What do Jackie Collins, William Faulkner, Dave Eggers, Virginia Woolf, and Steven King have in common? According to Rosecrans Baldwin at Slate, they all mention a dog barking in the distance in one of their novels. Apparently, it’s hard to find a novel that doesn’t include a far-off dog.

Perhaps distant dogs are a way for novelists to wink at one another, at their extraordinary luck for being allowed into the publishing club. When an author incorporates a faceless barking dog into his novel, he’s like an amateur at Harlem’s Apollo Theater rubbing the Tree of Hope—he does it because so many others have done it before him, and it might just bring him some luck.

Some authors do this on purpose to great affect; others use it to buy time or cheat a mood. The article is a little tongue-in-cheek, but it reminds us to pay attention to our tics and make sure every word is there because it matters. Now I’m going to pay attention today–do I hear any dogs barking?

Immediately after the NY Times Paper Cuts blog bemoaned the lack of reciprocity between visual artists and novelists, saying that painters don’t incorporate books into their art the way novelists incorporate the visual arts into their stories, I saw this fun project by Jane Mount called Ideal Bookshelf.

Mount takes the favorite books people choose to represent themselves and does a painting of their ideal bookshelf. She says:

We show off our books on shelves like merit badges, because we’re proud of the ideas we’ve ingested to make us who we are, and we hope to connect with others. I think this is endearing and charming. When I paint someone else’s bookshelf and they have the same book I do, I feel inordinately joyful about it, and about them.

Of course, the Times blogger wasn’t talking about literally using books or images of books in art. But seeing an artist portray a shelf of books as a window into an individual’s hearts, minds, and souls is surely a fun way for the two arts to join forces.
Off to work on what my ideal bookshelf would be! What’s yours?

A publisher in Hamburg, Germany has converted some old cigarette vending machines into book dispensers. The books are all new titles from Hamburg authors. Forget about iPads or e-readers; this is the new distribution method I want to sweep the nation. Also: Reading is more healthy than smoking.
I think I want my book sold this way!

via Bookninja

Hark, a vagrant put up some hilarious comics based on The Great Gatsby. A sample:

More here.

Sloshspot has a list of 16 Drinks Named for Authors and Their Books. A sample:

John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath

6 oz FourMaxed Grape Malt Beverage
3 oz Cabernet Sauvignon
0.5 oz Absinthe
A Dash of Wormwood Oil
12 Frozen Grapes

Place grapes in Collins glass. Pour out FourMaxed over grapes. Mix Wine, Absinthe and Wormwood oil and pour into glass. Throw up as your house is bulldozed and prepare to head west. If you can’t find a can of FourMaxed, then go with the next best thing which is the beloved Sparks.

Or you can just go for Jack London’s Call of the Wild Turkey, which is, naturally, one Bottle of Wild Turkey.

I just found out that there may be an adult version of the TV show Reading Rainbow coming soon. Apparently LeVar Burton said on twitter (I cannot say tweeted, no I cannot):

“Want y’all to know that I’m seriously moving forward with an idea for a new version of a Reading Rainbow like show. Webisodes for adults.”

And then again:

You heard it here first… Reading Rainbow 2.0 is in th works! Stay tuned for more info. But, you don’t have to…

That is awesome.

I am slowly making my way through Dante’s Inferno. It’s the first time I’ve read the book all the way through and I am struck by how incredibly visual it is. I have to wonder a bit about the mind of a man who can think of so many horrible scenarios, but it’s a great read, very eerie and disturbing.

But now everyone can delve into the Inferno without having to pick up the book. EA games has apparently made a video game called Dante’s Inferno.

At first I thought this was a good idea. At the end of Doom 3, you descend into hell and it’s cool and scary, so why not make a whole game based on hell? Inferno, being very visual and having–literally–different levels (nine of them to be exact) is a good choice.

But these trailers aren’t doing it for me. For one thing, they have diminished the role of Virgil, Dante’s guide, to almost nothing. Now Dante is some sort of warrior who descends into hell and has to fight the dead souls there.

Okay, I can see that. I know it’s boring to have Dante walk through the different circles of hell and ask everyone who they are. But the book is so eerie and creepy, and this is so violent and, well, video game-ish, that I find it disappointing.

However, I might forgive all that if it weren’t for this:

“Cackle cackle! You’re never get the girl, Dante!”

That is a giant Cleopatra, by the way.

Yeah…

With all those technology types talking about carrying around all our books in one little piece of plastic, it’s kind of refreshing to the contrarian in me to see this enormous book that takes six people just to lift it.The 350-year-old Klencke, the world’s largest book, will be on display in the British Library this summer.

It is almost absurdly huge – 1.75 metres (5ft) tall and 1.9 metres (6ft) wide – and was given to the king by Dutch merchants and placed in his cabinet of curiosities.

“It is going to be quite a spectacle,” said Tom Harper, head of antiquarian maps. “Even standing beside it is quite unnerving.”

As a contrast, one of the smallest maps in the world, a fingernail-sized German coin from 1773 showing a bird’s eye view of Nuremberg, will be exhibited close by.

Link – Guardian UK

A publishing trend that I think is dying is the snarky, single-topic blog being turned into a book. I plan to dance on the grave of this trend. I don’t know how it started, if it actually made any money, or who decided it was a good idea. And I don’t care. I only care that it dies a horrible death.Books with bad photos and no editorial concept beyond a one-note joke … you’re time is over!

Now there is a site mocking these mockeries: Look At This Idea For A Blog-to-Book Deal

Of course, perhaps they hope to actually publish a book of stuff from their Tumblr blog  mocking people trying to turn their Tumblr blog into a book. I’ve decided to ignore that Ouroboros. (Read on …)