Wu Ming Thing

My interview with the Wu Ming gang of radical Italian novelists is up on Joey Skagg's web site. They talk about the new book, pranks, a visit to a Mohawk nation, plagiarism ... lots of interesting topics. If you don't find it right off, check out the LiteratEye archives for column #32.

Dead Men Writing

Should work that authors didn't intend to publish be marketed after they've died? It's happening.

Must-a Got Lost

Interesting collection of "lost manuscript" stories...

Fascinating

Hidden away in a Zurich bank vault, the secret diary of Carl Jung. A lengthy feature story, a great tale about how a very special book finds its way to publication, also fascinating if you are interested in Jung, dreams, archetypes, spirituality that is not religion, confronting personal demons, the secretive family of the man who would - surprise - rather be Jung than Jungian versus the inquiring public, art and writing as therapy ... and perhaps the publishing event of ... the year? the decade? modern times? When you consider the new books, revised books, seminars and workshops, therapeutic theories and personal journeys that will spin off of "The Red Book," the effect is unpredictable.

NOMBS: Not On My Book Shelf

There was in the past a prejudice in literary circles against classics done up as modern leather-bound books. That prejudice probably still exists to some degree but the books have certainly become more collectible. It's understandable as the trend becomes more toward disposable books that appear on screens or pop out of Print On Demand machines. I had to learn the hard way that POD means you are getting what might be called a Xerox of the book -- if the original is shabby, so will be your copy. As for leather-bound modern reprints of classics (re-designed, and with type re-set), I'm certainly tempted in cases where I want a quality reading copy that will be around for years and years, say, the collected works of a favorite poet or that sort of thing. And it looks as though they might prove a good investment, over time.

Denver Broncos Cheerleaders Reading List

OK, so it's not really on my beat ... It's just kind of neat that someone came up with the weird idea of asking them. Wonder if they got prepped on their answers or if this is the real deal?

The Scandal Behind 'Brideshead Revisited'

I can think of friends who would declare this book-excerpt account of life among Great Britain's upper classes in the Roaring '20s to be bizarre and trashy fiction, but they are wonderfully naive about such things. Whether then or now, the only rule that applies to the jaded rich and powerful is "Don't do it in public."

Who Leaked the Kennedy Memoir?

The publisher of Ted Kennedy's memoir has hired a private detective to find out how the New York Times got past the embargo.

Hemingway at War

Hemingway cruising the waters off Cuba early in WWII, armed with a machine gun and grenades, looking for German U-boats? Really.

Who Wrote Shakespeare's Plays?

I'm sure I said somewhere in an earlier entry that I hoped to avoid getting into the Shakespeare argument as it's so well handled elsewhere. However, along came this spat and i had to delve. Thank goodness we normals have a spokesman like Kamm to state our case and lay waste to the kooks. (i confess, I kept reading in hopes someone would turn him on his head).

Drowned Towns

This list isn't about literary fraud but it sure is an eerie subject. It concerns books about towns now under water, as a result of public works projects or acts of nature, and sometimes owing to acts of malevolence. The list includes fiction (particularly mysteries), nonfiction and also a state-by-state and international compilation of towns now submerged. In many cases, remnants of the communities still exist beneath the surface ... complete with skeletons in their closets. (Wouldn't the subject make an interesting photo book, pictures of "then" along with above and below shots of "now.")

Weird Books

ABE has set up a Weird Book Room, featuring their picks of oddball titles. "The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America" just might be a put-on. Ditto, "The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories," though I'm not so sure. "People Who Don't Know They're Dead" could be a bit disturbing. Most are strange but a few look to be the work of serious persons and might be useful to someone or other. What's so strange about a book on how to clip a Poodle? Don't most Poodle owners view them as sort of decorative objects?

The Plagiarism Plague

Yet another report from the plagiarism front, this time it's Barbie doll research ripped off. The case mentioned in this thoughtful overview.