Entries from February 2010
Feb. 27, 2010
How to design a book advertisement
An advertising copywriter has a thought about how to improve ads for books.
Tags: advertising · bookselling
Feb. 26, 2010
There is no sleeping at the Boston Public Library
It is strictly forbidden to fall asleep at the Boston Public Library. I presume this policy is intended to keep the homeless from camping out here, but the homeless know the rules because, well, they camp out here, so it is not the homeless who are primarily affected. It is everyone else. Like me. Unfortunately, [...]
Tags: Boston Public Library
Feb. 25, 2010
Bill Gates on Energy
Is there a more demoralizing problem than global warming? Discussing it feels utterly hopeless. Climate skeptics are unmoveable despite the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence. Intelligent, well-meaning conservative friends of mine, people I like and respect, simply reject that the problem exists, let alone that we ought to fix it. So I found this video [...]
Tags: Bill Gates · climate change · energy · TED talks
Feb. 24, 2010
Photographs of the Combat Zone
In Boston, an exhibit of photographs from the Combat Zone in its heyday, 1969-1978.
Tags: bookfour · Combat Zone
Feb. 19, 2010
The Tweeted Wisdom of Alain de Botton
Selections from the Twitter feed of Alain de Botton, a master of the tweet. The attraction of the melancholic: sadness has created the room we’re going to take up in their lives. We can only envy people towards whom we feel equal: it would not occur to anyone to envy the queen for her house. [...]
Tags: Alain de Botton · Twitter
Feb. 17, 2010
Henry Miller’s Eleven Commandments
Commandments 1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.”3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!5. When you can’t create you [...]
Tags: Henry Miller · quotes for writers
Feb. 12, 2010
A Lesson from Dickens
In 1839, 27-year-old Charles Dickens was already a superstar. Then he did a strange thing: he applied to law school.
Tags: Charles Dickens · creativity · On Writing
Feb. 11, 2010
The Perils of Advertising
Rummaging through my computer recently, I came across this ad (PDF) for The Strangler. It ran in the New York Times and the Boston Globe on February 6, 2007, and in the weekly Boston Phoenix at the same time. There was a radio spot airing that week, as well, which was very fun to hear [...]
Tags: advertising · bookselling · The Strangler
Feb. 9, 2010
Last Words
Finding the closing words to a novel can be a tricky business.
Tags: Defending Jacob · On Writing · writing life
Feb. 5, 2010
Stock and Flow
From a blog called Snarkmarket, sorting the 2010 web using economic principles: There are two kinds of quantities in the world. Stock is a static value: money in the bank, or trees in the forest. Flow is a rate of change: fifteen dollars an hour, or three-thousand toothpicks a day. Easy. … But I actually [...]
Tags: blogging
Feb. 2, 2010
The Street Photography of Jules Aarons
An under-appreciated photographer of Boston street life has an exhibit at the Boston Public Library
Tags: Boston Public Library · featured posts · Jules Aarons · The Strangler