greatest children's authors of the 20th century, Madeline L'Engle, passed away today at the age of 88. Her books, including "A Wrinkle in Time", were imaginative, disturbing, inspiring, and at times bewildering, in a good way.  She lived the life most writers aspire to, writing wonderful things and seeing them widely read.
  

The Guardian is wondering why nobody has bothered to make academic writing more exciting.  I suppose they're right. How about a new take on the typical biology research paper:

The 1918 flu killed millions worldwide. In the course of this paper, we will examine the spread of the pandemic, as well as the intimate details of the life of Ms. Glendeen Rockhopper, the former secretary of a famed flu scientist who had a series of torrid affairs and climbed Mt. Everest with her poodle, Mr. Fancy.

That old question of "how do you choose a college" used to be answered by what was nearby, or where had dad gone, or who had the niftiest football team.  Now, students pour through US News and World Report and stress about going to a university ranked a few notches below their comfort level. Over at Altercation Siva V. is tearing down the whole idea of the US News rankings rather effectively.

Whether you attend Northwestern University (ranked No. 14 by the 2007 U.S. News survey) or the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (ranked No. 38), you will use a biology textbook by Neil A. Campbell and Jane B. Reece. Your professors will all have degrees from one of the 100 or so outstanding graduate schools in the world. Most will have degrees from one of the 10 best graduate programs in their fields. They will all have learned the same research techniques as those at MIT and Stanford.

My college is near the bottom of the nationally ranked liberal arts colleges.  Numerous graduates of my college currently hold teaching positions at ivy league universities. 'Nuff said.