Upcoming: Recommendations From Under the Radar
Recommendations from Under the Radar: Day 1

Sunday Afternoon Visits: 3 Days Early

I'm bringing you this week's "Sunday Visits" post a few days early. I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Sonoma County with three friends from college for a long weekend. It's rare for us all four to be together (we live in New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and California), and on Sunday, I'll be focusing on that. But I leave you with a few tidbits:

  • Read Roger seeks an explanation for why, when he's listening to an audiobook, he has to be doing something else, too. He can't just sit and listen. Many commenters have weighed in -- this compulsion to multitask while listening to audiobooks is clearly widespread. I think that commenter Lelac is onto something with this point: "You read a lot faster than you listen. If the audiobook could move along at your normal reading clip, it would be able to absorb more of your mental energy."
  • The news is all over the Internet, and the mainstream press, that a recent study found that one in four adults say that they read no books at all in the past year. One of the more thoughtful blog responses that I've seen in this one by Kate McNeill, link courtesy of AmoxCalli, but many others have weighed in. Peronally, I'm not as up in arms about this news as some. I think that adults are entitled to their own preferences -- if people don't want to read, that's their choice. I certainly have things that other people enjoy that I don't want to do. I feel differently about kids -- I think that adults should be doing everything that they can to give kids the opportunity to grow up enjoying books. Because that's when most people learn to love books -- when they're young. But I accept that it's not going to take with some people. There's a lot of variation from person to person -- that's what makes the world interesting. See also Becky's response at Reading With Becky.
  • A new issue of The Prairie Wind (newsletter of the SCBWI-Illinois chapter) is now available. I especially enjoyed Ilene Goldman's kidlitosphere feature: Why Do Bloggers Blog? This roundtable discussion features several writers who also blog. I also liked Louann Brown's article: From Cornfields to Cyberpace. This article is a beginner's guide to websites for illustrators.
  • Longstocking Kathryne Alfred has a new job teaching middle-school English at a private elementary school. Her appointed mission is to get kids to love reading for fun. How cool is that? She's looking for book recommendations, and has received lots of great feedback in the comments.
  • To celebrate the start of the new school year, Gail Gauthier is giving away an autographed copy of her out-of-print novel A Year with Butch and Spike. You can find details here. But don't delay. There's a deadline to enter.
  • Expectant Mom Mindy has put together a nice post about Books for Babies at Propernoun.net. She discusses board books and links to several other posts about choosing books for babies. Mindy's child is one who will be read lots and lots of books, no worries about that.
  • And lastly, a sad story from Ananka's Diary. "The latest edition of Nation Geographic is reporting that redheads (known as "gingers" in the UK and Australia) may be extinct in 100 years." I find this especially sad, because I share my life with a redhead. Then again, he has two dark-haired parents, so there's still hope for highly recessive red-headed genes in the world.

And that's all. Hope that you all have an amazing weekend!

Comments