Most Difficult Books

Flavorwire, the worst kind of electrician snack ever, has a list of the fifty toughest books ever to read.   Dante's Inferno is one I've actually read, completed, and I don't think it's all that hard, if you acclimate yourself to the time and theme of the book; Naked Lunch, on the other hand, I attempted in my twenties and didn't get more than a dozen pages into it.  There wasn't even anything to appreciate about the book; I had to stop.   Much of the list, thought, are books I've considered reading, which means if I can successfully read a book labeled "tough" by a flavored wire, I'll be doing pretty good.

Crazy Books Help Your Learn

Maybe I need to take another crack at Naked Lunch: a recent study from researchers at the University of California and University of British Columbia have shown that books with illogical structure make you think more. If a book is confusing or bizarre, readers were shown to have devoted more time to deciphering the text to make sense of it, compared to a more logical story that's easier to follow and understand. Most other articles condense that to "it makes you smarter," but that's not exactly true — the press release describes it as "reading Kafka improves learning." Certainly, the more you exercise those mental skills, the more likely you'll be able to use them with little effort in the future. However, that's not really a case of "Kafka makes you smarter;" it's a case of "reading more makes you a better reader," which I think is far more useful of a statement, if not less headliney and more obvious than the others.

Classics No More

The Second Pass has done something drastic: they have picked out several "classics," and decided that they're really not worth all that they're built up to be. Ballsy, but often necessary; as times chance, contexts move, and (from what I remember; I've only read a couple on the list), many of those books strike emotional chords with readers at the time, taking broad strokes at society and humanity in charged prose, but that won't give them lasting power. I could never imagine Kerouac continuing to have the resonance he's enjoyed for much longer; his stuff is so rooted in the time of the 50s and 60s, it was bound to lose relevance as time moved on. Via.

Bus Driver Reading While Driving

I'm never one to discouraging reading while riding the bus, but it isn't exactly recommended while you're driving. A Montgomery (MD) County bus driver has been taken off driving duties after a sharp-eyed rider recorded some reading-while-driving skills while on duty. Surprisingly, even after the photos were brought to light, the driver wasn't fired: recent changes have been made in the area which would result in immediate firing for using a mobile device while operating public transportation, but apparently a book isn't as big a threat. I do admit, because they are a series of photos and not video, it's hard to say if she's just reading at red lights…not that it would be much better. Via.

Reading Women Are Sexy

The view of book-loving women ranges from misogynistic to slutty to honest, and now there's an art installation that seems to pick up on those last two. Called Bookworms Never Go To Bed Alone, New Zealand artist Kelly Thompson is exhibiting her view of how hot book-reading ladies are. The gallery showing is, sadly, in Melbourne Australia at the Gorker Gallery. There's more at Kelly's site, if you have patience to get through the lame flash interface (there's a bit of NSFW).

Lying About Books

Being a reader appears to be a huge banner for being a quality person, because half of men and a third of women will lie to their friends and lovers about reading in order to appear smarter or more attractive than they really are. The study's data doesn't say whether this is more or less than anything else that people lie about: fandom for a sports team when you're not really into football, or knowing something about cars when you don't really, or putting in a CD that you bought just because the other person indicated they liked it. People jump through all sorts of hoops to increase their appeal, but the reputation of bookish people being lame doesn't seem to hold up: people want to look more well-read than they already are. Now, if only more would actually do the reading...

The Meat And Gristle Within

Christopher Morley, On Visiting Bookshops:

"Some shrewd soul, who understands books, remarked some time ago on the editorial page of the Sun’s book review that no superlative on a jacket had ever done the book an atom of good. He was right, as far as the true bookster is concerned. We choose our dinner not by the wrappers, but by the veining and gristle of the meat within. "

(Via.)

25 Banned Books To Read

A little early for the usual Banned Book Week festivities, but it'll give you a head-start on your reading: 25 Banned Books You Should Read. What I like about this one is that it includes a number of books that aren't the usual Great Works Of Fiction and includes minor, but critically acclaimed, books that have seen opposition but haven't gotten as much press as Huck Finn or Lady Chatterly. Regardless of content, it's always nice to see a book list that includes something unexpected or unfamiliar.

Beer And Books

You may know how to match up meat with wine, cheese with champagne, but have you thought about what goes with beer? How about a good book? I find this intriguing, because the connection of wine or champagne indicates richness. Beer is the drink of the common man, cheap and easy, as a good book should be.

Short and Free Books Bring New Readers

Since I'm a small-time publisher, this topic is of interest to me: how do people learn about new books? When I say 'new,' I mean new to the reader, not just recently-street-dated books. When I think back to some of my more favorite books, they came from a small number of sources:

• Browsing a bookstore;
• Recommended in school;
• Recommended by friends.

So, how much of this is influenced by a publisher's advertising and review copies? The first one is probably the only one -- as near as I can tell, recommendation by authorities and acquaintances are the two primary ways everyone I know reads. While reading a review may have been handy, I can't think of a book I've bought based solely on a review. The 'browsing' one has gained a huge foothold in online stores like Amazon: you don't have to rely on what can fit into a cramped storefront or Borders' bottom line. Since online stores hold a heck of a lot more than retail, there's more opportunities to find something new.

So, how does a book improve its chances of being recommended? Neil Gaiman says free copies is a huge influencer -- the low risk to the reader lets them be more adventurous in what they read. If a couple people who got a free copy recommend a couple new readers, in theory the marketer has improved their customer base. A lot of publishers sell their remaindered books to discount chains, but we keep them here and send them out as review copies and, from time to time, do a mass donation to libraries around the country. While this reduces our bottom-line profit, one copy in a library has a chance of passing through dozens of hands -- or it might be sold at a FOL sale for four bits to someone who might not have otherwise bought it even for $2 at a discount store. Might those copies end up on eBay? Yeah, probably; but, again, if they're that valuable, our sales are better. If not, some eBayer is going to buy it for a buck plus shipping, again reducing their risk in the chance of reading something crappy. Big publishers, the tightest of publishers, probably spend a buck to print a hardcover with a dustjacket; do they give them away for free? Not a chance. Small publishers like us spend a couple bucks per TPB , but everything we've seen is that you get better exposure by giving away $500 in free copies than a dinky, two-color advertisement in the back of a magazine for $500. (by the way, if you're wondering how to get a free copy from a publisher, your best best is to ask -- you might have to claim to be a reviewer, but to avoid being called a liar make sure to write a review at Amazon or your blog when you're done).

That possible risk for readers is also a driving force behind the increase in shorter books. Although, from looking at the reasoning evidenced in the NPR story, the problem isn't that books are getting smaller, but that publishers have been driving for big-bucks with huge books. Go look at a paperback from the eighties or earlier: they're in relatively large print on small pages, printed all the way out to the edge of the paper, and they still can only hit 200 pages. And they used to release darn near everything in paperback form: novels, biographies, business advice, joke books. In an attempt to increase revenues from books, publishers started spending more money on acquiring writers who produce larger books that they can charge more for. And they did away with the small-format paperback, charging twice as much for the same content in a slightly larger shape. Readers, in return,balk at the time and money to devote to reading a $19.99, 550-page book when they would gladly have spent $4.99 on a 250-page book for an afternoon of reading fun. So, to improve flagging revenue, publishers give larger advances to proven writers, and get the writers to produce more and more....to which readers responds, "too long, too expensive." I'd say this is a balancing out of that cycle -- readers want to be entertained, and you can't be entertained if you're afraid of how you're going to afford it.

Roundup: Best Books of 2007

As usual, I read very little new literature this year, opting for Vonnegut and Bester and other classics. If I do want to back up and see what I missed, plenty of places have their recommendations:

• AV Club: The Best Books We Read In 2007
• Publisher's Weekly: Best Books of the Year
• New York Times: 100 Notable Books of the Year and 10 best books
• Library Journal: Best Books 2007
• Boston.com: Best Fiction and Nonfiction
• School Library Journal: Best Books of 2007
• Hudson Booksellers: Best Books of 2007
• On Point Radio: Best Books of 2007 (audio)
  
• Salon Book Awards 2007
• Newsweek: 2007's Best Books
• Village Voice: 20 Books of the year
• American Library Association: Teen's Top Ten
• Amazon.com: Best Books of 2007
• Kirkus Reviews: Best Books of 2007 (pdf)
• Miami Herald: Best Kids Books of 2007
• Slate: Best Books of 2007
• Financial Times: The Best Books of 2007
• Topeka/Shawnee Public Library: Best Books of 2007
• New Statesman: Books of the year
• The Globalist: Best Books of 2007
• Entertainment Weekly: The Best Books of 2007
• Independent Online: Best Books of 2007
• New York Mahazine: Best in Books
• Seattle Times: Book reviewers favorites
• FEARS magazine: best scifi/fantasy/horror (scroll down)
• Leicester (UK) Libraries: best books picked by children
• The Independent Mail: Best Books of 2007
• Christian Science Monitor: Books we liked best
• Scholastic: Best books of 2007, parents & children
  
• January Magazine: Best books of 2007
• Teen Reads: Best books of 2007
• Cryptomundo: Top Cryptozoology books
• Miss Erin's Top Favorite Books of 2007
• Planetizen: Top 10 Books list

And, this list from Bostonist did the footwork of what I was planning on doing: compiling a meta-list of best books, based on those books' appearance in other lists.