For Hanukkah, my father called me up and asked if I wanted a Kindle. As I've discussed here before, I think the Kindle is too expensive, too locked into its own proprietary, DRM'd ebook format and too goddamn ugly. I told my father that if I was going to get a book reading device, it'd be the Sony Reader PRS-505. (Not, mind you, the newer PRS-700 model, which has Internet,* touch screen (allowing for a keyboard) and horrible, blinding glare that negates all those features.) So I am now the proud owner of one of these:

It sure is pretty. And small, and light, and easy to read off of. There's just one major problem with it. The software with which you put books on it from your computer only runs on Windows.

Now, if this device had just been released I might be able to excuse this, since they might just have Windows available for the release and be working on a Mac (and perhaps Linux) version in the future. But the Sony Reader first came out in 2006. They've had years to port their software over, and it seems glaringly stupid to cut out a huge portion of their market this way.

Happy New Year everybody!

This year everybody resolve to be more awesome.

Via Conversational Reading

Happy Hannukah everybody!

While many have maybe come to the conclusion that the history book is closed on the Obama administration and the narrative went something like this: "Progressive Ideals Betrayed, Politics as Usual, Banal Centrism, What a Phony," I for one am of the opinion that we ought to actually wait for there to BE an Obama administration before we start passing judgement on what an abysmal failure it was.

That having been said there is one decision made by the president to date that I think does bear some pretty harsh criticism, and that's the selection of Elizabeth Alexander as the author of the inaugural poem.

Now, if you're like me you aren't super accustomed to hear the naming of a poet for a major job like that and thinking to yourself "who the fuck is that?" So imagine my surprise as I was reading various op ed pieces on the selection of Rick Warren as the Invoker of the ceremony (whose counterbalance in Joseph Lowery chronologically later in the series of events I read as a subtle idictment of Warren's cro magnon ideas), when I discovered that none other than eminent scholar Elizabeth Alexander who I've never heard of is going to be writing and reading a poem to commemorate the occasion.

Now if, like me, you've never heard of Elizabeth Alexander, that's not really surprising. After all, her biggest laurel to date is a nomination for the Pulitzer. Which, as poetry laurels go, practically guarantees that she's not of any real note. Of course, it's clear to me at this point that her selection probably has more to do with the fact that she's reportedly a "close family friend" of the Obamas than her books. Never the less, given that she's now stepping into the footsteps of such luminaries as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou, both of whom I have no patience for, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on just what it means to be a good poet in America today.

Take the moment.

Have you come up with anything?

Me neither.

I'm just finishing up Kelly Link's new YA book, Pretty Monsters (though nowhere on the book does it say its a YA book, even though she's referred to it as such). I just want to say for the record that she is (still) the best short story writing working right now.

Via Jeffrey Ford

As has been widely reported, Ed, Sarah, Levi and I lost the fabled Literary Trivia Smackdown against the PEN America center. I blame Ed for not listening to his better half. Even my offer to bribe the judge did us no good. Sigh. Maybe some other year we'll have our revenge!

At least I got a free bottled water out of the deal...

Also, had a lot of fun at the Independent and Small Press Book Fair, bought far too many books (as always), and had a very interesting conversation with Kelly Link, who, in addition to being interviewed in an event, also manned the Small Beer Press table on the floor and was all-in-all an extremely generous and intelligent speaker.

A documentary on Vladimir Nabokov that includes many interviews with the man himself.

And a documentary on Philip K. Dick that includes interviews with his ex-wives, the late Thomas M. Disch and many others.