Ever wonder what your favorite, or most haunting, characters from literature might actually look like? Many writers give readers vivid descriptions but very few of their characters have ever "sat" for a portrait. Artist, avid reader, and blogger Brian Joseph Davis came up with the idea to create these "composite" sketches of literary characters, using…
Read More "Ten Character Sketches, Sketched: Portraits of Literature’s Most Infamous and Memorable"
Recently, the blog Brain Pickings wrote a piece titled "The Greatest Books of All Time, as Voted by 125 Famous Authors." Well, apparently none of these "famous authors" consulted some of the people who had previously commented on their selections at Amazon.com. Here is a sampling of their....err.... opinions.... 1. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov "I…
Read More "Top Ten Classics Dissed: Amazon Commenters Fight Back!"
Recently, Flavorwire published an article titled "10 Legendary Bad Girls of Literature." They made some worthy choices: Sappho, Dorothy Parker, and Anais Nin among them. While these names are well-known, there are other notable women with less fame who also deserve some accolades. 1. Jeannette Winterson Winterson is not unknown, of course, but she ought…
Read More "“Don’t Look at Me in That Tone of Voice”: Ten Lesser-Known Women Writers Who Kick Butt"
When it comes to Valentine's Day, do you find yourself mulling over the remaining dozen or so cards left at the drugstore, trying to decide whether the kitten with the googly-eyes exclaiming "You're purrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect!" is any better or worse than the over-sized card with a creepily happy train chugging out the words, "I chooo-choo-choose YOU!"…
Read More "Top Ten Love Lines From Literature for Your Valentine"
We all have created mental landscapes of the literary places we love... Pemberly, Maycomb, West Egg. But artist Guy Laramee has taken his vision of places and things to construct three dimensional canvasses out of actual books. By pressing books together with clamps, the pages and covers become hard as wood. Laramee then uses standard…
It may not surprise you to learn that many celebrities do not write their own books. After all, they usually have neither the skill nor the time to do so. It may be more upsetting, however, to learn that books by more laudable figures are also penned by ghostwriters. According to literary agent Madeline Morel,…
One of the things I like best about Christmas is that I always get new books to read that I did not have to pay for myself. While I do have an e-Reader, there is still something about the heft, touch, and smell of a book that I especially prefer for a bit of pre-sleepytime…
Read More "On the Nightstand: What Books Did You Get For Christmas?"
Renowned and prolific mystery writer P.D. James has done what very few authors would dare to do in a serious way: tread on the territory of her fellow British, and much beloved, author Jane Austen. Not since Anne Telscombe's almost universally declaimed attempt to finish Austen's last novel, Sanditon, has an author dared to mess…
Read More "A Murder at Pemberley? P.D. James and her Austenite Mystery"
