This newsletter was emailed to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,079) on October 12, 2018 The workshop on self-publishing that I conducted for the Blount County Public Library was well attended and lots of fun for me. The participants had much information and many ideas, and they were not shy about sharing it. Self-publishing (I • Read More »
Archives: The Guardian
William Davies: How feelings took over the world
October 13, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism.Those of us concerned about the increasing irrationality of civic life and public debate –the denial of expertise, the “fake news” canards, the rush to believe rather than to examine, etc. — should pay some attention to why we have come to this state. William Davies, a sociologist whose next book is –, has a • Read More »
A picture essay book on the necessity of libraries from The Guardian
September 19, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism.What are libraries about? Neil Gaiman and Chris Ridell have put together this pretty neat picture book that solidly answers that question. Sit back and take a look. You will enjoy this. Source: Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell on why we need libraries – an essay in pictures | Books | The Guardian
The Guardian’s August reading group: ‘the very finest detective story ever written’
August 3, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, writing.
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins — tagged by no less than Dorothy L. Sayers as the “very finest detective story ever written” — is the August selection for The Guardian’s reading group. The Moonstone is the first of the great English detective novels. The Guardian’s Sam Jordison, moderator of the reading group, says: It’s 150 years • Read More »
The world’s biggest bully: the English language
August 2, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism.Everybody speaks English. Or they should. That’s the attitude that many English speakers have, and sometimes they’re not shy about expressing that attitude (in English, of course). Jacob Mikanowski writes about this attitude in a long and interesting essay this week in The Guardian. He says: No language in history has been used by so many • Read More »
An offer you can’t refuse: The Guardian’s top 10 books about gangsters
July 12, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, writing.
If you’re like me, you’re a bit of a sucker for “top 10” or “10 best” lists — especially when it comes to books about topics that interest me. So here’s a good one. Crime novelist Ron Reynolds has written an intelligent and entertaining piece for The Guardian on his top 10 books about gangsters. • Read More »
Tolkien exhibit looks into a vast imagination
June 13, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, writers.
In 1930 J.R.R. Tolkien, a veteran of the trenches in World War I and by then a professor at Oxford University, was marking student papers when he noticed that one of the exam books had a blank page at the end. On that page he wrote: “In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit.” • Read More »
Spending his life as a ‘Reporter’: Seymour Hersh
June 12, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, reporters, reporting, writers.My Lai. If you know anything at all about the war in Vietnam, you know this word. It was the village where more than 100 unarmed civilians were killed by American soldiers during a 1968 offensive. The word has taken on literal and symbolic meaning. We might not know the word at all if it • Read More »
Handel, down and out; ‘Girl with the Pearl Earring’ up and away; more Shakespeare and Vietnam: newsletter March 9, 2018
March 12, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, newsletter.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (4,116), on Friday, March 9, 2018. Hi, You may think that I am obsessed with William Shakespeare, that I just can’t leave him alone. Actually, it’s the other way around. He won’t leave me alone. The last three newsletters have had items about The Bard, • Read More »
Hardback books: what’s the point? Money, prestige, space
March 6, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | 1 Comment | Filed in: books, journalism.
Hardback books are highly profitable. Publishers reckon they can sell a hardback for twice (or more) the price of a paperback, but a hardback doesn’t cost nearly twice as much to produce.
Shakespeare’s appearance, Eleanor’s mastery, and Cronkite’s broadcast – plus a new book giveaway: newsletter, March 2, 2018
March 5, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | 2 Comments | Filed in: journalism, newsletter, watercolor, writing.
One of the seminal events in America’s long involvement in Vietnam occurred 50 years ago this past week. CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite — often called “the most trusted man in America” — narrated a prime-time documentary that called into question the American government’s rosy predictions about the war’s progress. Cronkite did not come out against the war. Rather, he said:
Inside the making of a dictionary
March 1, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | 3 Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, writers, writing.
Dictionaries are marvels of any language. But English has resisted the orderly cataloguing that has been routine for many other tongues. Early lexicographers believed they could impose some necessary order on the language by setting down spellings and definitions and making them permanent. But the language quickly showed them who was boss.
The death of a great mystery writer; and more crimes against English; newsletter Jan. 5, 2017
January 8, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: newsletter.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,662) on Friday, January 5, 2017. Special note: If you have unsubscribed to this list previously, I apologize for this email. I had some problems with the list this week — due mainly to my incompetence — and some unsubscribers may have been added back in. • Read More »
The 100 best nonfiction books of all time: a list from The Guardian
January 3, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism.
Robert McCrum, the co-author of The Story of English (1986), has compiled a list of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time, and the list was recently published in The Guardian (The 100 best nonfiction books of all time: the full list | Books | The Guardian), a well-respected newspaper and news website in Great Britain. Such • Read More »
Author: I didn’t want to resort to self-publishing, but it’s an exhilarating change
February 24, 2016 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, editing, writers, writing.Louise Walters: My debut novel did very well with conventional publishers, but they weren’t interested in the ‘difficult second’ – so I’m going it alone Source: I didn’t want to resort to self-publishing, but it’s an exhilarating change Louise Walters describes what it’s like to have a second novel turned down after success with a • Read More »