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06.17.08 by Widge @ 10:35 pm  Bloomsbury is auctioning off two rounds of kickass books and letters and such. It will make you want to pull a heist in order to be able to effectively bid on some of these things. Like a signed limited first edition of Uncle Bill. Or first edition Dahl. Or first edition Holmes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Or letters from T.S. Eliot. That's happening this Thursday in New York at 2pm. Check out the lots here. Then there's the Children's Book Auction. Featuring scads of first edition Frank Baum. A signature from Lewis Carroll. A first edition Pooh from 1926. Again, one weeps with how poor one is. Check out those lots here. That one is happening Wednesday, June 25th, at 2pm. Also in New York. Book fiends, take note. And...hey, has anyone seen Doc? He tore out of here with a ninja squadron and then headed for the jump jet. Odd. Categorized as: Books
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06.14.08 by Widge @ 2:06 am Russell Brand, who is insinuating himself into the American culture like an expert thanks to stuff like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, has snagged a two-year book deal with HarperCollins Worldwide. My Booky Wook, his autobiography, has been snagged as part of the deal and his first new book is due in the UK for Christmas. That's all well and good, but what about us stateside? Anyway, I love this quote, because it's typical Brand: "I am very pleased to get money for writing these books as I was going to write them anyway." If you don't know Brand, here's an entire episode of his series, Ponderland. Enjoy. Categorized as: Books
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06.13.08 by Widge @ 11:12 pm  Frank Muller, the "Iron Man" of audiobook narration, had recorded over 200 audiobook performances, according to his official site. It just seems to me that that's a low number. There was a time where it was a surprise, honestly, if somebody else was doing an audiobook. Muller was omnipresent. He was also an actor who didn't just read you the books. He performed them capably, and I spent a lot of time driving around in his company. I just now got the word--from an Audible newsletter--that he passed away on June 4th. He had suffered a terrible motorcycle incident back in 2001 that left him unable to work. I can't find any details, but I'm assuming that he passed due to lingering complications from this accident. Our thoughts go out to his family and I say a huge thanks for everything, Frank. Rest well. P.S. The Wavedancer Foundation was setup by Stephen King after Muller's accident to help disabled artists who can no longer work in their chosen field. I'm assuming they're still active, although I can't seem to locate a website for them. King, Peter Straub, John Grisham and Pat Conroy all got together to do a benefit reading to help Muller's medical bills. The CD of that performance is here and the proceeds go to that Foundation. It's an excellent listen. Categorized as: Books
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05.18.08 by Widge @ 11:38 pm  So we're listening to the previously mentioned audiobook of Little House on the Prairie, and the idea that this guy is leaving Wisconsin with his family and heading west strikes me a bit odd, and next thing I know I'm thinking the following line: "The Ingalls Family fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." I worry myself sometimes. Someone please go write this mashup. I'll give you a dollar? Categorized as: Books
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04.30.08 by Widge @ 5:52 am  Gary Snyder, one of my favorite poets, won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. What does this mean? Established in 1986 and presented annually by the Poetry Foundation, the award is one of the most prestigious given to American poets, and at $100,000 it is one of the nation's largest literary awards. Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine and chair of the selection committee, made the announcement today. The prize will be presented at an evening ceremony at the Arts Club of Chicago on Thursday, May 29.
Yeah. I don't know about Prof. Snyder...maybe he's got a lucrative career on the side that I'm unaware of. But $100K to a poet? A poet? Wow. That's something to any writer, but especially to a poet, when it's hard to get people these days to read, much less read poetry. Well done. If you don't know his work, I would recommend No Nature for a nice primer. Also, if you can lay hands upon the performance of Turtle Island he did with Paul Winter, grab it. It's criminal that it's out of print. And to my knowledge never hit CD. One of my favorite poems reprinted after the jump. Categorized as: Books
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