03.13.09
Help The Economy By Addressing The High Cost Of College / Student Loan Debt In America
With college costs continuing to soar and more college graduates struggling to make their student loan payments, the Reduce The Rate Petition is urging lawmakers to extend the benefits of the federal bailout to students.
Rev. Jesse Jackson has launched a new website to bring attention to the Student Loan Crisis in America.
He also recently appeared on Democracy Now! alongside Alan Collinge, author of the book The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt In U.S. History And How We Can Fight Back.
If you have student loans or have a family member with student loans, here’s how YOU can learn about this issue and help:
1. Visit Jackson’s new website ReduceTheRate.org, which advocates reducing the interest rate on student loans to 1%.
2. Visit StudentLoanJustice.org, which advocates restoring standard consumer protections to student loans.
3. Watch Rev. Jackson and Alan Collinge on Democracy Now! for full details.
4. Read The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt In U.S. History And How We Can Fight Back by Alan Collinge.
5. Listen to Alan Collinge interviewed on the Michael Savage Radio Show.
01.19.09
Celebrate Writer’s Day 2009 on April 3rd!
Celebrate Writer’s Day on April 3, 2009.
A new Facebook group has been created for Writer’s Day.
It was suggested by the late, great American writer Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. that April 3rd might be a good candidate for “Writer’s Day”.
Vonnegut chose April 3rd because it was the day on which Samuel Johnson signed a contract to complete the first dictionary of the English language (in 1753).
As a way of celebrating writers everywhere — of any language — and to honor Mr. Vonnegut’s memory, please join us by celebrating Writer’s Day on April 3, 2009.
Link (to “Writer’s Day” Facebook Group)
12.02.08
New “Tribes” Book Features Picture Of Spiddlement Editor
I am delighted to mention that my picture is featured on the book jacket of the newly published book “Tribes” by Seth Godin !!
Seth asked his readers to send in photos for his new book, so I sent him a photo of me wearing a fedora hat (the same one that I use for my photo here on the Spiddlement blog). The photo was taken in February 2008, shortly after I moved to my new place in central Tokyo.
I have been a HUGE fan of Seth`s books for a long time, and HIGHLY RECOMMEND everything the guy has ever written, including his fantastic blog.
Seth`s books have been categorized as “Business” and “Marketing”, but I think his witty insight into so many topics FAR TRANSCENDS those categories. Not only do I like his ideas, but his actual writing style has inspired me greatly. In short, he`s a good fun read and I always feel like I learn something.
Here’s the “Tribes” book on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Tribes-We-Need-You-Lead/dp/1591842336
11.30.08
How To Read More Books
People often say they don’t have time to read, but most of us read all day.
Blogs, email, and internet new stories are all reading, after all. What people usually mean is that they don’t have time to read long form stuff like books and magazines.
I, too, often have this problem. I go through periods where I read a lot of books, but then I go back to just reading online. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this, but I often find that reading in short bursts is not as satisfying as reading a book that more deeply explores a single topic, idea, or viewpoint.
With the short bursts, I never get to spend as much time on one thing before I’m off to the next thing. It’s all sound bytes and incomplete information and bits n’ pieces. It’s a great adrenalin rush of info, but reading longer works (even long magazine pieces) is usually a much more relaxing and satisfying experience for me.
There’s another problem too, from the writing perspective. Writers tend to become really good at writing what they read. So when I only read very short things, I tend to write shorter. When I spend time with longer texts, I find myself thinking longer.
So what’s the solution? Force oneself to read books?
08.25.08
Cell Phone Novel Craze Continues
This cell phone could be your next typewriter.
Our post about Japanese Cell Phone Novels was one of our highest read posts of all time, and continues to get plenty of reads every day.
So, to answer the question this recent ABC News article asks (“Will Cell Phone Novels Come Stateside?”), Spiddlement predicts they will. And also, a lot of writing is going to get much shorter in general. Like the blog post you’re reading now.
All the interest from our readers made me decide to revisit the topic, and see what was new in the world of cell phone novels since I’d last checked.
And I finally found a cool site called Textnovel.com that allows you to create and share your own English language cell phone novel. I’ll definitely be thinking of ideas for mine!
Link (to Textnovel.com)
05.27.08
Malcolm Gladwell’s 3rd Book Coming In November
Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Outliers is coming in November. Don’t know if we can wait that long!
From the publisher’s catalog:
“In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of ‘outliers’–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.”
Meanwhile, check out his speech, titled “Genius: 2012″, at last year’s New Yorker conference… maybe it gives some insight into what the book will be like?
And don’t forget his archive of articles online… hopefully this will be enough to tide you over until November. It won’t be enough for us though… Spiddlement LOVES Gladwell.
Link (Outliers via 800-CEO-READ blog)
04.04.08
New Vonnegut Book Out
I was delighted to hear on NPR that there’s a new Kurt Vonnegut book out:
“Armageddon in Retrospect is the first collection of unpublished work by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who died at age 84 in April 2007. The 12 short pieces are Vonnegut’s reflections on peace, war and the human capacity for violence. His son, Mark Vonnegut, wrote the introduction to the book and discusses the posthumous collection.”
There’s a good interview with Mark Vonnegut too — on Talk Of The Nation.
01.22.08
Japanese Cell Phone Novel Craze
Of last year’s Top 10 best-selling novels in Japan, half were originally written as cell phone novels.
The country that gave us the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, is thought to have started the cell phone novel genre in early ’00’s.
Imagine reading, let alone writing — with your thumb! — an entire novel on a cell phone. Granted, most cell phone novels are shorter than traditional ones — Wikipedia says the average chapter in a Japanese cell phone novel is about 70 words.
I hope that some of these will eventually be translated into English.
Link (to “Thumbs Race As Japan’s Bestsellers Go Cellular” on NY Times website)
Link (to “Mobile Phone Novels” on Wikipedia)
And just for fun, here’s what claims to be Indian’s first SMS (text message) novel. It is written in SMS style and allows readers to have input into the direction of the story: Link (to Cloak Room — India’s first SMS novel)
10.21.07
Alan Dershowitz on Point of Inquiry podcast
We are always big fans of the Point of Inquiry podcast, but a recent interview they did with attorney Alan Dershowitz was exceptionally interesting and topical.
In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Dershowitz explores the question of whether America is a Christian nation, the use of the mention of God in the Declaration of Independence by the religious right to advance their aims, whether marriage and gay rights is a church-state separation issue, and separation of religion and state issues in the nation of Israel.
Dershowitz discusses his new book Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence.
Link (to Oct. 5, 2007 podcast with Allen Dershowitz)
Link (to Point of Inquiry website)
10.10.07
Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea — The Book
I just finished reading the Continuum 33 1/3 book In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by Kim Cooper.
It’s an excellent “biography” of Neutral Milk Hotel’s classic 1998 album.
Cooper’s writing style is perfect for this book. She gives a nice history of the band, and tells how the album came together, drawing from interviews with band members and people who were there at the time.
I like how she discusses the individual songs just enough that the book feels complete, but without analyzing them to death.
It’s a fun read, and you’ll find yourself having to stop reading many times to relisten to the album with new insight and appreciation.
I think it’s safe to say that this is essential material for any fan of one of the best records ever made.
On another note: I was so impressed with this volume that I plan to check out other books in the 33 1/3 series (other titles include Let It Be, Murmur, Pet Sounds, and Entroducing… !!)
Link (to Continuum Books site)
Link (to Kim Cooper’s page with details about the book)
