Recently in Books Category

When I was young I used to go to my Uncle's house in Far Rockaway, Queens for weeks at a time.  He had an indirect positive influence on me - his books!  They were everywhere: on the floors, on shelves, book cases, in boxes, in closets.  My fondest memory is of these two towering book shelves on each side of the living room entrance he had filled with books.  I would stare at them sometimes in awe thinking that there were secrets in them.

In a time when the environment is a hot topic books these days may be getting a bad wrap.  We know they are the product of processed timber and thus must take some toll on our forests, but if you think about all sides of the environment you would line your walls with them!

I didn't know this book was banned.  All the more reason to go read it now.

I'm up to the second part of the book and I have to give props to Junot Diaz for writing a very engaging tale of a fat-nerdy Dominican kid growing up in New Jersey.  Constantly, we are told that Mr Diaz's voice is very unique, so I won't write the same (I think I just did). 

La Bloga, has a nice interview (you gotta love the La Bloga peeps).

From Amazon:  "This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today. Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku - the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim. Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time."

I'm a big fan of social networking/web 2.0; it's the power of generosity and humaneness that exalts itself magnanimously within such arenas. 

I found this cool site:  BookCrossing.   The idea is to publicly distribute books and keep track of these books via their own ID number.  You place a book on a bench in the park, on the stairs of a building, a coffee shop in the mall, and jot it down on the site - the book is now ("out in the wild," as they call it).  Whoever picks it up can then sign into the website and state they have got it if they are so inclined.

I am releasing Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind," somewhere tomorrow (it's a book that's been lying around; I actually want to read it one day, but I don't think I'll get to it for some time).

Lou, I knew you loved latino immigrants. Who's shoveling the horses poop that your daughter's horses are happily plopping? Or maybe there are Americans who want that job?  It's guilt by association, baby!

In Brazil, as they celebrate Black Consciousness Day.

Facebook has enabled a feature for businesses to publish what their consumers purchase, want or subscribe to that users Facebook profile in order to be shared with the world. .

Facebook is truly looking at the business end first and the people second.  What they should of done is first have the business request to use the story of the users purchase and then ask if they can use it, rather than publish first and leave it up to the user to opt out later.  MoveOn allows you to fight back.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, has been a celebrated author (and one of my favorites), for some time now.  Oprah has recently 'discovered' him and consequently has bumped him up Amazon's top seller.