Category Archives: Commonplace Book

“I have a dream” at Lincoln Memorial

Posted on 01/17/2011 by Mike

“I have a dream” at Lincoln Memorial, originally uploaded by morrowplanet. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington is one of my three or four favorite places on earth. Watching people, not a few with tears in their eyes, stand on the … Continue reading →

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Sagan again

Posted on 01/15/2011 by Mike

Carl Sagan: What an astonishing thing a book is. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each … Continue reading →

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2009, Wa[i]ved

Posted on 12/22/2009 by Mike
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Publishing’s suicide

Posted on 12/05/2009 by Mike

Jesse Kornbluth from PW: Book publishing has been trying to commit suicide for all the decades I’ve been writing, and now it’s finally getting some traction on that project. Its latest folly is ironic: one of our most antitechnology businesses … Continue reading →

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Yay for impartiality in book reviewing!

Posted on 09/15/2009 by Mike

Now where’s my free gift? (cross-posted via Posterous)

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I just wonder…

Posted on 04/08/2009 by Mike

A. O. Scott, writing in the NYT: “And just as the iPod has killed the album, so the Kindle might, in time, spur a revival of the short story. If you can buy a single song for a dollar, why … Continue reading →

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Vigorous, versatile, zestful

Posted on 03/15/2009 by Mike

Alfred Bester: Deliver science fiction from any necessity to have purpose and value. Science fiction is far above the utilitarian yardsticks of the technical minds, the agency minds, the teaching minds. Science fiction is not for Squares. It’s for the … Continue reading →

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Driving readers away with advertising

Posted on 03/14/2009 by Mike

A Working Library – On advertising: So, let’s stop pretending, shall we? Any economy which charges ever less for ever more intrusive ads will eventually be successful not in creating wealth but in driving the readers away, until the only … Continue reading →

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“Praise song for the day”

Posted on 01/20/2009 by Mike

I couldn’t agree more with my old friend Valerie. I loved the inaugural poem. Valerie’s Blog » Blog Archive » elizabeth alexander gratitude. In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

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A Cultural Renaissance

Posted on 01/04/2009 by Mike

The Undercurrent of a Cultural Renaissance: The Web is sparking a cultural renaissance that is globally surging with free thought and insight. And, it’s changing how we think about life, how we go through life, and how we share experiences … Continue reading →

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