Category Archives: Ideas and Opinions

Twilight and Dickens

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Ed Battistella

My fall term linguistics class spent a little time on the origins of writing and the alphabet, including a look at Egyptian hieroglyphs. And we wondered whether The Book of the Dead was an example of ancient Egyptian vampire literature. … Continue reading →

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What goes on a book flap

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Ed Battistella

Here is a piece by Daniel Menaker (editor of Grin and Tonic) from The Barnes and Noble Review on the language of book flaps. It’s got 16 rules for writing the copy on books flaps. Words to use: “stunning,” “deeply,” … Continue reading →

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Hammy and Grammy

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Ed Battistella

Last week the New York Times Book Review did a couple of nice features on audiobooks, an under-reviewed genre. The Times stories “Wired for Sound” and “The Mind’s Ear,” got me to thinking about audio. I’ve always used audiobooks on … Continue reading →

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Peter Pauper Press Cookbooks

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Ed Battistella

This morning I read this piece about writers and their book collecting habits, content in the knowledge that aside from a few dozen dictionaries I don’t really collect books. Today is Thanksgiving and as I’ve been “helping” in the kitchen, … Continue reading →

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