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people don't read no more

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'Zines: Not Totally Dead!

Remember zines? They were basically, like... personal, esoteric blogs xeroxed on paper, from way back in the 1980s and 90s. Critical Mass has an obituary of zines today. Cause of death: internet. But they're wrong! Zines are only, like, half-dead. (I even have one! On paper, yes.) There's a handful of people who still make them, similar to vinyl record enthusiasts in their weirdness. The Portland Zine Symposium, which happens every August, is still going strong. After the jump, a list of my favorite, current zines — and where to find them! More »

4:10 PM on Thu Mar 13 2008
By Sheila
1,629 views, 34 comments

Latest by kthnx: Best thing about zines: When 15 year old girls pronounce the word so that it rhymes with "signs". more »

magazines

Future of Fancy Reading and Writing: Online

Writerly power-couple Tom Jenks (former fiction editor at Esquire, GQ and Scribner's), and novelist Carol Edgarian (Rise of the Euphrates), are profiled by the SF Chronicle about their literary-online magazine, Narrative. It has "selections from writer friends such as Jane Smiley, Tobias Wolff and Joyce Carol Oates;" its goal is "to connect more readers to more literary writers." It is literally subtitled "The Future of Reading." (The future of reading still involves Joyce Carol Oates and the Internet?) Sixty-five people volunteer for Narrative without pay, including big shots like Michael Wiegers of Copper Canyon press, a poetry publisher. So why exactly is the future of literary writing online?
More »

5:32 PM on Thu Mar 6 2008
By Sheila
1,173 views, 23 comments

Latest by famousauthor: "Slight gusts of tail winds"=farts. more »

print is dead

You Can Also Use Newspapers to "Wipe Away Tough Streaks on Glass"

It must truly be the end of print if Real Simple, that charming Time Inc publication about "Life Made Easier," is advertising "10 New Uses for Newspaper." (We hear that they're good to wrap around your feet if you're homeless and sleeping outside!) What are the rest? Hint: did you know that newspapers are actually quite "absorbent, because [newsprint] has to absorb ink"?
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4:31 PM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Sheila
1,540 views, 25 comments

Wait, Is Kindle Still Destroying Publishing? "Had my first real appts. at HarperCollins this afternoon. Funny enough, the editors and I spent more time talking about my new Kindle than upcoming projects. The associate publisher even popped in to play with it. " [Pub Rants]

7 comments

johnny can't read

E-Readers To Replace Books? If Only!

"The slow death of the book may be with us," The Times of London moans, in what must be the eight millionth story about the death of reading/books in the last year. "That was an incredibly painful sentence to write." It was painful to read, too! Has anyone else noticed that it's hard to read an article over 800 words these days? That may be the real danger, not much-vaunted electronic readers like Kindle. What are the signs of this pending apocalpyse? More »

12:07 PM on Thu Feb 14 2008
By Sheila
829 views, 18 comments

Latest by blix: @Pope John Peeps II: At least it's not old British cocksmannery. more »

the internets

People Do So Read

Ever since the NEA released its "To Read or Not to Read" study, we've been going through what today's Guardian calls "yet another 'Johnny can't read' mini-panic." It's true: even Steve Jobs jumped into the "people don't read" fray. But the report omits, well, a lot. Screen-based reading, for one. AKA, the entire Internets! More »

5:19 PM on Thu Feb 7 2008
By Sheila
1,311 views, 26 comments