Books are so popular in home decor that even people who don’t read acquire them. They buy volumes by the yard at Half Price Books. They send orders off to a California book-decor specialist who ships Danish language books by the foot. No comment. Danish? Well, they aren’t meant to be read. Unless you happen […]
Books smarten up a room, annotated edition
Posted by Ben on December 27, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/books-smarten-up-a-room-annotated-edition/
Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures
Who says you can’t craft a totally compelling story around a horned dog named after an imaginary card game? Walter Moers’ 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear was most excellent, and this book surpasses even that. It’s cartwheeling, free-associating, spectacle-topping, coincidence-breaking fun, pure and simple. Though of course it isn’t simple. Nothing in Zamonia is, […]
Posted by Ben on October 27, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/rumo-his-miraculous-adventures/
Have a craving for some Italian fiction with Paul Bunyan set in the Hamptons?
Too bad, probably. But go ahead and search FictionFinder anyway, just in case. An excellent searchable database put together by the Online Computer Library Center, FictionFinder lets you search (or browse) by character, setting, literary form, awards, and lots of other things, too. (Like author and title, for instance.) Not only that, but once you […]
Posted by Ben on September 29, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/have-a-craving-for-some-italian-fiction-with-paul-bunyan-set-in-the-hamptons/
Pronounce it like you mean it
A handy list of how to pronounce difficult-to-pronounce author’s names. (via The Millions: “Hard to Pronounce Literary Names Redux.” 26 Aug 2006.)
Posted by Ben on September 12, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/pronounce-it-like-you-mean-it/
A photo that screams ‘buy me’
The evocativeness of dust-jacket photos is why publishers put them on the cover. They’re selling tools, part of the book’s packaging, like the packaging on a bar of soap. Yet in the work of some photographers, the author’s photo can aspire to the level of high art. A curious little article on the pros & […]
Posted by Ben on August 6, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/a-photo-that-screams-buy-me/
Count me in
I, too, would like to note that, for a mere $10,000, I could tell you that puppies sell. (The main point: a publisher [Nolo Press] spent hundreds o’ thousands o’ dollars to decide what would help it sell more books, and it decided that thing was a friendly golden retriever added to its covers.) P.S. […]
Posted by Ben on June 15, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/count-me-in/
You’ve always judged books by their covers
Now you have a forum for it, via the entertaining and succinctly-titled “Covers.” A site for the discussion of cover design, with a searchable database of book covers (surprise!), searchable by, e.g., designer, author, etc.
Posted by Ben on June 1, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/youve-always-judged-books-by-their-covers/
If Only
As part of Slate’s Pulp Fiction week, some designers/artists were asked to envision classic works of literature as pulp fiction covers. The results are excellent. The Moby Dick cover won me over for its alliteration, but all the covers have their own special charms.
Posted by Ben on May 29, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/if-only/
Bestselling Books 1950-1998
Not totally up-to-date as far as the more recent years go (e.g., 2002), but interesting for the historical content, or something like that. 1981’s bestselling novel was by James Clavell, and the bestselling non-fiction book was a diet book. 1919’s bestselling novel was The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by V. Blasco Ibanez (which, if […]
Posted by Ben on January 27, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/bestselling-books-1950-1998/
Famous Literary Hoaxes
Much fun. Background & info on literary hoaxes spanning over 200 years (though only by virtue of the two examples that come from the 1700s; the rest are from the mid- to late- 1900s). Forrest Carter’s The Education of Little Tree One of the stranger hoaxes. Published in 1977, Forrest Carter’s celebrated memoir about a […]
Posted by Ben on January 26, 2006
https://www.swordbilled.com/famous-literary-hoaxes/