Happy Monday!

I came across these two links which I found interesting/humorous and I wanted to share them with you.

- First is a blog post from John Green who wrote a Really Long & Boring Post about Book Advances and Publishing. Sadly, the post fails to live up to its title because I found it more interesting than boring.

- Secondly, do you live in the UK? Do you like books and are seeking someone to read over your shoulder for the rest of your life? If yes, then Borders Bookstore has FINALLY opened up an online dating portion of their site. Called Happily Ever After, you can now search for true love in the comfort of your own home instead of cruising the aisles of your local bookstore.

I loved Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife. I think it is a fantastic sci-fi love story. So naturally I was looking forward to the movie adaptation, praying that they don’t screw it up.

Sadly, I think they screwed it up. At least Niffenegger’s new book Her Fearful Symmetry comes out in September.

I just got on of those new fangled iPhone 3GSs. Are there any book related Apps that I should know about?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is still sitting on the NY Times bestseller list (currently at #5). I worry about what the popularity of this book will do to the book industry. In particular, I think that this book will spawn a number or “me too” books similar to what happened after The Da Vinci Code and every book seemed to be about a hidden code.

To beat people to the punch, I have come up with some ideas:

First, Pirates make everything better.

The Old Man and the Sea and Pirates would be the perfect pop culture/classic literature crossover. I haven’t read The Old Man and the Sea but judging from the title it’s about an old man and the sea. I imagine that the the old man could run in to pirates while on the sea and, I dunno, join them while learning valuable life lessons.

Second, Ninjas make an excellient additions to novels.

Again, haven’t read War and Peace. But War and Peace and Ninjas could depic the invasion of Russia by France who hire a ninja army who get fought off by the Russians while learning valuable life lessons.

Yes, this may be a good idea.

Lance Reynald, author of Pop Salvation which comes out June 23rd, is giving away from signed copies of his debut novel. I’m just going to copy and paste from his Twitterstream:

@LanceRey

1. Want an early copy of POP Salvation? I’m thinking a twitter contest is the way to go. Details coming…
2. This is for all you camera phone photographers. Email me the best graffitti you see today to caleb.pop at gmail. My fave gets a book.
3. Deadline of 7PM EST!
4. And retweet the hell out of that one! I wanna see some street art Superstars!
5. No graffitti out there? Really? What a sad sanitized world it’s become…
6. Silly me, did I forget to mention? Signed and a week before release. Send em!

So apparently you should go out in to the world and find yourself some graffiti before 7pm est (4pm pst). If you manage to miss the deadline, you can always preview the book at HarperCollins’ site.

A few weeks ago Tin House sent me a copy of Jim Krusoe’s latest book Erased. I have not read Jim Krusoe’s other book, Girl Factory, but I have heard good things about it. Currently, Erased is sitting in my pile waiting to be read and it will probably be a week or two till I get around to picking it up. In the mean time, PDX Writer Daily interviewed the author. So if you are interested, check it out. If that doesn’t tide you over (until, you know, whatever you’re waiting for), Tin House has an excerpt on their web site.

The Striking Viking Story Pirates are noteworthy for the following reasons:
1) They are pirates
2) They are a rag-tag band of people that “adapt and perform stories written by kids as a way of celebrating the words and ideas of young people, to promote literacy as a vital part of early childhood education, and to preserve the spark of youthful creativity often lost in the transition to adulthood.” (copy-and-pasted from their site)

Ugh, one more day left then I am done with this term. Again, ugh. So tired.

Today at PSU there was the first meeting of beginning of a writing group for PSU students. There were only five people present and of the five only one was an English major (me). Three were linguistics majors. I’m not sure, is that even a real degree? Anyway, it all seemed kind of awkward as we talked about what we wanted from the group and what our personal goals are. I’ll see how this group develops. I agreed, for our next meeting, to bring in a piece for the group to workshop which means I have two weeks to write something.

Anyway, my pile of books that I need to write about has grown humorously tall. I’ll try and get that knocked down withing the coming weeks.

A classic. Possibility Robin William’s last good film?

Aardman Animations, the people behind such films as Chicken Run and every Wallace & Gromit feature, have announced that they are making a stop-motion adaptation of Gideon Defoe’s pirate themed novel The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. The Aardman Animation website says that the film will be based on two books from the series (the first two?) and that the screenplay was written by Defoe himself. It will be directed be Peter Lord who directed Chicken Run. Above is some early concept art for the film.

Earlier this month (or late last month, I don’t remember) Defoe finally released the fourth book in the series, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon, in the US (after having been released in the UK last year). Currently that book is sitting comfortably in my To Read pile.

All I can say is YAY!