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3.5/5 (on Amazon I gave it a 4 since they don't allow 1/2 stars) Though I enjoyed reading it, I wouldn't call it a "great book." About a third of the way through I had to fight the urge to slam it shut forever. I was getting bored. It did pick up, but that nagging feeling continued until the...

The reviews on Amazon are overwhelmingly negative, but some of the reviewers admitted to never touching one. Still, kudos to Amazon for not obliterating the negatives. After looking it over (online, I've never touched one either) I'm definitely not prepared to unload $400 to get one. But B+...

In reverse order of reading: Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier Turing by Andrew Hodges Krazy & Ignatz: The Kat Who Walked in Beauty by George Herriman How To Write a Damn Good Novel by James Frey Schulz And Peanuts by David Michaelis Nietzsche Within Your Grasp by Shelley...

I watched Waking Life when it came out in theaters a few years back. I didn't love it or hate it, but I remember it being a series of desultory discussions about the meaning of life with real footage filtered through animation. That makes me think of other desultory works, such as Tristram...

Well, yes, it definitely helps if your parents own a publishing company. That's a nice in. Wow, I knew nothing about that. I've heard mixed reviews of the Eragon series, but it's not something I'm planning on reading anyway. So how does one get contacts with big publishers? Through an agent...

Hello, So after some one writes a few stories they typically want to see if anyone will take the bait and print their brain droppings. For newbies is the best route still buying Writer's Market and sending out manuscript after manuscript? Has anyone else used a different route? What are the...

Last night we went semi-retro and watched The Silence of the Lambs. Not as good as I remember it, but still worth watching every now and again. The movie had some shock factor and time had worn it down somewhat. The miniskirt complex: shocking in 1960, almost expected today. Not to diminish the...

"Alan Turing dared to ask whether a machine could think." Rather a giveaway, no?

I've only read a few of the literary journals, but a similar feeling came over me. Are these literary for the mere sake of it? Few, if any, of the stories moved me and the journals tend to sit on my shelf unfinished. I found one the other day from 2002 in unread pristine condition buried between...

I haven't read a lot of Sci-Fi or Fantasy. It seems to exist in its own little world and if you're reading from another genré, such as literary, mystery, etc., the whole Sci-Fi/Fantasy world becomes this wispy impenetrable fog. Genré fiction has really siloed the publishing industry. Anyway...

Though Tristram Shandy remains a brilliant book I agree that one needs massive tolerance to endure every page. After 400 or so pages I stopped reading it and haven't picked it up again. Not because I hated it but because I was exhausted. The legal parody, though hilarious, goes on a bit too...

Oh yes, give me a closed cube any day. Right now we sit in halfy cubes with plexiglas windows. I can't pick my nose or scratch myself at all! And say goodbye to nail clipping at work! At least the window remains always in view.

Many good observations here. Though King was talking about literary journals, as pointed out, I wanted to get a sense of what people thought concerning reading in general. I'm glad to hear that many of you think reading for pleasure still exists. I still read for pleasure, but I have also read...

I've stopped lending books because so many come back looking like they've been ingested by a creature out of a Bosch painting. The borrowed books on my shelves glare out at me with resentment for trusting untrustables. So, yes, I can get possessive.

Do you mean footnotes in fiction only? Footnotes in fiction bother me, but sometimes they get used with good effect (I haven't read JS&MN). Footnotes in non-fiction are often indispensible, though, as long as the footnotes remain shorter than the main text (I've seen this once).

They make great cat attractors. Just open one up, stare at it (you don't need to actually read) and a cat will inevitably plop down right on the text. Works every time! I wonder if it could get a cat out of a tree... hmmmm...

It sounds like the publisher is your only hope unless you have a bit of luck. Hopefully the person still has a contract through that publisher or your inquiry may end up in the great vaccuum of the wastebin. Good luck!

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn didn't make me warm and fuzzy all over. Quite the opposite. It outlines, rather brutally, the daily life of a Soviet work camp/prison inmate. Great read nonetheless.

This may seem out of place in a writer's forum, but in the recent edition of "Best American Short Stories" Stephen King claims that many of the readers of literary journals are other writers looking not for entertainment but to see what the journals are publishing. He calls this "ucky reading."...

Rather than worrying about the "market price," which for eBooks is somewhat of a schmoo right now, worry about the price at which your eBook will sell. Price itself can determine demand. A thing at $50 may have little demand, but lower the price to $30 and an influx might occur. Of course you...