Tuesday, May 31 2011
Defending the Imperialist
Ours (Canadians) is not an in-your-face passion-filled ‘clutch your breast in pride’ existence. We are but a country of high hopes and slow lopes, of lofty dreams and starry visions, of mighty pragmatism and irreproachable logic.
Thursday, June 17 2010
Getting Inside the Book Review: How They Work & Why We Read Them
We've all done it -- bought a book based on a good review, passed over another because of a bad review. But why do reviews affect us? And how do they do it?
Tuesday, June 15 2010
Has the Internet Killed Professional Book Reviews?
Is the internet killing book reviews? Will blog reviews soon replace the long lengthy columns we've come to love in the New York Times? As a reviewer, will I no longer find neat, book-shaped packages in my mailbox?
Wednesday, April 14 2010
Too Much Pop Culture? A Look at Lise Haines’ Girl in the Arena
Do pop culture references in contemporary YA and literary fiction hinder the longevity and relevance of modern writing?
Thursday, April 1 2010
Penguin & the iPad: Taking Books to the Next Level, or Leaving Them in the Dust?
Apple's latest gadget, the iPad, hits shelves this weekend. There's been a lot of chatter on the interwebs and in the publishing world about how the shiny new tech may change the way we think of books.
Wednesday, March 10 2010
Creator: Various
In comics not everyone can write nor draw (nor ink, color nor letter). So, there will always be 'great' works that cannot be attributed to a single talented contributor.
Tuesday, October 13 2009
Are Comics Like Reading with Training Wheels?
Reading a comic requires multiple forms of literacy and levels of interpretation. Every movement from word to image and back again so as to create a coherent, narrative whole engages the reader’s brain in distinct ways.
Tuesday, June 23 2009
The Book of Cool by Marianne Taylor
In general, Taylor's writing is unflaggingly good-natured, but that doesn't seem to suit the subject matter, which trades in stereotypes and casual cruelty.
Friday, December 5 2008
Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf
Between English- and Japanese-speakers, dyslexics and normal readers, struggling children and fluent adults, Wolf shows the not-so-obvious differences in both brain structure and in areas of activation.
Wednesday, September 26 2007
Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf
Because "the act of reading is not natural" in the sense of "genetically organized," the brain must "rearrange itself" to do so, a process Wolf explains on a neuronal level.
