Amazon.com officials announced this week that the company now sells more e-books in its online marketplace than hardcovers. So I wanted to ask, which do you prefer?
The Rundown
The literary blogosphere continues to buzz with angst and dismay as thousands — or maybe even millions — of people learned the shocking news this week that they write like …Dan Brown. The growing outrage — sparked by a computerized prose analysis on a obscure website called “I Write Like” — could be the biggest controversy involving Brown since the release of his insanely successful but widely reviled book, The Da Vinci Code. (BTW, Audrey Tautou was lovely as Sophie [...]
My friend Carolyn Kellogg at the LA Times’ fantastic Jacket Copy book blog had the most clever post today. She found a website — called I Write Like — where you can enter a few paragraphs of your prose to find out if you write like Hemingway, Chuck Palahniuk or even Bram Stoker. (There are a bunch of other authors ranging from Stephen King to J.K. Rawlings). Take the five-second test and let me know here how it goes! If [...]
“Tabletops are the daily canvases upon which we sketch,” writer/illustrator Leanne Shapton mused recently in her T Magazine blog column, We Three Things. She says: “A glance at someone’s coffee table, kitchen island or even computer desktop offers a revealing self-portrait: bookworm, neat freak, train wreck, mom.” It made me stop and look at my own tables. We now have two kitchen tables in our oversized dining room. (One table didn’t seem to fill the disproportionate middle space.) I have [...]
There’s a major trending topic sweeping Twitter at the moment: #booksthatchangedmyworld. It made me stop and think. The book that most changed my world was Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast”, because I finally understood that it didn’t take a lot of money to live well. What about you? PS: Check out the twitter stream on the subject. The answers range from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the Great Gatsby! Also, the above photo is from here. UPDATE WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: [...]
We’ve swooned over clips of Ms. Hepburn singing Moon River, combed through the Internet for pictures of actress with her pet fawn and donned black dresses with four-strand pearls. Now there’s something new to add to the Audrey lure. Author Sam Wasson is out this week with a new book that presents the woman behind the little black dress. His book, Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M., gives a behind-the-scenes account of the making of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. For example: Truman Capote [...]
Hello my dears, my mom on Friday gave me a box of my dad’s old records, a mix of classical music, big band and jazz. We spent the holiday weekend listening to them, drinking wine and reminiscing. The music reminded me again of how capacious my dad’s mind was. There were so many aspects of beauty he enjoyed — music, art, literature. Some of the best conversations I had with him concerned all three. It gave me a deep appreciation [...]
Dear Friends, as kind Liss informed you, my beloved father passed away last week after a long illness. I can’t tell you how much I’ve appreciated not only the inimitable Daydream Lily and all the other bloggers who stepped in to keep this site going, but also all the expressions of affection and support you have left here. I feel so fortunate to be part of this wonderful community. Before I resume regular posting next week, I want to share [...]
Hi there, my name is Michael, and I have the pleasure of wasting some of your time this fine day. Not ‘what I’m going to talk about will waste your time’-waste your time’, but rather ‘if you’re anything like me, one thing will lead to another and you’ll find that it has grown dark outside and the cat is clawing your leg for having forgotten to feed it’-waste your time. And I don’t even have a cat. My personal blogging [...]
A sneak peek at soon-to-be published book True Scandinavian by lifestyle and interiors photographer Pia Ulin. I like the mix of quirky and vintage with white light filled spaces, I think this is exactly how Id like to have my home one day. You can look through more images as well as her other published books – I also like a room of ones own – on her website (discovered via From Scandinavia with love) I really must get over [...]
I’ve had this in my bookmarks for a long time and had forgotten all about it. It’s the inspiration and scrapbook of film maker Jane Campion whilst she was working on the film Bright Star. There was a website too where she had all the work laid out like a big inspiration wall, but it has since been taken down. I love seeing stills and the process that goes into creating the final work. I went to a photo shoot [...]
…until the books are on the shelves: This is my favorite part of unpacking: arranging the shelves. I always start out with the intent to keep things minimal, even monotoned. But I am a magpie at heart. So there’s more color to come! PS: A few of you asked about the screensaver on my computer in my last post. It’s a Japanese noren called “The Great Wave,” by Hokusai. It came with my Mac, but I’ve now uploaded it onto [...]
These photos of Paris were taken during my recent trip with my Polaroid OneStep Flash, bought on eBay. As if the city weren’t romantic enough, it’s doubly so on Polaroid film!
This is a story about beauty and obsession, sparked by a small photograph deep inside the New York Times Style section on a Sunday three years ago. I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to train myself not to fall so deeply in love with objets. I’m a newspaper reporter. I lack the necessary requirement — money — needed to enjoy the hunt for beautiful and expensive things. But there was something about this girl and the way she was captured (by the brilliant [...]
Awhile back, while browsing at Anthropologie, I noticed a flood of new etiquette books. They seemed to be on every shelf and table: How to write a letter; how to spiff up your boyfriend; how to throw a party; how to slip away from a one-night stand (leave quickly). And perhaps the ultimate: What would Jackie do?… I wondered: What did the etiquette books look like when our grandmothers were debutantes? With the help of eBay, I found a number [...]
