Books! Books! For Free!

A recent blog-hopping journey of mine landed me at a blog titled, “Planet eBook: The free eBooks blog.” I don’t know how I came across this blog but when I found it, the latest entry had just a short excerpt from the opening lines of Paradise Lost along with a generic book cover for Milton’s epic poem.

Then I saw that it had a “download page” link at the bottom of the post. I clicked on the link, which took me to a page with two available downloads: 1-page version or 2-page version I was like, “No…really? The entire work? It can’t be…” but I downloaded the 2-page version anyway. (The 2-page version shows two pages side-by-side from the book on each single pdf “page.”)

And sure enough, in a couple of seconds, I was electronically flipping through an extremely sharp-looking, easy to read, professionally done copy of Paradise Lost in its entirety on my laptop! Immediately thinking this was too good to be true, and had to be illegal,

Read Full Post »

Reading Is Fundamental…To Getting Girls

I know Valentine’s Day has already come and gone…but this was just too good not to post. I found the following clip on Berg Loves Pizza, a great music blog, and I decided to steal it and post it here:

That little boy is a future Ernest Hemingway! Or at least a future Nicholas Sparks. (Hey Kristiane! The boy’s name is Max!) I can’t think of any modern love poets…post-modern writers are too depressed by our thoroughly empty and depraved world to be writing useless love poems…or they find some super-depressing thing about love, and the world in general, to underscore with the poem. (I love modern/post-modern literature by the way. Seriously.)

According to the youtube description, this was an ad for Indigo, a Canadian bookstore chain, and their “Love of Reading” program (and, of course, to sell its books). I don’t know about you, but showing me this ad in grade school would’ve been more effective than telling me that “Reading is Funnnn-damental” or that I should “Read to Achieve.” Reading will help you get the ladies, yo!

(Note: I’d like to point out how big of a bitch inconsiderate the teacher was for reading that letter out loud. And what kind of a classroom full of kids doesn’t scream, laugh, and ridicule after a letter like that is read? Unless…the vocabulary and writing just went right over their heads…and what would that say about the success of Indigo’s “Love of Reading” program? Should I just enjoy the ad for what it is?)

Songs of the Day:

Rachel Yamagata – “Letter Read” / (album link)
Lupe Fiasco – “Can You Let Me Know” / (unreleased track)
Elliott Smith – “Thirteen” / (album link)

Read Full Post »