10 reading revolutions

In an article for TheAtlantic.com, writer Tim Carmody lists 10 major events in the history of the word, not counting e-books, that changed everything. 'The phrase "reading revolution" was probably coined by German historian Rolf Engelsing. He certainly made it popular. Engelsing was trying to describe something he saw in the 18th century: a shift from "intensive" reading and re-reading of very few texts to "extensive" reading of many, often only once. Think of reading the Bible vs reading the newspaper.' More...

Is this Odysseus' palace?

The truth behind Homer, if any, may not even matter. Now the question is, not whether we have discovered Troy, but whether we have discovered the home Odysseus sought so fervently. 'Archaeologists from the University of Ioannina have found a three-storey building, with a well, steps carved out of rock, and fragments of pottery, all fitting Homer's description. Was this where Odysseus returned to save his wife Penelope from her wicked suitors, after 10 years fighting at Troy, and another 10 years wandering the seas off modern Greece and Turkey? The short, unromantic answer is probably no. There are just too many imponderables.' More...

Photos of people reading

What a remarkable collection, from photographer Steve McCurry. Who would have thought that something as simple as people reading could be so eloquent and so thought-provoking? 'As a photographer, McCurry is always on the hunt for the “unguarded moment,” that slice of time that reveals something personal and honest. “I have another gallery of people sleeping and of couples interacting. There’s an intimacy people have with a book and its author that is similar,” he says, adding. “We’re all different and we’re all the same. It amuses me that whether you’re fabulously rich and sophisticated or you happen to be someone on the street in the third world or a classroom in some remote area, reading is all the same act. It’s a common link in our shared humanity, a thing we all do that is regardless of where we are economically or socially.”' More...

How much money does everyone else make?

Okay, we saw what the big writers earn. What about everyone else? The Rejecter explains it all, and it's not a pretty picture. Or at least it's not a picture of big bucks. 'The only advice I can say when planning a writing career is: don't. ' More...

List of the highest paid authors

That James Patterson is at the top of the list will be shocking to you only if you shock really, really easily. After all, he seems to come out with a new bestseller every week. Check out the article in Forbes for the rest of the cash earners.

The ten best pigs in literature?

All right. The list says "ten of the best," which implies not the very best, which may explain why it inexplicably excludes Wilbur, the hero of one of my personal favorite books, Charlotte's Web. Still, there's some other interesting pigs to be considered. Check it out.

Ray Bradbury is 90 years old

And National Review Online has a great article by James E. Person, Jr. 'Moral truths appear not in obvious nuggets, like raisins in a raisin cake, but blended among the basic ingredients. They bespeak Bradbury’s beliefs that human beings are more than the flies of summer — they are in fact made for knowing beauty, truth, and eternity — and that each movement toward political centralization, materialism, sham intellectualism, and needless destruction of the natural environment endangers all that makes life fulfilling and worthwhile, rendering man little more than a trousered ape.' More...