Welcome to the 2011 Read It Reading Challenge.
This a monthly reading group that encourages Australian library users to read and tweet about what they are reading.
Check the monthly themes at the blog to decide what you will read each month and how to tweet your reading experiences.
Run by the NSW Readers Advisory Working Group
You know that in order to become a better writer, you need to become a better reader — and so polishing off some classic novels is in your future. But who has the time?
You do. Nobody’s admonishing you to get your book report in within two weeks. But if you still feel pinched between the hour hand and the minute hand, ease into great English literature with these short novels (most have fewer than 200 pages): => http://bit.ly/hB7dnp
We know a great deal about Anonymous but less about its sibling Pseudonymous. As a book authored under a disguised name makes the Orwell shortlist for the first time, we look at why authors hide their identity – and ask for your favourites => http://bit.ly/k2IvUU
Our fascination with the romance between Prince William and Kate Middleton is nothing new. The world has always loved a royal love story and a stack of books from over the ages proves that to be true. Here are 10 of the most interesting. => http://bit.ly/ms9EXM
The Treasure Island author's fairytales are finally to be published in one set, as he intended
Robert Louis Stevenson lived out his last years on a Samoan island. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis
The literary betrayal of one of the most popular writers in the English language, Robert Louis Stevenson, is to be avenged in the first collected edition of the great Scottish writer's little-known Samoan fairytales. => http://bit.ly/eNcyY4
Peter FitzSimons
The shipwreck of the Batavia combines in just the one tale the birth of the world's first corporation, the brutality of colonisation, the battle of good versus evil, the derring-do of sea-faring adventure, mutiny, love, lust, blood-lust, petty fascist dictatorship, criminality, a reign of terror, murders most foul, sexual slavery, natural nobility, survival, retribution, rescue, first contact with native peoples and so much more. => http://bit.ly/m5iXQl
For a collector of modern first editions, there are few books put on a higher pedestal than The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Last month a collector purchased a first edition of this novel, via AbeBooks, for more than $20,000. The Hobbit is considered the archetypal epic fantasy novel and is thoroughly entrenched in popular culture, but this was not always the case. Published in 1937, the book was a slow burning success, receiving encouraging reviews and earning subsequent printings and a North American release after several months.
The book really took off in the 1960s when publishers reissued a massive number of affordable copies in the United States. Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, Smaug the dragon and Gollum have become some of the most famous fictional characters in literature. Gollum's hissed catchphrase 'My Precious' is known around the world.
Two other modern firsts to appear on March’s list of pricey sales were a signed copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick and Cormac McCarthy’s semi-autobiographical novel Suttree. => more
Set during the 1960s in America's racially divided Deep South, 'The Help' is a beautifully handled story of a white society girl, two black maids and a dangerous secret they share. Here’s a first look at the film trailer for ‘The Help' coming soon.
Everyone uses PowerPoint, but how effective is your presentation at meeting the goals you’ve outlined? A great presentation is more than just a slideshow–it’s about using PowerPoint to its maximum potential to get your message across to your audience. That’s the PowerPoint Predicament. Tom Bunzel reveals how to conceive, plan, develop, and deliver truly effective business, academic, and inspirational communications, not just PowerPoint slideshows.
Solving the PowerPoint Predicament: Using Digital Media for Effective Communication
by Tom Bunzel
A friend gave me Sylvia Plath's “The Bell Jar” at a sleepover for my fourteenth birthday. After the other girls fell asleep, I stayed up and read the entire novel. A likely choice for a moody teen-ager already contemplating the inexorable passing of her youth.
So when I heard that a study published this month had found that reading books improves the moods of adolescents, I became curious. Did the study’s authors take the types of books into consideration?
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/04/books-the-new-prozac.html#ixzz1Jop1fisB
" ... kids function best when they're real clear about exactly what's expected of them ..."
