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Did you know that President Thomas Jefferson, novelist Mark Twain, and evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin all wrote in the margins? According to the New York Times, marginalia was denounced in the 20th century as a form of graffiti. These days, scholars love marked up books.

The article offers these observations from University of Toronto professor Heather Jackson: “Books with markings are increasingly seen these days as more valuable, not just for a celebrity connection but also for what they reveal about the community of people associated with a work…examining marginalia reveals a pattern of emotional reactions among everyday readers that might otherwise be missed, even by literary professionals.”

The Caxton Club and the Newberry Library will host a symposium in March to debate this subject; Jackson will be speaking there as well. The event will spotlight on a new essay collection entitled Other People’s Books: Association Copies and the Stories They Tell. This title contains 52 essays and 112 illustrations.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Last night, I plucked up the courage to ring Dotun Adebayo’s Virtual Bookshelf. Readers of this blog will know I’m a fan. Normally nowadays I can’t listen live, as the phone-in takes place between 2am and 3.30 (not great when you have to out the house for 6.30 to get to work). However, I’ve taken time off to write Johnny Mackintosh’s third adventure (provisionally Battle for Earth) so I, like Dotun, can afford to be up all night.

I telephoned to nominate Harry Potter – the entire series – for a place in the list. Dotun, lovely man that he is, allowed this, which did rather set the cat amongst the pigeons. Do the rules of the Virtual Bookshelf allow a boxed set? Everyone hates listening to their own voice but, for the next few days only, that shouldn’t stop you hearing my praise of the boy who lived and his magnificent creator on the bbc i-player: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00vc2dl/Up_All_Night_18_10_2010

I’m between 1:21:25 and 1:29:30 (a whole 8 minutes).

The nomination caused much heated debate, with many voices against (and every vote against cancels one for), but at the end of the phone-in Harry won the day and made it on as Book 60. However, Harry Potter still needs your help. Next week, Dotun and his literary reviewer (last night it was Hephzibah Anderson) invite listeners to remove one from the most recent ten titles on the list. Harry creates strong feelings in people and Dotun suggested he was in danger of being removed after only one week.

Don’t let that happen. I propose the AA Road Atlas of Britain (currently in place 51) should go as it doesn’t really compare with Rowling’s great work – I would be more lost without Harry than I would without a map. So next Sunday night/Monday morning, I say the atlas has to go.

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If you’re a literary insomniac, there can be no better way of spending one evening a week than by listening to Dotun Adebayo’s Sunday night (or, more accurately, the early hours of Monday morning) Book Phone-In on BBC Radio Five Live.

From 2.00-3.30 am, renaissance man Dotun, together with a literary partner, discuss the wonderful world of books, from the perspective of people who are passionate about reading and good writing. When I didn’t have a day job I’d often write through the night, so the show would make for an inspiring backdrop. Nowadays, I have to be up by 6.30 every morning so I’m not always able to follow it and that’s tricky because of the ambitious change in the show’s original format.

The current goal is to build a virtual bookshelf of a hundred titles, nominated and voted on by members of the public. The very first title was the Oxford English Dictionary, coincidentally chosen on the very morning in April 2009 that I began working for Oxford University Press. Over the next 100+ weeks the remaining titles will be chosen.

To give more information on the show, how to nominate and all the books currently on the shelf, I’ve created a separate page on this site. Clicking on Dotun’s smiling face will take you straight there.

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Note this blog entry contains spoilers about the final two Harry Potter books

It’s a truism that cinematic adaptations often pale besides their literary counterparts. An obvious counterexample is Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner but, off the top of my head, I can’t think of more. For those who’ve only seen the film, it’s well worth reading the Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? to see just how different it is, but to explain some elements of the screen version you’d have to gloss over otherwise.

A wonderful thing about a book is that everyone’s idea of it is unique. The reader converts the printed word from the page into a world of their own imagination. How I see the Imperial Palace on Melania in my head, is different from any readers of the Johnny Mackintosh books. Perhaps that’s why film adaptations so often disappoint, as the Director is competing with thousands of movies that have already run within a reader’s head.

There’s no film I can remember that’s disappointed me more that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, directed by David Yates with a screenplay by Steve Kloves. As someone who loves the stories so deeply, it horrifies me that this pairing were also asked to make the double film of the final book. While I think the quality of film-making in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince isn’t terrible (though it is weak), what I can’t fathom were the drastic, totally unnecessary changes to the plot that were introduced, diverting from Rowling’s marvellous story architecture and characterization.

[spoiler alert]

With a long book, why introduce a mad scene where Bellatrix Lestrange destroys The Burrow? Where will they hold the wedding in the next film, or has that been scrapped too?

A more important example was the death of Dumbledore. In the book, Harry is powerless to act, hidden under the invisibility cloak with Dumbledore’s body-bind curse on him. He would do anything to fight to save his pseudo-grandfather figure, and knows all too well the Hogwarts Headmaster is dead when the curse lifts. If the film, Harry is hiding in the background, and chooses simply to watch and not act, perhaps due to some bizarre element of cowardice that Yates and Kloves wanted to introduce into Harry’s character. There are numerous other examples and a lot concerning Dumbledore’s relationship with Harry: in the books, our hero is kept in the dark and has o puzzle things out for himself; according to this film, Harry is Dumbledore’s confidant.

When I write the Johnny Mackintosh books, I confess I sometimes have a secret nod to possible future film adaptations. I know a fair amount about film theory and structure, and sometimes I’ll be particularly proud of a passage because I know how well it would translate onto the big screen. I see the same in Jo Rowling’s writing at times, where she’s gone a little out of her way to write a beautiful, cinematic scene for her directors, knowing how much it would enhance the film. Yates completely ignored this. There ar

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Interview with Michael Scott (the author, not the boss on "The Office"), of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series. I like what he says about outlining the whole series, especially.

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Jeff Kinney talks to NPR about his ubiquitous Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, the fourth book of which—in case you've missed the massive media blitz because you don't own a TV, computer, cell phone or receive the newspaper, not to mention the fact that you're legally blind, only speak a rare dialect of Mongolian, and have been kept alive by an artificial lung while lying in a deep coma—was released

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I had my son for the evening, and we ended up at Barnes & Noble (after Krispy Kreme, yum!). He played with the little toy train set, while I did something I hadn't done in a long time: browse the picture books. Usually, when I go to B&N, I spend my time in the middle grade section, but the PBs were closer to the trains.

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This comes from GalleyCat:

When Eoin Colfer was asked to write the sixth book in problematically named The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, he refused--convinced that no one could follow in the footsteps of the original author, the late, great Douglas Adams.

Nevertheless, Colfer--the author of the bestselling "Artemis Fowl" series of YA novels--decided to write the sixth book in the series. It will hit stores in October. In this exclusive GalleyCat interview, the novelist explains why he changed his mind, taking readers inside his writing process for the sequel.

Here's more from the author's website: "If you have read ['Hitchhiker's Guide'] then you know exactly what I am talking about. If you haven't then read it now, moron. The problem is the hyperbole puts people off. If it's so popular then it must be middle of the road, brimming with cliches and easily digested on the sands of Ibiza. All false assumptions."

Now, the Hitchhiker's Guide books are probably my all-time favorite. Seriously. Kind of a silly series to have as your all-time favorite, but something about them just spoke to me when I first read them as a teenager, and I still love reading them today (can't say that about any other books, really). I think that series and Berke Breathed's classic comic strip "Bloom County" had absolutely the most effect on my art and my writing growing up, for better or worse, of any other source.

So naturally, I'm skeptical of anyone trying to write another HG book. As for Mr. Colfer, the only thing of his I read was the first Artemis Fowl book, which I never finished because, frankly, I thought it was kind of cheesy (LEP recon? As in leprechaun? Corny...) But it's popular, so I think I'm going to have to revisit it and give it another chance.

But then I heard Mr. Colfer spoke. He's funny. He really is. (Plus, he's Irish, which is close enough to being British, right? And that's an important ingredient to the flavor of the HG comedy.) In fact, he's even stumbled into a second career, apparently, as a stand-up comedian. I can't really find anything online, but I remember him mentioning in an interview that he had begun to make small speaking tours that were, in essence, a comedy routine that had little or nothing to do with his kids books.

So come October, I'll be buying my own copy of "And Another Thing..." and hoping I get even a little of joy out of it that I did as a teen.

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I got this from my neice's Facebook update, and thought it was kind of interesting. I probably took more than 15 minutes to think of them, and I know I left some out, but I guess these are the ones I remembered, for better or worse. These are in no particular order, and stem from various ages in my life. 

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it.

List fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.


1. Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams
2. The Gunslinger by Stephen King
3. Bunnicula by James Howe
4.Coraline by Neil Gaiman
5. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
6. Blankets by Craig Thompson
7. How to Be a Villain by Neil Zawacki
8. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
9. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
10. Bloom County books by Berke Breathed
11. Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare
12. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
13. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
14. The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore
15. Calvin & Hobbes books by Bill Waterson

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Great post over at Mishaps & Adventures: The evolution of a book cover design. It's really cool to see the process...

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John Hendrix has this blog entry about his "controversial" picture book about John Brown. Mostly, I like to look at all the big photos of several of the book's spreads and the awesome illustrations. =) I love how he got to design/illustrate some of the type, too. My dream (one of 'em anyway) is to someday be able to illustrate picture books (not necessarily my own; I like other people's stories, too), but be able to control the layout and type decisions. That's extremely rare, though.

Then check out his entry on "Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek" with more lovely spreads.



Then there's Adam McCaulley's new picture book "June and August" with a book trailer.

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A cool audio interview with Ridley Pearson about his "Kingdom Keepers" and "Peter and the Starcatchers" series. It's a Disney Radio broadcast, so you'll have to skip to about 11 minutes in to get to the interview.

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After all the books I've talked about on here (which isn't necessarily a ton, since this is meant to serve several functions other than just me reviewing books), I have to admit, I never expected the author of one of those books to actually make a post. On this particular occasion, however, I wasn't reviewing the book (I haven't read it yet, only heard about it) so I'm glad I didn't completely thrash it or something!

Instead, I was simply bemoaning in a post the other day the fact that author Tim Byrd had written a book that sounded similar to one of many ideas I've had floating around in my head. And lo and behold, Mr. Byrd drops me a comment! Nice surprise, for sure. More on that in a bit...

Now, I'm really not that bitter about it. My main concern is, and always has been, that boys get access to more "boy" books, and maybe, just maybe, they'll read more. When it comes right down to it, I don't care who writes what, as long as it's something a boy can enjoy reading (and even want more). And like I said, I have a hundred and one ideas, and who knows if I'd ever have gotten around to that one.

Then again, Mr. Byrd made a good point: "I wrote Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom in the first place because I was a dad looking for this sort of stuff to share with my son, and not finding it. If you write yours, he and I both will have more to enjoy." Two points, actually. For one, he found himself facing the very problem I just mentioned, not enough of the kind of stories boys really want to read. Secondly, though, there's always room for more. Doc Wilde was not the first adventurer, certainly, and won't be the last. And that's a good thing! So who knows, maybe someday, I will find my spin on it. In the meantime, I'm glad he did something about the situation and made a contribution. I honestly look forward to reading it!

Then, as it happened, fellow blogger, kidlit lover and librarian extraordinaire, Mrs. Yingling, also made a comment on that post (before Mr. Byrd), and mentioned how she didn't care for the cover art. Of course, that's typically something that's completely outside of the hands of the author, so hopefully Mr. Byrd didn't take offense =) (No one likes to have someone call their baby ugly, though, I suppose.) But it raises an interesting point. I would imagine that no one would know better what kind of cover will make a reluctant boy reader actually pick up a book than a librarian or perhaps a bookseller.


Me? I like it. It's an obvious throwback (or even homage) to the movie poster art of the 70s and 80s (and even later), in particular the great Drew Struzan (some of his iconic work above). I loved that stuff as a kid, and not just because I'm an artist myself. But I'm curious if it would peek the interest of today's boys. It's got creatures with sharp teeth and claws, a skull, dudes with muscles, a girl in distress... what else could a guy ask for!

I guess time (and sales and circulation reports) will tell.

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There's this from BoingBoing.net:

"Some past Boing Boing posts have talked about how children's lives in the UK and North America have become more and more stifled by overprotective adults in the last few decades. This 2007 book by Tim Gill, now free in its entirety online, show how many of these efforts are largely misdirected, and even counterproductive. Focusing on the UK, but also touching on other countries, the book includes accounts and data to show how resources are wasted on dubious and costly playground modifications and 'stranger danger' paranoia, when we could instead foster safer and more mature kids by focusing more on independence, social support, and traffic safety."

You can get the book here. I'm going to give it a go, because I'm curious, and it kind of relates to the whole notion of boys being allowed to be boys that I've blogged about in the past.

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I went and saw "Coraline 3D" last night, and all I have to say is, "WICKED COOL."

It's the first 3D movie I've seen (since the new technology came about) as well as the first digital film and it's very, very impressive. There were several 3D trailers beforehand (like "Up", "Monsters Vs. Aliens" and "Land of the Lost") and they all looked equally impressive. Can't wait.

As for "Coraline", it was a bit slow in a way, but I didn't mind too much because I was busy ogling the visuals anyway. Henry Selick changed a few things (as book-to-movie adaptations are want to do), but otherwise it stayed pretty true. Things I didn't like (SPOILER ALERT):

• The need for Coraline to go around finding the "eyes" of the ghost children (even though they weren't actually eyes, but round baubles... whatever). I wish he'd focused on saving the parents, whom Coraline needed to realize aren't that bad after all.
• The rock with a hole in it that let her "see" things as they really are. Sound familiar? Yep, straight out of "The Spiderwick Chronicles" (and Black & DiTerlizzi probably weren't the first to use that either). Where did it come from, anyway? I don't know. Random "movie" schtick.
• The way Wybie and the dad's necks craned so far forward. It made me uncomfortable just looking at them. Stand up straight, for crying out loud! And what was with the name Wybie, anyway?
• And why was Wybie even in there? Gaiman himself said that the character served as a way for Coraline's thoughts to get expressed, since, unlike a book, you don't have a omniscient narrator explaining these things. But I didn't see the need at all. Although, in the final conflict, the bit with Wybie's mouth sewn into a smile by the Other Mother was pretty creepy/cool.

Overall, though, a killer show. Just beautiful to look at, and crystal clear. I can't wait to see more digital 3D movies. The only problem is, my wife was born with some problems in her eyes and even though she's had some corrective operations, her doctors have told her that she won't be able to see the effects of 3D movies. So if this technology takes off, that's going to be a real bummer for her.

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Gosh, it's been several days since I've posted. Where's my mind been? Still on books, but nothing has prompted me to jot them down, I guess.

One thing I was thinking about was violence. The book I just got finished with, The Trouble with Boys, talked about how well-meaning adults have been trying to suppress any and all "violent" behavior in boys and that it does more harm than good. Now, there's unnecessary violence (like some movies and video games), but part of what kids are doing when they're out in the backyard dueling with sticks that they're pretending to be swords is acting out the hero. Someone has to be the bad guy, naturally, but we always traded parts when I was a kid. It was even kind of fun to die melodramatically. But the bulk of the play is about defeating the bad guys, standing up for the little guy, getting hurt, but fighting back in the face of all odds.

I, myself, have been studying martial arts for around 14 years now, but if you went to a class and asked everyone who has been in a fight in the last 5 or 10 years to raise their hand, guess what? Oddly enough, you won't see any hands. But aren't we studying how to fight and beat people up? Wouldn't that make us more prone to violent behavior? Apparently not. The thugs are the guys without training, without discipline, and, most importantly, without a clear understanding of what true peace is and how to control conflict. It's interesting...

Anyway, the main thing I'm thinking about is how to handle violence in kids books. When I take a look around at what's out there, I've noticed that there's a sort of "safe violence" in many forms of kids entertainment. Star Wars is a great example. The bad guys, or the bad guy's evil minions, in most stories always seem to be some sort of faceless, soulless entity whose singular purpose is evil, such as the robots in "Phantom Menace" or the identical, masked storm trooper clones from the original trilogy. You can cut up or shoot up faceless, soulless beasts all day long. Hoards of identical, black-clad, masked ninjas? Beat them senseless. Insectoid aliens? Blast 'em to bits. Zombies, monsters? Same thing.

Now the main bad guy with a name, a face, a personality? The hero always seems to let them off the hook at the last second, and shows some mercy (as heroes should). Of course, the bad guy tries something funny and ends up either killing himself, or forcing the hero to do it out of self-defense. And even despite all the swords and the laser guns, you really never see any blood. Robots and storm troopers are mostly mechanical and lasers don't seem to shed blood like bullets. For example, I've been racking my brains to remember how the old GI Joe animated TV show handled violence, because they all had normal guns, and the bad guys all had names and identities, yet no one ever died, and I never saw a drop of blood. But boy, was it awesome.

Strange, but there it is. Now, hand me my lightsaber and bring in the clones.

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This is a little tid bit from the book I'm currently reading, The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do by Peg Tyre (NF books always have such super-long titles). Mostly, I just thought it was interesting, so I thought I'd post it. The book itself is very interesting and sheds some light on issues I think I might have been aware of in the back of my head, but never recognized consciously.

Anyway, in one chapter, titled "Goodbye Mr. Chips", the author examines the phenomenon of the rapidly disappearing male teacher, and speculates whether having a male teacher or a female teacher would make a difference in how boys felt about education. One small study that she sited took 80 second grade boys and divided them into 4 groups. For a half hour a week for ten weeks, one male and one female teacher read standard schoolbooks to their boys, while another male and female teacher read "typical boy books" with male protagonists and lots of action to their set of boys.

At the end, they measured the boys attitude about school, whether they thought reading was a "feminine" activity, and whether they liked reading.

The result? It turns out, the gender of the teacher didn't matter when it came to studying standard schoolbooks; boys were equally turned off. Now, the boys who listened to the action books? Suddenly, they liked school more (and with the male teacher reading, they didn't think reading was all that girly after all).

That's all. I'm not trying to prove any points here, really. Just thought it was interesting... Read the rest of this post

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I read this review on Guys Lit Wire about a new book called Swords: An Artist's Devotion and I got all excited. I want this book. I saw the jpeg images and suddenly felt like a kid again. I got excited and immediately felt the urge to bug my mom to buy it for me (when I realized, of course, that I'm a grown man and can buy it if I want to).

But the post itself got me thinking about a slightly different subject. The author started out this way:

I have a 17-month-old son, and one of the observations I often hear from other parents is, "Oh, a boy... anything you give them, they turn it into a weapon." This usually accompanies one of two unreconcilable pieces of advice: 1) "so it's even more important that you never give them toy guns and swords!" or 2) "so don't even bother trying to keep them away from toy guns and swords, because it doesn't matter."

I won't pretend to analyze whether that's nature or nurture, or whether it's even true. But I gave my son a big stalk of celery last week, and within about 30 seconds he was chasing the cats, bellowing and swinging it around like a claymore.

Now, that's all he said about the matter, and went on to describe the book itself. But it made me think. Why not give your son a sword?

Having a son myself (and having been one myself) I understand why parents wouldn't want to— because they run around the house waving the sword everywhere and knocking things over. But it bothers me because I suspect that denying them the sword or whatever weapon it may be flies right in the face of being a boy, of being, well, masculine.

I'm no expert, so I'm not about to start preaching or anything, but I've noticed that a lot of experts are writing books on this very subject. It interests me, and I've already got a line up of titles I want to read on the subject.

In fact, it makes me think of something I did several years ago that took me a bit by surprise. This was before my son was born, and my wife and I had our house to ourselves. It had snowed quite a bit and my wife wasn't at home. I looked out the window and saw all the snow and couldn't resist the urge to go play in it. So I went outside and started building a snow man. I never got around to putting a face of hat or anything on it. I had essentially just stacked three giant snowballs on top of each other.

Then I had another urge: to completely wreck the thing. Sounded like fun to me. Then I got an another idea. Being a student of Japanese martial arts for a number of years, I happened to have a bokken in the house (it's a sort of wooden practice sword). Feeling a little silly, I retrieved it. Knowing no one else was around to see me, I promptly started cutting and chopping that snowman into smithereens with wild abandon.

Holy cow, it was fun! I felt like a total kid again. It was exhilarating. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I felt really, truly alive. Part of that, I'm sure, probably had to do with the fact that I just needed to get outside and move instead of being cooped up in an office day after day. But still, it thrilled me. I felt strong, virile even. Not that you have to use a weapon to feel like that, but it definitely tapped into a sort of behavior that I think just comes naturally to boys but is general frowned upon by society these days. Hence all the new books about the subject.

Another story... I was giving my 2-year-old son a bath last night and we had a good time playing a similar sort of game. I would take the multi-colored foam building blocks and build a sort of wall or tower on the edge of the tub and he would make a lot of noise, rear back, and knock it over with a tremendous amount of glee and satisfaction. My wife would shake her head if she saw it. Boys being boys. Women frown on that sort of thing, it seems. As does the rest of the politically correct world, apparently. Although I don't know why, and I wonder if it's doing more harm than good.

Of course, I intened to learn more about the subject before I go spectulating or even proselytizing anything from the blogosphere. I still really want that sword book, though. Not just because it's about swords, mind you. It looks beautifully illustrated. =)

And you know what, I probably will buy my son a sword someday, even though my wife will no doubt frown on it. He'll have to use it outside, of course, or it gets taken away. And who knows, maybe I'll go outside and join him.

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Authors and publishing companies are using the internet more and more to promote their books, but most of the time, I'm pretty underwhelmed by an author's site or the site for their book. I imagine that most of the time, with the exception of really popular titles, most authors have to put it together themselves.

There are some really nice ones out there, though. A handful that really impressed me all came from the same publisher. But not one of the big daddy houses in NY, believe it or not. These are all from Shadow Mountain Publishing out of Salt Lake City. As I understand it, they've only recently delved into the world of YA/kidlit, but they've had a lot of success with their initial efforts. (Not that I'm saying it has anything to do with having a cool website, but who knows, it probably helped!)

These sites are elaborately built, Flash-driven extravaganzas, the kind usually reserved for feature film releases. Take a few minutes and ooo and ahhh at them. Maybe next I'll do a post about some of the worst/ugliest author/book sites I've seen...

Leven Thumps by Obert Skye


The 13th Reality by James Dashner


Farworld by J. Scott Savage


Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

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