http://www.allvoices.com/ en-us The culture Web site PopMatters has just launched a fun enterprise, inviting various writers to write essays on the used bookstore . It's a brilliant idea, given how transformative a place it can be for young readers and writers---if you're... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/2647 Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:26:37 -0700 Every so often here I've hit on the theme of how mainstream book reviewers and bloggers get along. I try not to dive too deep into this particular business---I figure it's deathly boring to the people who aren't in the... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/2618 Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:31:26 -0700 The act of reading, as a general rule, isn't exactly action-packed. Much of my reading is done in pretty unexciting circumstances---usually sitting at home or sitting on the train. One reading experience flows into the other, so I'd have to... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/2495 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:40:43 -0700 Spend any amount of time looking at statistics about reading and books, and it's easy to get confused. Americans aren't reading as much as they used to---to a degree that's somewhere between disheartening and catastrophic, depending on who you ask.... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/2401 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:54:12 -0700 You're a writer. You've just published a book---one you're proud of, worked hard on, and are happy to see out in the world. Then some critic shows up to smash it to bits. What do you do? One thing you're... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/2193 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:12:06 -0700 I feel Luc Sante 's pain. Over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal , the critic and blogger wrote a fun and engaging essay about the trouble he's had wrangling his book collection. Like much of Sante's writings, it's... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/2111 Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:13:58 -0700 For the past week Japan's Mainichi Daily News has been running an interesting series of interviews with novelist Haruki Murakami. (It may go without saying that Murakami has written some fine novels about Japanese life and the way American culture... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/2014 Fri, 30 May 2008 07:33:01 -0700 When Google announced a few years back that it was going to undertake digitizing the contents of a number of libraries, a few complaints sprung up---the biggest one being what this meant for copyright holders. But the real issue, info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1964 Wed, 28 May 2008 07:09:04 -0700 It took a while for the mainstream media to embrace blogging because so much of what it promised ran counter to what journalists are trained to do. Publish immediately? Well, that's heresy: Pieces need to run by editors and go... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1882 Fri, 23 May 2008 07:56:24 -0700 Confession: Though I write a blog dedicated to American fiction , I have no real expertise in the works of Gore Vidal . This is a little like saying you're an NBA expert but haven't watched so much as a... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1856 Tue, 20 May 2008 20:12:23 -0700 As much as I value the Internet, it's clear that it occasionally does something funny to peoples' brains when it comes to reading and writing. Earlier this week the Globe & Mail reported on a new site called Smashwords ,... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1775 Fri, 16 May 2008 15:03:05 -0700 I recently made a decision: I'm no longer calling blogs "excellent." For the few years I've been blogging, either personally or professionally, I've had a habit of referring to my favorite blogs with the "excellent" qualifier. The excellent litblog The... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1733 Wed, 14 May 2008 07:39:04 -0700 There's a fantasy in many aspiring writers' minds that writing is a solitary business. You might be imagining a quiet room in the country, with a desk before a picture window revealing carpets of outdoor greenery; or maybe a cramped... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1666 Fri, 09 May 2008 07:53:50 -0700 Everybody who's worked at a publication knows that the best way to start arguments with readers is to make a list---it's why music magazines rarely go more than a couple of issues without creating one. It's as true with books... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1634 Tue, 06 May 2008 06:51:02 -0700 In the past month or so a host of stories have cropped up about the bank BB&T financing college courses that feature books by Ayn Rand , author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged . Inside Higher Ed, a Web... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1580 Fri, 02 May 2008 14:32:46 -0700 In the past month or so a host of stories have cropped up about the bank BB&T financing college courses that feature books by Ayn Rand , author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged . Inside Higher Ed, a Web... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1580 Fri, 02 May 2008 14:01:06 -0700 Ever since Bookslut linked to Is Greater Than last week, I've been eager for an opportunity to write about it. Partly because the site, a Webzine dedicated to independent culture, gives me some confidence that the worldview that the late... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1517 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:59:18 -0700 In Washington D.C., where I live, there's a low-power TV station called WUFO-TV that specializes in (as the name suggests) televising shows about conspiracy theories, UFOs, crop circles, and other strange doings across the universe. Like info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1478 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:44:59 -0700 Here's a line from a new work of fiction by Arthur Phillips , acclaimed author of the novels Prague , The Egyptologist , and Angelica : You cannot be more officially grown-up than accepting a wedding proposal and a job... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1437 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:37:44 -0700 The litblog the Literary Saloon has regularly beat the drum for the importance of following world literature. (So I always feel a little shamed reading it, given that my personal litblog is pretty provincial.) It's done a fine job of... info@allvoices.com http://www.allvoices.com/user/blog/1407 Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:54:49 -0700