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ZOUNDS! : A Browser's Dictionary of Interjections |
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| Topic: Literature |
1:04 am EST, Mar 18, 2005 |
For all of you who lust for "a delightful romp through grammar," here you go. Enjoy! From Geronimo! to gesundheit to haminahamina to holy mackerel, and from abracadabra to zoinks, Mark Dunn and Sergio Aragonés show you interjections like you've never seen them before. Often thought of as unnecessary verbal fringe or simply linguistic decoration, interjections (ahem, howdy, mamma mia, pshaw, tally-ho, whoop-de-do) may well be the most overlooked part of speech in the English language. ZOUNDS! A Browser's Dictionary of Interjections focuses the spotlight on this most deserving (and sometimes most demented) grammatical group. A light-hearted look at more than 500 interjections, ZOUNDS! explores the origins of these essential words and highlights the contributions of these previously unheralded parts of speech. Perfect for both word lovers and the casual reader, ZOUNDS! brings together the linguistic talents of Mark Dunn, author of the award-winning novel Ella Minnow Pea, and the graphic hilarity of Sergio Aragonés, the legendary cartoonist and contributor to Mad Magazine, for a delightful romp through grammar, culture, and the English language. ZOUNDS! : A Browser's Dictionary of Interjections |
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Comparing 'Da Vinci Code' to the bestselling books of all time |
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| Topic: Literature |
12:42 am EST, Mar 18, 2005 |
Elonka wrote:
] Note: I've been curious as to what other books beat DVC's
] sales records. Nothing definitive on that point, but I did find a few data points: * What to Expect When You're Expecting: 12.7 million in the USA; published in 30 languages worldwide. * Robert Ludlum: 25 novels and more than 210 million copies worldwide. * Da Vinci Code: 29 million in print worldwide. In 1997, 2.1 billion books were sold in the US, including 758 million hardcover units. According to Google Answers http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=14 most works of fiction can't compete with the likes of the Bible and Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. This page claims that "The Valley of the Dolls" is the bestselling fiction of all time. (This is affirmed by other sources, as well.) The count is not provided, but it is said that #2 is Gone With The Wind, with 28 million copies sold. This page also provides a list of books exceeding 10 million copies sold; one of them, The Godfather, has sold 20 million copies, according to a University of Virginia study. Comparing 'Da Vinci Code' to the bestselling books of all time |
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| Topic: Literature |
10:09 pm EST, Dec 26, 2004 |
This is a staggering tribute to uber-critic Jacques Barzun's legendary intelligence and cantankerousness. What truly impresses here is Barzun's breadth of knowledge; in an age of academic specialization, he is a rare, confident master-of-all-trades. These essays constitute one of the great critical collections of recent times and amply showcase one of the outstanding scholarly intellects of the last century. Barzun combines a depth of knowledge and a rare facility with words. A selection of Barzun's most inventive, accomplished, and insightful essays, compiled in one impressive volume. A feast for any reader. Demonstrates again the depth and breadth of his learning, the originality of his thinking, and his commitment to speak to the general reader in engaging, intelligent prose. Challenging, satisfying, elegant. A Jacques Barzun Reader |
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You Can't Even Remember What I'm Trying to Forget |
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| Topic: Literature |
9:47 pm EST, Dec 26, 2004 |
We have all heard. We have listened, gasped, and formed ourselves new lives. Or not. ... "I don't have a cell phone," I said. Seven cell phones, handed to me from all directions, dropped in my lap. ... They call this a ferry flight. We are in uniform, but there are no passengers. This means anything goes. A pilot pretends to do the safety announcement. Another pilot pretends to do a drink service, tossing us cans of coke and water. The pilots take off with the cockpit door open. A flight attendant holds onto the front seats, standing on a safety information card. The plane tips upward on take-off and he slides, laughing, to the back of the plane. We do not wear our seatbelts. ... "It takes so little, so infinitely little, for a person to cross the border beyond which everything loses meaning: love, convictions, faith, history. Human life -- and herein lies its secret -- takes place in the immediate proximity of that border, even in direct contact with it; it is not miles away, but a fraction of an inch." ... People say to me, "Whatever it takes." I tell them, It's going to take everything. And still I see a woman in row four, cutting an apple. With a four-inch knife. ... She tells me she's ready. She may be small, she says, but she's mean. She outlines her plans for fending off terrorists. She says, "I kind of hope something happens, you know?" She wears an American flag pin on the lapel of her blazer. She sits on the jump seat, waiting for her life to change. ... As absolutely as we need the ordinary tasks of living -- the post office, the grocery store, food and sleep -- we need just as much the extraordinary: to destroy complacency and ignorance, to give us the chance to make something new. Or maybe just to remind us that nothing is ever ordinary. You Can't Even Remember What I'm Trying to Forget |
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| Topic: Literature |
7:46 pm EST, Dec 26, 2004 |
He knows hundreds of stories, and one reads him looking forward to the next, as well as to what he has to say about it. Perfect unions of example and generalization, his essays have fascinated centuries of readers. Its the same combination of thinking small and thinking big, of incident and rumination, that makes people like me love essays as much as fiction, and for many of the same reasons. The Art of the Essay |
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Knowing It All: The Pursuit of Knowledge, From Genesis to Google |
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| Topic: Literature |
10:27 am EST, Dec 19, 2004 |
They attempted to read everything they could find on every branch of human endeavor and, from their readings, cull the most outstanding facts and ideas. What they discovered is what we have always known but seldom believed: that the accumulation of knowledge isn't knowledge. In Alexandria, it became clear that the greater your ambition, the narrower your scope. But our ambition persists. All we need to do is remember that reading, in order to allow reflection, requires slowness, depth and context. Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context Context. Knowing It All: The Pursuit of Knowledge, From Genesis to Google |
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Jenna Tells It Like It Is |
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| Topic: Literature |
8:33 am EDT, Oct 19, 2004 |
"Generally speaking, people are not very original." Who knew? Jenna Tells It Like It Is |
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| Topic: Literature |
10:48 pm EDT, Oct 2, 2004 |
Did anyone know the new Neal Stephenson is out? Has anyone finished the first 1776 pages of The Baroque Cycle? The colossal and impressive third volume (after Quicksilver and The Confusion) of Stephenson's magisterial exploration of the origins of the modern world in the scientific revolution of the baroque era begins in 1714. This final volume in the cycle is another magnificent portrayal of an era, well worth the long slog it requires of Stephenson's many devoted readers. The System of the World |
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| Topic: Literature |
8:56 am EDT, Jun 18, 2004 |
No matter how you choose to explain the world, the garden still needs cultivating. ... none of this seemed very important, the weeding, the watering, the planting. Surely there were more important things to do: calls to make, books and articles and editorials to write, news to follow, beat by beat. Candide's Advice |
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| Topic: Literature |
8:37 am EDT, Jun 18, 2004 |
"Hot Type with Evan Solomon" is a weekly half-hour exploration of ideas and issues in print, with a mix of fiction and non-fiction writers. The episode currently airing (it's a repeat) is a review of Samantha Power's "A Problem from Hell", winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. Why is it that after every cry of "Never again!" following each wave of genocide - Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda - does the American government sit idly by, allowing "again" to happen - again and again? Telling truths that few want to hear, yet with mesmerizing story-telling ability ... Power's work is particularly relevant ... Hot Type |
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