"Everybody looks at everybody all the time and you don't need to be a celebrity to feel the need for privacy. I myself was recently in big trouble with my Confessor for being slow to post a birthing video. I'm not talking about being either an extrovert or an introvert: I'm talking about people who don't believe privacy is a perversion, people who think it might even be a virtue."
THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL TO Jasper Fforde’s enigmatic 2011 novel Shades of Grey is a fascinating, mysterious science fiction picaresque where decoding the secrets behind the worldbuilding is part of the fun. B PLUS
Only a few pages in, this is already one of my favorite books of the year. Brilliantly written, an easy read yet so full of crucial perspective. #books#bookstodon#reading#literature#feminism
How do writers become famous? It's clear that talent is not enough. Cass R. Sunstein looks at the factors and trends that lead to literary recognition, from Oprah's Book Club to premature death. This extract from his book, "How to Become Famous: Lost Einsteins, Forgotten Superstars, and How the Beatles Came to Be," appears on LitHub.
Just finished another short novel that Benjamin Zephaniah wrote for teenagers. Read two so far. They give an insight into young people's lives for an old sod like me, but more than that, they're just really well constructed, and sensitively and subtlely written. It's not a genre that attracts due credit, but the man excelled in it, clearly. 📖 #books#bookstodon@bookstodon
I find this so unsettling, yet condensed #books and things like CliffsNotes have been around for years. I think this enables people with ADHD and those with the attention span of fleas, yet, maybe it can be useful for some. At least this isn't all AI.
If you’re a fan of podcasts, there are over dozen podcast dedicated to #JaneAusten and the Brontes. If I’m missing any, let me know so I can update the list!
British writer and physician Arthur Conan Doyle was born #OTD in 1859.
Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels.
Water is what runs out of the kitchen taps or a playground drinking fountain. It fills bathubs and pools and yes, of course, the ocean- but at a certain depth, water becomes a barrier from all you remember, all you think you know.
"How immense the universe is!
How eternal history is!
I wanted to measure the immensity with this puny five-foot body.
What authority has Horatio's philosophy?
The true nature of the whole creation.
...
I have no anxiety.
I recognize for the first time.
Great pessimism is nothing but great optimism."
#wordweavers 22/5: Is your antagonist more a dragon or a dragon rider?
Once you’ve explained what a dragon is…
Ask Perriad and she’ll probably see herself as a dragon rider (or else as a slayer of dragons!).
Ask Jerya, or anyone else who‘s butted heads with Perriad, and they’ll see her as a dragon—and they won’t mean it as a compliment. #writingCommunity#ThreeKindsofNorth#TheSunderingWall#VowsAndWatersheds#writing#books
#WritersCoffeeClub 21/5: Format as you write or at the end?
I format my WIP solely to suit myself—preferred font, spacing, etc. It looks nothing like Standard Manuscript Format, or like my finished books, but that’s cool. The one trick is to make consistent use of Paragraph Styles so that when needed I can change all the parameters in a few clicks.
My other essential for happy writing is never to use Word. #writingCommunity#ThreeKindsofNorth#TheSunderingWall#VowsAndWatersheds#writing#books
A Student's Guide to Right, Left and Truth by Alan E. Singer, 2020
This book is an augmented adaptation of the author's 2018 book Understanding Left and Right (Nova). It further reinforces the message that sustained truth-seeking leads people toward the political center. Each chapter offers divide-bridging discussions of issues such as regulation, taxation, corporate-strategy and personal identity, along with the very ideas of knowledge, truth and goodness.