The world's largest book

Check it out: "It takes six people to lift it and has been recorded as the largest book in the world." More... (Via.)

National Book Critics Circle Prize nominees

Reported by the Huffington Post. "The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, is a nonprofit organization with around 600 members, 'book reviewers who are interested in honoring quality writing and communicating with one another about common concerns.' " Link.

James Patterson

The NY Times has a great profile of the prolific author. How does he do it?

NYT: There are many different ways to catalog Patterson’s staggering success. Here are just a few: Since 2006, one out of every 17 novels bought in the United States was written by James Patterson. He is listed in the latest edition of “Guinness World Records,” published last fall, as the author with the most New York Times best sellers, 45, but that number is already out of date: he now has 51 — 35 of which went to No. 1. More...

Children's Books Prize Winners

The Newbery Medal winners, profiled in the NY Times. Link.

Awful Library Books

This site is just plain fun. How can you not savor the photograph on the cover of this one, for instance? This blog is definitely in our daily feed.

Readers pick the best in 13 categories

The Goodreads Choice Awards: Readers select their favorites in a number of categories. It's mostly big names, with a couple of surprises. Link.

ebook software and apps

The Huffington Post offers a rundown of all the ways to read electronically on devices you may already own. I've done a little reading on my iPod Touch, coming away with a sense that I can do it in a pinch, but it's just too small. But, judge for yourself. Link.

The next decade in books

Anis Shivani writes an excellent think piece on books and technology that we think gets it right. Maybe we're just tired of everybody in publishing running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

AS: It is the gatekeepers of the book who, in this last decade, have been on an unremitting mission to bring about the book’s destruction: librarians who purge books to make room for technological substitutes, newspaper publishers who’re the first to voice the irrelevance of the book review, publishers who do everything possible to fulfill their own prophecies of the end of the serious book. These gatekeepers in book culture are akin to politicians pronouncing the death of liberalism, and proceeding to do whatever they can to realize the predicted end. In the long run, both efforts are doomed. To posit the end (or marked decline) of the book is to posit the end of civilization itself; neither is likely to happen. What will happen is the lessening of the power of the guardians, who will be shown to be charlatans with queer death wishes. Their replacements are already in view. More...

Advice to parents: read aloud to your kids

Katherine Peterson, author of Bridge to Tabitha, will be the new national ambassador for young people’s literature. (We didn't even know such a position existed.) Her mission is to get kids to read. Her message is that you should start them on that road yourself.

From the NY Times: The main advice she’ll be giving adults: Read aloud to your children. “You can read out loud, and if you’re exhausted or crying so hard because you know that Charlotte is going to die in the next chapter,” she said, “you can turn it over to the kid to read the next part.” (That’s “Charlotte’s Web,” she’s talking about, of course.) More...

Some rules on how to eat from Michael Pollan

Pollan is, of course, one of the savviest commentators around these days discussing what we should, and shouldn't, put into our bodies. He's definitely worth reading.

MP: Make no mistake: our health care crisis is in large part a crisis of the American diet -- roughly three quarters of the two-trillion plus we spend on health care in this country goes to treat chronic diseases, most of which can be prevented by a change in lifestyle, especially diet. And a healthy diet is a whole lot simpler than the food industry and many nutritional scientists -- what I call the Nutritional Industrial Complex -- would have us believe. More...