‘Every artist deals with critics differently—Richard Ford spitting on Colson Whitehead, for example. But the rule is to avoid direct contact. Not for John Warner, debut novelist, who decided to seek out the man behind his worst review.’

"He was condemned to death for telling the ancient Greeks things they didn't want to hear, but his views on consumerism and trial by media are just as relevant today."

"I’m afraid of what the systematic harnessing of communities will result in." Specifically, he's afraid that it will result in a) fans wasting their time and money and b) the artist being relegated to the sidelines while context and 'engagement' take over. Valid fears if you ask me, and exactly the sort of the thing that Matt LeMay outlines in the MBV post 'Living in the Age of Art vs Content' (http://www.mbvmusic.com/2010/10/19/living-in-the-age-of-art-vs-content/26911).

Basically: It's sometimes amateurish, and there's troubling misogyny, but is that so bad? I say, and I think this is what Kevin is getting at, is that the age-old paradigm of adults worrying about young minds being influenced by media is a bit more complicated -- I think more than a new idea being introduced and etched onto a young mind by 'Twilight', the more likely circumstance is that the ideas therein subtly reinforce existing ideas that the child is already exposed to.

What will call these new forms, these non-books, these "texts"? Hmm, that could work.

Simply a collection of beautiful book covers.

A great profile of the author, who wrote "No Country for Old Men". "At its root, McCarthy's fiction arises from the tragedy of all wild creatures, of whatever is begotten, born, and dies, the tragedy of autonomous life in a world increasingly circumscribed by a rage for order and captivity. More than merely human. It is the tragedy of warm blood itself, of blood and time."

On the "cognitive surplus" we're going through, and how interesting and valuable all this new engagement and experimentation with technology is.

"Throw down a challenge." The articles bullet-points the book's suggested tactics.

"These are things I find abandoned in books or stuffed on the book cart at the jail where I volunteer."

From the US National Library of Medicine, a huge collection of free, public-domain images from anatomical atlases. A great wealth of material. Wish it were designed better and that the books were all scanned rather than some photographed.

This is delicious. Don't miss the eye fish or the larval horse. Or the tennis ball or the library entrance.

The story behind why the O'Reilly books have animal engravings on them.

"It is my mission to correctly re-shelve books to the appropriate section of the bookstore." Putting pseudo-scientific books about religion in the Religion section. Or Religious Fiction section. Or New Age section.

"What if there was a library which held every book? Not every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book." Aaron Swartz is at it again!