Imagine All the People... Gone

I'm not a science fiction fan, as a rule, but I'm not immune to a little alternative-future thinking on occasion. So I'll confess I was intrigued by a recent CBC interview with Alan Weisman, author of the forthcoming SF novel The World Without Us (to be published July 10).

Weisman discusses how the world would change if humans were to suddenly disappear. For example, he predicts that feral housecats wouldn't miss us at all. (But you knew that.) The author says he spoke to a number of experts to ground his sci-fi in sci-fact, and the result sounds like it will be better than your usual space opera.

Listen to the interview here.--David E

After IV

Last month, I drew your attention to a great title: Working IX to V : Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World. (See that earlier item here.) I also mentioned that the author would be appearing on NPR. Now that interview has been posted, along with an excerpt from the book detailing various types of Roman slaves and their extremely specialized responsibilities.

My favorite is the triumph slave: "The slave stood behind the triumphant general in his chariot [during the victory parade], holding a heavy, jewel-laden gold crown over the man's head. His other task was much trickier. As the procession moved along amid cheers, the slave whispered wet blanket remarks into the general's ear: 'You're not that great. Look around you and remember you're only a man.'" That doesn't sound hard at all.--David E

Why & Wherefore

Have you ever wondered why soda comes in round containers while milk comes in square ones? No, I hadn't either until the question was posed in an article at Design Observer.

The answer--that milk's squared containers mean more efficient use of refrigerated space during transport and display, while a soda can's round shape is easier to hold in your hand and better holds the pressure of a carbonated liquid--is revealed in The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas.

Author Robert Frank is an economist and professor who wants to turn the study of the dismal science away from mathematics and statistics in a more social, psychological, and--he would say--naturalist direction, and he's focused his attentions and his economics analyses on the world around us, specifically product design and consumer behavior.

Pick it up if you want to learn Frank's answers to questions such as

• Why, even though the discs are exactly the same size, do DVDs come in such larger packages than CDs?
• Why do drive-up ATM machines have Braille dots on the keypads?
• Why do fast food chains promise a free meal if the cashier doesn't offer a receipt, even though most customers don't want one?

--David E

Thumbs up for Annie

Daniel B Smith reviews Annie Dillard's latest novel The Maytrees at slate.com, and it's a rave: "At times, The Maytrees acts like vintage Dillard: It contains gorgeous, meticulous descriptions of the outdoors that springboard into the Platonic ether, into meditations on devotion, loss, and time. ... The result is one of the most lucid and effective books Dillard has ever produced."

Run, Don't Walk

HarperCollins is offering advance reader copies of Ann Patchett's next book Run, which will be published September 25. Patchett is the author of book club favorite Bel Canto.

To get on the list for a copy, email HarperCollins.

Just Like Being There

Fora.tv has posted an almost hour-long reading and Q&A with Armistead Maupin. The event was held at San Francisco's Books Inc. bookstore. Maupin is discussing his latest book Michael Tolliver Lives, the latest book in his longrunning Tales of the City series.

No Thorns, Please

NPR recently talked to Aurelia C Scott about her new book Otherwise Normal People: Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening. Learn the tips and tricks of the flower world's most devoted growers. (Some, for example, actually place a shovel beside an underperforming bush, as a threat.) There's also an excerpt from Scott's book, to whet your appetite.

And you can find out even more here in our store on July 1, when Scott herself will be here for a reading. The stories are great, and the Q&A will be worth the trip, I'm sure. So bring your favorite flower stories and enjoy.--David E

Well Begun is Half Done

World-famous librarian (how often do you read those words?) Nancy Pearl has posted some great reading suggestions for the younger set. To whet you appetite, she's chosen books with particularly engaging openings. Among my favorites:

• "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
• "I come from a family with a lot of dead people."
• "I have been accused of being anal retentive, an over-achiever, and a compulsive perfectionist, like those are bad things."
• "We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck."

What are these from? Your choices are below, but they're not in order. Give it a guess.

• Each Little Bird That Sings
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• Millicent Min, Girl Genius
• Feed

The answers are here, along with exceprts, so you can keep on reading past the first sentences.--David E

Just Can't Wait

A purported hacker who broke into Bloomsbury's computers has posted what he claims is the super-secret ending to the seventh and final Harry Potter novel.

Why did he do it? The hacker says, "We did it by following the precious words of the great Pope Benedict XVI when he still was Cardinal Josepth Ratzinger.He explained why Harry Potter bring the youngs of our earth to Neo Paganism faith. So we make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring."

In fact, it's the revelation that's kinda dull. (You can read the putative secrets here). I haven't read the Potter books, so that combined with the fractured English makes the post pretty well meaningless to me. Take that, hacker.--David E

The Sound of One Tooth Gnashing

Residents of the little French town of Lussaud (pop. 25) are up in arms over their depiction in Pierre Jourde's novel Pays Perdu. Five of them are currently on trial for actually attacking the author's house with stones in 2003.

What provoked such biblical outrage? Passages such as this: "That curious tradition of having only one tooth could have been taken for a fashion, a form of dandyism, like wearing a monocle. It seemed an aesthetic expression rather than a necessity. Because one lone tooth--is it any better than having none?"

Pays Perdu isn't available in English just yet, but you can read the Guardian's coverage here. A Year in Provence this ain't.--David E

Reading Nigeria

Nigeria is on the literary map. Two of the country's writers have won major literary prizes recently. Chinua Achebe (author of the classic Things Fall Apart) won this year's Man Booker International Prize for his career, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction for her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun.

And it turns out that Adichie actually grew up in a house once occupied by Achebe. How's that for a promising literary pedigree?

Nigeria's Daily Sun newspaper is hosting a forum in which readers compare the two authors both to each other and to Olaudah Equiano, who is argubably Nigeria's first author for his book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. The comments make for a very interesting glimpse of a writing scene little known in the US.--David E

Behind the Curtain

Last week, I wrote about McSweeney's sale to cover debts incurrred during the bankruptcy of their distributor. This week salon.com has posted a full article, going into all the details. If you're interested in the behind-the-scenes financial aspect of publishing, it's a must-read. My only comment: the article is perhaps a little too upbeat in its belief that the internet will be the salvation of struggling small publishing houses.--David E

The Last Grape on the Vine

I'm always the last to know. It turns out that A.M. Homes, author of the recent memoir The Mistress's Daughter is bisexual, telling the Washington Post, “I've dated men and I've dated women and there's no more or less to it than that.” She's also written for HBO's guilty pleasure The L Word.

For more on all this, you can read an interesting interview with the author at AfterEllen.com.--David E

Wee Reads

Don't tell me you don't have room for another book. New York's Grolier Club is hosting an exhibition of miniature books through July 28. In the show are a two-inch-tall set of the complete works of Shakespeare, a four thousand-year-old Babylonian tablet, and a book that's been to the moon and back.

You can also see video footage from the show here.

Poetry from Guantanamo, Part 2

The University of Iowa's book Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak got a very compelling write-up in the Wall Street Journal today. Among the details: prisoners scratched poems on stryofoam cups with pebbles and passed them between the bars. The military censored some of the poems, citing the possibility of hidden messages in the verses, but verses like "To be with my children, each a part of me/to be with my wife and the ones I love/to be with my parents, my world's tenderest hearts,/I dream to be home, to be free from this cage" don't seem to be hiding their content at all.

See my earlier post about this topic here.

Off the Shelves, Into the Galleries--Part 2

Last week it was books as building materials. Today it's books as fantastic distorted, even tortured shapes and forms, courtesy of photographer Cara Barer, who has two series of her photographs posted on her website (here and here).

Says the artist, "I realized I owned many books that were no longer of use to me, or for that matter, anyone else. Would I ever need "Windows 95?" After soaking it in the bathtub for a few hours, it had a new shape and purpose."

Get Published, Poets

Knockout, a new literary magazine, is soliciting poetry for its second issue. The deadline is August 15. See www.queerwriters.com for full details.

Boxers or Briefs?

Kids' book illustrator Noah Z Jones has a promotional website that's worth a look: almostnakedanimals.com. Don't be scared if you're at work; it's not going to get you in trouble. Rather, it's filled with cartoons of various animals standing around in their underpants. Each also comes with a quick list of likes and dislikes. It's worth a quick look.

On the Mike, Part 2

Mike Jones talked to the Minneapolis StarTribune's Claude Peck and Rick Nelson. (Fair warning: I haven't had a chance to listen to this interview yet.--DHE)

Download the MP3 here.

And hear him for yourself when he's in the store on Thursday, June 21, at 7:30pm.

Straight Up With a Twist

In the middle of May, NPR had a nice interview with Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, authors of Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. Their book uses jokes (goods ones, even) to illustrate philosophical concepts.

Now, Boston's public radio station WBUR has posted an hour-long program with the pair, so you can really get your fill.