I'm in London, doing research, which is fantastic--but it means that I feel guilty blogging when I should be writing something more weighty and academic.
So, until I get a free moment, enjoy the following links--with commentary:
The "Slow Reading" Movement
There's been an explosion of "anti-web-reading" articles/books recently, but the (at least attempted) movement here is interesting because it tries to link basic textual analysis ("close reading") with the sensual enjoyment of food advocated by the "slow food" movement. I like it--it addresses a serious problem I've seen in my own classes of students trying to skim texts that can't be skimmed--but I don't think any of this stuff will work unless we beef up requirements for the number of arts and literature courses at colleges and universities everywhere. (And therefore, the number of teaching jobs available…)
Digested Read
Now I contradict myself with a link that provides digests of recent books. But really, these two links cohere into a unified theme: the only thing worse than our collective inability to understand written material is our desperate urge to produce written material. Only a tiny percentage of us (here I should just blow my cover and say, "them") manage to do this and get it published, but that's still a lot of new vampire books and celebrity tell-alls per year. If you're reading the right (slow) way, you can't keep up with the flood. Luckily there's John Crace, who writes beautifully cruel, 700-word digests of recent publications. Are they fair? I don't know, because I haven't read the books…and what I love about Crace is that he convinces me that I was right not to.
"Top 100 Books of All Time"
This is old news, I guess, but I saw it under the Guardian's "Most Viewed" while browsing "Digested Read". (It's still in "Most Viewed," 8 years on!) Sadly, it appears that the people who compiled the list accidentally swapped it with another list they were compiling at the same time: "Books Literary Types Should Recommend to Others, As If They Had Read and Enjoyed Them".
