It might not be video games, the internet, or even the Kindle that finally kills reading. The latest issue of Scientific America suggests that someday we might simply upload texts directly to our brains. Science fiction? Not necessarily.
"I’m a man with a mission in two or three editions."
At the risk of making this a music kind of week, in celebration of of MTV's excellent MTV Music website, which archives most every video ever made in a slick and uncluttered interface, I offer my favorite book song of all time:Elvis Costello |MTV MusicWhat are your faves?
5 Poets on "The Measure of Democracy"
"What's left to say after this seemingly endless campaign?" The New York Times Op-Ed editors asked five poets to answer that question.John Ashbery, August Kleinzahler, Joshua Mehigan, Mary Jo Bang and J.D. McClatchy weigh in.h/t to Doug Erickson of Lewis & Clark College for the lead.
"On the Road" to Chicago
yard sign in North SeattleBarak Obama's election night party in Chicago's Grant Park is expected to draw close to 1 million people.The folks at FiveThirtyEight shared this last night:“And I swore I’d be in Chicago tomorrow, and made sure of that, taking a bus to Chicago, spending most of my money, and didn’t give a damn, just as long as I’d be in Chicago tomorrow.”– Jack Kerouac, “On the Road”
Handle This Book!
From Thursday's New York Times on university librarians incorporating their rare book collections into undergraduate coursework:“These objects are a link to the past, and they have a power that is undeniable,” Mr. Pollack says after class. “But these materials also are wonderful teaching tools that pose questions about how we know what we know.”This represents a new way of thinking: rare books should be a hands-on experience.“We’re not running a museum,” Mr. Pollack says.Rare books and manuscripts, once restricted to scholars and graduate students in white gloves, are being incorporated into undergraduate courses at institutions like the University of Iowa,...