I first read the Gospels a few years ago, on a trip to Italy, when I realized that I had no idea what half the paintings in the museums were supposed to be. So I read the Gospels from the bible in the hotel room, and understood the paintings, and also suddenly understood what my tenth-grade English teacher had meant when she said something about a character's initials being JC being important, when we got to the part where he goes to prison for something that someone else did, and is smiling as he's dragged off. (I had no clue what she meant when she said it, but was in a Mood that day and didn't want to ask.) Also helped me figure out what John Irving was on about for most of A Prayer for Owen Meany. (I loved the book the first time I read it, but again, had no idea why Owen's sacrifice would mean anything for the main character as a Christian.)
'Shindig'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Seeing the buzz across LJ: Amazon removes GLBT content from their sales ranking.
"American Psycho" is Bret Easton Ellis' story of a sadistic murderer. "Unfriendly Fire" is a well-reviewed empirical analysis of military policy. But it's "Unfriendly Fire" that does not have a sales rank -- which means it would not show up in Amazon's bestseller lists, even if it sold more copies than the Twilight series. In some cases, being de-ranked also means being removed from Amazon's search results.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is Google-bombing "amazon rank" in response.
I saw that. It's also been Slashdotted. At the moment, at least, CNN has the story via a link on their home page to The CNET article.
No idea whether this person is fucking with everyone, but he claims to be responsible.
This person says that Weev was trolling: [link]
Does this sound credible to you?
This started a while back on Craigslist, when I was trying to score chicks to do heroin with.
Yeah, not buying it.
[to clarify - not buying that Weev hacked Amazon. Totally buying that his "confession" is bullshit trolling.]
erika-- your guy David's going to be speaking tomorrow in NYC on the post boom culture novel.
Of course, I'm the Snot Boogie of authors...I can write the same stuff. Yay? In all seriousness, he is just smart enough and pissed off enough to handle that topic.
Has anyone else read La Perdida by Jessica Abel? Because I really didn't like it and would like my opinion validated by a competent authority.