Link Banana

Makes me think Lex Luther. And get a little jealous.

(via kottke)

Richard Wilson writes an incredibly enjoyable list of ten books you probably shouldn’t read before you die. His reasons are probably the most fun. On The Lord of the Rings:

The best I can say about this book is that it was a very useful tool at school for helping to choose your friends. Carrying a copy of Tolkien’s monstrous tome was the equivalent of a leper’s bell: ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ I knew I would have nothing in common with anyone who had read it. Their taste in music, clothes, television, everything was predetermined by their devotion to Gandalf. Without a shadow of a doubt, in a few years, these people would be going to Peter Gabriel gigs and reading Dune.

(via Ideas)

Tyler Cowen (he of Marginal Revolution fame) thinks you should throw out less-than-great books you’ve read.

If you donate the otherwise-trashed book somewhere, someone might read it. OK, maybe that person will read one more book in life but more likely that book will substitute for that person reading some other book instead.

…A lot of books don’t make the cut of “above average to those readers they will attract” and of course since you’ve spent some time with the volume you ought to be in a position to know. (But note the calculation is tricky. Sometimes a very bad book can be useful because it might appeal to “bad” readers and lure them away from even worse books. Please make all the appropriate calculations here.)

The worst thing you can do is to give such a book to a friend or family member. You are tempting them, but with mediocrity.

So all you altruists out there, ready your trash can and exercise your elbow. See if you can toss a book into the bin with one fell swoop from across the room. The love of humanity demands it.

The Economist has a new travel blog — I’m still deeply ambivalent about the mixing of that paper and blogs — which poses an interesting question: how many travel guidebooks are written by people who’ve actually been there?

Indeed, he wrote about Colombia without even going close. As he told Australia’s Sunday Herald Sun newspaper: “They didn’t pay me enough to go to Colombia. I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating who was in an intern in the Colombian consulate.”

Lonely Planet protests that Mr Kohnstamm is an isolated example. “We don’t have any evidence as yet that what he describes in that book applies anywhere else,” said Stephen Palmer, Lonely Planet’s chief executive, to the BBC. And the company has also deflated Mr Kohnstamm’s remarks about Colombia by pointing out that he was writing about the country’s history, not its sights or restaurants.

Nudge is a book that’s popped up in a lot of places recently and I really want to give it a look. Says Steven Levitt:

“Libertarian paternalism” is just the sort of phrase that makes me stop paying attention.

Which is why I could not have been more surprised and delighted when I finally got to read a copy of their new book Nudge. Despite my initial misgivings, I’m halfway through it, and this is a book I love.

The main point of the book (paraphrased) is as follows:

Since people don’t think very hard about the choices they make, it is a lot easier to trick them into doing what you want than to try to educate them or incentivize them to change their behavior. There are many ways to trick people, but one of the easiest is simply by giving thought to the way choices are arrayed to them, or what they call “choice architecture.”

Want to see something a little bit creepy? Witness “Everywhere Girl,” who appears to be book publishers favorite personage in stock photography. Her story about the whole thing is here.

(via Coudal, who shares my concern that this is old news)

Speaking of criticism… John Freeman had some useful insight into why one might — and might not — want to read criticism at all.

In a way, pre-judgement is a necessary evil of criticism: there are far more books published than anyone could possibly read, busloads of awarded writers who aren’t actually worth reading. There’s no way to approach this forest gingerly. You need a buzz saw to clear some breathing room, gain a sightline, and criticism has to have enough teeth and ubiquitous availability to be that instrument.

(via Andrew Sullivan)

Viktor Bout, subject of Merchant of Death and inspiration for Lord of War, was caught by the U.S.’s DEA in Bangkok. Perhaps the most interesting part is that they’re seeking to prosecute him, even though many American defense contractors have used his services in the past.

(via UN Dispatch)

The Guardian presents a interesting picture of China’s vibrant and spottily-regulated publishing scene. The whole thing’s interesting, but this was striking:

“The internet has a much more significant role in literature than it does here [in Britain],” he says. “It’s taken very seriously, discussed very seriously and famous writers take part.”

The general manager of Penguin China, Jo Lusby, is even more emphatic. “All credible interesting writing in China begins online at the moment,” she says. “It’s given an added boost because it exists in a relatively free space outside of the tight constraints of traditional publishers.”

(via Snarkmarket)