WHEN NOVELISTS SOBER UP | More Intelligent Life

WHEN NOVELISTS SOBER UP More Intelligent Life

Booze and writers go together like a horse and carriage. This article is great in its discussion of writers and battles with booze.

I think this quote tells the whole story:

Certainly, if what you’re used to is rolling champagne bottles down Fifth
Avenue beneath the light of a wanton moon or getting into the kind of barfights
that make a man feel alive, truly alive, the basic facts of recovered life—the
endless meetings, the rote ingestion of the sort of clichés the writer has spent
his entire life avoiding—are below prosaic.

Basically writers think they are special and being an addict is not special, it means you are like everyone else. Dude, life sucks.

More reasons to worry about ebooks than I thought | Books | guardian.co.uk

More reasons to worry about ebooks than I thought Books guardian.co.uk

This article brings up my major problem with e-books.

I believe that they cannot become successfully established until the reader who owns the book reader also owns the content. Too many of the companies that sell electronic media try to claim ownership rights over the content. That will never be accepted by the public. If I buy a copy of a work, then I, as the reader own THAT copy just like physical books. Until that breakthrough occurs e-books will be a niche product. And there is no reason why they should be niche products at this point.

Why does crime still have such unpardonably low literary status? | Books | guardian.co.uk

Why does crime still have such unpardonably low literary status? Books guardian.co.uk

I love John Banville's fiction, he is one of the best serious fiction writers out there. But, he stumbles into a mess when he says things like this:

"Writing under his own name, Banville manages around 100 sweated-over, teased, honed and polished words a day; but as Benjamin Black, he can manage a couple of thousand."

Now I'm a major fan of literature, but I'm alos a fan of genre fiction. This is an ugly statement that betrays what I believe is a serious problem in fiction. Genre fiction IS as good as literature, but only if you write it seriously.

He said essentially the same thing when he was interviewed by The Paris Review in the following article:

http://www.parisreview.com/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5907

It's well worth finding the whole interview to see his views. At worst I think he is suffering from a bit of ego. He knew better than to say it out loud.

‘Moveable Feast’ Is Recast by Hemingway Grandson - NYTimes.com

I love the original a "Moveable Feast", but this new one sounds really good. An updated and, hopefully, more accurate version would be great. Who knows what Papa would have really wanted, we just want to get as close as we can and enjoy.

Rethinking the Kindle - Megan McArdle

The article is about some issues with Kindle DRM. I hate DRM and think its a rip off. This is an example of how they get you. I've bought the damn thing. GIVE IT TO ME! For God's sake. The digital future will not become reality until they fix these issues. Permanently.

Malcolm Gladwell reviews Free by Chris Anderson: Books: The New Yorker

Given the changes that the Internet has brought the market of intellectual property Malcolm Gladwell's article on the subject is really prescient. His premise is ultimately that quality is important, no matter what you charge. Quality rises to the top. The most important thing that many people who think of giving away intellectual property free don't understand is that people want quality first. You can't over-look the human desire for something good, over their desire for something free. But, as a warning, never overlook the quality of free.