BOOK SNOOP!

[Melissa_W Moderator]

I couldn't remember in which thread we started this...so our "Book Snoop" project will just have to have its own thread.

Maybe we can be like the trend-spotters fashion, etc.

[Melissa_W Moderator]

2/8/08: 9am bus

Two people reading Who Moved My Cheese? (I wonder if that was assigned for a class)
One person reading what looked like an issue of JAMA
I was reading The Gathering by Anne Enright (that's our February pick for the little F2F booksellers book group from the store; a really good book, very spooky in it's own way)

The other passengers were either texting, listening to iPods, or, in one case, sleeping stretched out across the bench.

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pedsphleb wrote:
I couldn't remember in which thread we started this...so our "Book Snoop" project will just have to have its own thread.

Maybe we can be like the trend-spotters fashion, etc.

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[ande]

Thank you! I agree that we must keep Book Snoop front and center. Yesterday I was on the T in Boston and aside from a person reading sheet music I was the ONLY one reading (Averno, poems by Louise Gluck). But the woman next to me was semi-snooping and reading them too.

[Melissa_W Moderator]

You can tell Oprah has a new book recommendation...there were two copies of Tolle's A New Earth with the Oprah sticker on the bus home today.

I was reading Harold Bloom's The Western Canon.

[Oldesq]

On the AM bus- one of the Godfather saga (couldn't get close enough to tell which one); some type of IT textbook, and a few newspapers. I was reading The Story of Phi: the World's Most Astonishing Number by Livio.

[Jessica]

hi all,

here are a few more books i snooped this morning:

Life of Pi

yet another Eat, Pray, Love (if you've read this book, please post and let us know why you think it's so popular... other than the Oprah touch. every time i look up, it seems, someone's reading this book.)

Born Standing Up (reminds me to put this on my To Read list!)

jess

[pagedove]

Hi! I was wondering if you could tell me how to make the hyperlink to any books I mention in my posts. I find it so helpful to be able to click and find the book and information that may lead to a purchase, it's not a necessity but I see that it has been done in the post I'm replying to. Is that something us regular posters can do? Or is that just for administrators?

[Melissa_W Moderator]

In the toolbar above the reply box is a globe with a "link" symbol.  Highlight the text you want to hyperlink and click the globe.  A hyperlink box will open and you can paste the URL into the box.

[Melissa_W Moderator]

Lots of flashcards today - must be time for some midterms.  A few Sudoku books, too (never got into those - what fun is a puzzle with only 9 answers).

[IBIS]

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Jessica wrote:

yet another Eat, Pray, Love (if you've read this book, please post and let us know why you think it's so popular... other than the Oprah touch. every time i look up, it seems, someone's reading this book.)

jess

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I'm not really a Ophrah bookclub reader, but I did read Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I enjoyed reading it very much. At first I wasn't sure that I wanted to immerse myself in what I thought would be a shamelessly public-bare-it-all-nothing-is-sacred public confessions; but I was pleasantly surprised.

Elizabeth Gilbert is truly likeable, honest with her confessions, yet has lots of personal self-respect left over.

I was truly sympathetic with her personal woes, and her self-mocking but delightfully honest self-assessments were bearable.

It's not often that I sympathize with someone whose marriage is on the rocks, and who spends her misery crying on the bathroom floor -- but Elizabeth had a workable timetable where she spent a year eating in Italy, praying in an ashram in India, and loving life in Bali.

It's a highly enjoyable take on life from the bottom up.... a truly delightful author writing in a very pleasant way about a most unpleasant time in her life.

IBIS

[ande]

Am I the only person left on this earth who has not read Eat, Pray, Love?

Ande

[ande]

In the last week I snooped a couple of teenage girls reading The Red Tent. It's great to see a whole new generation reading it.

Ande

[LizzieAnn]

LOL - nope!  There's at least two of us!!  

ande wrote:

Am I the only person left on this earth who has not read Eat, Pray, Love?

Ande

[Melissa_W Moderator]

I love that book!  I recommend it to any mom who is looking for books with strong female characters for their daughters.

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ande wrote:

In the last week I snooped a couple of teenage girls reading The Red Tent. It's great to see a whole new generation reading it.

Ande

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[Melissa_W Moderator]

That makes two of us - it really doesn't appeal to me.

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ande wrote:

Am I the only person left on this earth who has not read Eat, Pray, Love?

Ande

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[ande]

My problem is I have so much professional reading to do that it's hard to read books just for pleasure -- though I am happy to say that the many books, manuscripts, galleys I am reading professionally are terrific.

Ande

[ande]

And every mother and daughter should have a wonderfully deep discussion about The Red Tent. It would create the opportunity to discuss many otherwise awkward topics (or at least they would have been in my family).

Ande

[Melissa_W Moderator]

That's great that you're getting such good stuff (I'm jealous!).

I've always wondered - do you ever receive manuscripts, etc., where you think "Oy, who thought this was good?" or are the submissions pared down before they reach you so you get the best stuff to pick from for the LVF to support?

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ande wrote:

My problem is I have so much professional reading to do that it's hard to read books just for pleasure -- though I am happy to say that the many books, manuscripts, galleys I am reading professionally are terrific.

Ande

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[ande]

We're a small team at LVF so either I read everything that comes in or an LVF colleague does -- he and I have a similar sense of what's good and appropriate for LVF support. Once something gets my or his thumb's up we pass it along for a second read.

Since publishers approach us with books that they want to give an extra push to those books tend to be really wonderful much of the time and when they are not -- well, reasonable people can disagree about what is terrific.

It's a problem when publishers, agents or authors don't read our web site thoroughly (www.literaryventuresfund.org). We are very clear about what we publish and how our foundation invests. We support literary fiction and narrative non-fiction, but we often get manuscripts that are inappropriate for our mission. And then there are the sad cases of self-published authors who find themselves with printed books but stranded without mechanisms to market and distribute their books. Only very, very, very rarely can we help them.

That said I am happy to report that we have just signed on two new fabulous books of fiction from an American publisher and one in the UK. I am very excited about these books and will share more details soon.

Thanks for asking. I hope I've explained it clearly.

Ande

[Melissa_W Moderator]

Sounds like TONS of fun but I'm sure there can be tough choices, too.