"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
“If you take a punch at me now: (1) You will break your hand. That’s the beauty of spending just a half hour a day on your muscular-skeletal structure — it turns into kryptonite; (2) I will fall on you. I’m still working on my core and balance issues, so after you slug me I […]
How’s that Nook e-reader I got for my birthday last year working out? Glad you asked. Over the past year my reading has been about 25% Nook, 75% book (I keep a record of the books I’ve read, and I actually counted). That strikes me as about right: e-books cost money and library books are […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Today is the first day of Banned Books Week, which runs from September 24 to October 1. In honor of BBW, rather than link to the standard lists of books under fire from parents, religious fundamentalists, and political activists, I’ll […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Banned Books Week (September 24 to October 1) is almost upon us. What’s it all about? From the American Library Association’s site: Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during […]
“A big tamarisk can suck 73,000 gallons of river water a year. For $2.88 a day, plus water bounty, Lolo rips tamarisk all winter long. “Ten years ago, it was a good living. Back then, tamarisk shouldered up against every riverbank in the Colorado River Basin, along with cottonwoods, Russian olives, and elms. Ten years […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. My last YCRT column was all about Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse-Five. Can you stand one more link? It’s a good one. Oh, all right, one more, in honor of the respectable citizens of Republic, Missouri … you know, the ones […]
“Her new book was on the phenomenon of word casings, a term she’d invented for words that no longer had meaning outside quotation marks. English was full of these empty words – ‘Friend’ and ‘real’ and ‘story’ and ‘change’ – words that had been shucked of their meanings and reduced to husks. Some like ‘identity’, […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. I’m starting with an essay on censorship by Chris Crutcher. Crutcher, an author whose books are frequently challenged and banned from school libraries and reading lists, is coming around to the same conclusion I’ve drawn: that parental book challenges are […]