Guys Read

After reading Nicholas Kristof's column about U.S. boys falling behind girls in school, I took another look at Guys Read, the web site with reading lists for boys that he mentions.

Kristof mentions the site's use of boy-appealing categories--and I agree, they're very well done.  I was especially delighted by the choice of Outer Space with or without aliens. Nice interface and design, too.

Abe Lincoln Award Books (2011)

Yes, the race for Abe Lincoln Book Awards for 2011 has begun.

Want to start reading?  Here's an annotated list of books & related websites in PDF.

Want to learn more?  Check out this (ever-growing) playlist of book trailers of the 2011 nominees:

Texts Without Context

New York Times book reviewer Michiko Kakutani has written an impressive piece that reviews and distills some of the more significant current  literature about digital media and its effect on our artists & writers, our thinking, & our culture.  Definitely worth a read, even if it isn't a super-quick one.


I have to admit that my reading/information gathering habits have been affected in the ways Kakutani describes--I found it a bit difficult to sit and read his entire article in one sitting--I kept trying to scan it quickly for a handful of salient points, but in the end, appropriately enough, I just stuck with it and am glad I did; I found it enriching & now have a few more books for my next order.

Texts Without Context

photo: Mashup. Meet the Chumbeques. Flickr. 9 Sep. 2009.

5 cool resources I found on Twitter recently

History Today Unfortunately, it's not all archived for free, but there is access to some of their excellent articles and some links to some really neat web resources that you can access by time period, theme or location.

Art and Images (British Museum). Stunning collection of online artifacts & exhibits including an amazing interactive timeline. Simply gorgeous & incredibly informative.

inudge Make your own music online. Fun! Cool!

SPIN via Google Books Search by keyword within issue or search the whole collection. Or browse by issue. Very cool.

UCSD Libraries anti-plagiarism tutorial This is really neat. I would *love* to do something like this, if only I knew how.

Green Day!

We're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Green Eggs and Ham.  To commemorate the occasion, here is a delightful video of Jesse Jackson reading the book on SNL.



Jesse Jackson Reads Seuss - Click here for more home videos