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Hey, how's everyone? I made a big mistake at work but ... weirdly enough my editor seemed OK with it. (Maybe because it was a story idea of mine, not hers or anything super pressing.)
Latest book finish was The Secret Lives of Great Authors. Dear Quirk Books (the publisher): The binding on this book is TOO TIGHT. Until I'd deliberately cracked the spine in multiple places (something I HATE doing because I like to keep my books pristine) it actually hurt my hands to hold, the binding was too tight. The heavy papercut-tastic pages also did not help. Please reconsider this in future volumes.
The book basically gives a short biography about each author, followed by tidbits of the stranger periods in their lives. It was pretty fun for a gossipy coffee table book. Some of the stories sounded a little Snopes-tastic, and there were a few other facts that didn't seem right (Dickens hating Shakespeare was a huge one) but I ended up believing most of the tales and enjoying the book overall. Also, while the book mostly talked about funny stuff in its tidbits, some of the less funny stuff was ... er ... not cool. James Joyce rhapsodizing over his mistress' farts? Funny. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre barking like dogs in order to gain entrance to a party? Funny. J.D. Salinger jamming blunt objects into his kids' fingers to cure their colds? NOT FUNNY.
Then again, I found the fact that Gertrude Stein survived living openly as a lesbian Jew in Nazi-occupied France by befriending a Nazi and making anti-Jewish statements publicly rather fascinating ... so who knows?
But anyway, I liked how the book worked to give you a basic sense of who each author fundamentally was, as well as a teeny bit of what kind of work they wrote. It's actually kind of fun as an educational guide if it's taken with a grain of salt.
Me sleepy. Video game reviews later.
Latest book finish was The Secret Lives of Great Authors. Dear Quirk Books (the publisher): The binding on this book is TOO TIGHT. Until I'd deliberately cracked the spine in multiple places (something I HATE doing because I like to keep my books pristine) it actually hurt my hands to hold, the binding was too tight. The heavy papercut-tastic pages also did not help. Please reconsider this in future volumes.
The book basically gives a short biography about each author, followed by tidbits of the stranger periods in their lives. It was pretty fun for a gossipy coffee table book. Some of the stories sounded a little Snopes-tastic, and there were a few other facts that didn't seem right (Dickens hating Shakespeare was a huge one) but I ended up believing most of the tales and enjoying the book overall. Also, while the book mostly talked about funny stuff in its tidbits, some of the less funny stuff was ... er ... not cool. James Joyce rhapsodizing over his mistress' farts? Funny. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre barking like dogs in order to gain entrance to a party? Funny. J.D. Salinger jamming blunt objects into his kids' fingers to cure their colds? NOT FUNNY.
Then again, I found the fact that Gertrude Stein survived living openly as a lesbian Jew in Nazi-occupied France by befriending a Nazi and making anti-Jewish statements publicly rather fascinating ... so who knows?
But anyway, I liked how the book worked to give you a basic sense of who each author fundamentally was, as well as a teeny bit of what kind of work they wrote. It's actually kind of fun as an educational guide if it's taken with a grain of salt.
Me sleepy. Video game reviews later.
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