“Although William Faulkner won a Nobel Prize in literature, his writing is still considered particularly dense. One of his most difficult works is “The Sound and the Fury,” which is told from multiple points of view. It begins in the voice of Benjy, a mentally disabled man whose perception is jumbled, immediate and distinctly hard to parse. One of the reasons Benji’s narrative is hard to follow is because it jumps around in time with little indication of the change, other than italics. But when Faulkner was working on the book in the 1920s — “The Sound and the Fury” was published in 1929 — he imagined a way to make the section clearer to readers. “I wish publishing was advanced enough to use colored ink,” Faulkner wrote to his editor, “as I argued with you and Hal in the Speakeasy that day.” “I’ll just have to save the idea until publishing grows up,” he added, inadvertently launching a challenge to future publishers. Nine decades later, the Folio Society took it up. In a special edition, the Folio Society is publishing “The Sound and the Fury” in 14 colors. It’s a fine press edition, quarter-bound in leather, with a slipcase and an additional volume of commentary. It also includes a color-coded bookmark that reveals which time period is designated by each color” (via ‘The Sound and the Fury’ as William Faulkner imagined, in color - latimes.com).
“The 2011 Booker Longlist novels broken down by theme. Good to see ‘Nanny trust issues’ finally making its breakthrough as a Longlist motif. Taken from issue five of Delayed Gratification (Oct-Dec 2011)” (via Delayed Gratification | The Slow Journalism Magazine | PLOT LINES).
“Fifty years ago, in a Seattle Times article entitled Talking Books Will Entertain, Inform ‘Readers’ in Century 21, writers, teachers and booksellers gathered to examine the future of the book. Many of their predictions from this report in the five-part World’s Fair souvenir edition on Space Age Frontiers are quite visionary—while others, such as having a fully-automated future with an abundance of idle time—are just outright laughable. Read on…” (via Letterology: A 1962 Vision of the 21st Century Book Trade)
“The Next Time Someone Says the Internet Killed Reading Books, Show Them This Chart” (via The Next Time Someone Says the Internet Killed Reading Books, Show Them This Chart - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic)
"My siblings and I were voracious readers as kids: Between Hans Christian Andersen and every last installment of Amelia Bedelia, my parents couldn’t keep enough books on our shelves. If only we’d had the Infinite Adventure Machine. Developed as a spec project for Microsoft, it’s a computer program that generates crude outlines for—you guessed it—an infinite number of children’s stories. The only catch: You have to fill in the blanks. The program’s by London designer David Benqué, and it’s based on the research of Vladimir Propp, a Russian scholar who reduced the structure of Russian folk tales to 31 “narratemes”—basic narrative elements (like trickery, complicity, and villainy). The Infinite Adventure Machine works by randomly aggregating those 31 elements, according to a few simple rules, to create a synopsis. The synopsis is then spread over the virtual pages of a storybook. Each page gives you a rudimentary plot point (“departure of elders”) alongside a spare illustration (an empty house). Your job is to mine the depths of your imagination to round out the tale with details (“This story starts with two lovely parents who want to leave their child alone in their cold, dark shack”)."
— An App That Can Generate Infinite Bedtime Stories | Co. Design
"Seven stories published by Theodor Geisel five decades ago will find their way to readers in a new book coming from Random House. “The Bippolo Seed” is coming to shelves Sept. 27… It will be the first time the seven stories in “The Bippolo Seed” have appeared in a book. Or as Dr. Seuss might say: One story, two story, old story, new story."
— Lost Dr. Seuss stories to be published in September - latimes.com
"I hope you are not here because you like to read.” It was the opening salvo for my interview with the admissions director at the University of Maryland’s Graduate School of Library & Information Services. I don’t remember what, or if, I countered. It was 1967. Answer or no answer I was admitted, matriculated, and graduated. After a long library career, I am now retired and a recent volunteer at NYPL. The admissions director is long gone, but I would like to reply. “I love to read. Did then, still do. And I love to know what people are reading."
— NYC Reads: Books on the Subway | The New York Public Library
