Jan

31

It’s A Guy (And Girl) Thing.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 31, 2007 | 3 Comments

William Sleator is a writer who mainly writes for teens. His books fall in the science fiction or fantasy category, and they’re consistently imaginative, surprising, sometimes frightening, and thought-provoking.

Jan

27

Beer Of the Week (January 27, 2007).

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 27, 2007 | 3 Comments

Because literature, like baseball, would be a lot less interesting without alcohol.
This week’s beer of the week is: Horn Dog.

Jan

24

Time Is On Their Side

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 24, 2007 | 4 Comments

Books are the way of the future. That might seem like a strange, shortsighted, backward, ignorant, or even downright idiotic thing to say, but books?real, physical bundles of paper, ink, glue, and cloth, have been around a long time, and I have good reasons for believing they’re going to stay around for a long time.
Several [...]

Jan

22

We Don’t Need Another Hero

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 22, 2007 | 4 Comments

In October 2004 the poet and translator Stephen Mitchell published a new version of the epic of Gilgamesh. Probably best known for his translations of Rilke, Mitchell is the first writer to publish a version with the current war in Iraq continuing, a fact which he mentions in his introduction. Like most versions, including the [...]

Jan

22

Say What?

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 22, 2007 | 5 Comments

How does anyone learn English? This language has such a long and bizarre history that even the simplest, smallest word can cause a lot of confusion. Take, for instance, the simple word “to”. It’s a preposition or part of an infinitive or a conjunction or an adverb–just under these uses it gets 22 definitions in [...]