Oprah brings Stephenie Meyer and “New Moon” to Twilight fans
By Marjorie Kehe | 11.13.09
It may just be another Friday the 13th to you, but for “Twilight” fans today is something much more significant. It’s the day that author Stephenie Meyer will appear on “Oprah.” And it may also be a chance to catch a sneak preview of “New Moon,” [Ed’s note: Originally the book was mistakenly referred to as “Full Moon”] the film of the second book of Meyer’s “Twilight” teen vampire series, set to open in theaters on Nov. 20. (more…)
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A sneak preview of “Going Rogue”
By Marjorie Kehe | 11.12.09
Can’t wait till Nov. 17 to find out what Sarah Palin is going to include in her memoir “Going Rogue”? Time magazine’s Mark Halperin can offer you a few tantalizing hints, such as the fact that Palin does some serious score-settling with the McCain campaign and that (despite the presence of a collaborator) the book really sounds like Palin (meaning that it has “a warm and personal tone.”) (more…)
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Can you trust Wikipedia?
By Marjorie Kehe | 11.11.09
Who doesn’t rely on Wikipedia – at least once in a while – these days? But for those of us who do, here’s a startling statistic: Wikipedians (those who write and edit the info we find at the online encyclopedia) are “80 percent male, more than 65 percent single, more than 85 percent without children, around 70 percent under the age of 30.”
Wow. Talk about a world view.
The statistic above comes direct from “The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopedia” by Andrew Lih, a former Wikipedia administrator.
In a lengthy critique of “The Wikipedia Revolution” for Boston Review, researcher and blogger Evgeny Morozov writes, “Wikipedia’s potential lies in harnessing the ‘wisdom of crowds’; however, those crowds are only as wise as they are diverse.” And apparently they are not particularly diverse – at least not when it comes to gender, age, or family situation.
Does it matter? That, of course, is subject to debate. But it is certainly interesting that – particularly in a day and age when Publishers Weekly’s failure to include any female authors in their 10 Ten of 2009 list can still kick up a bit of a dust storm – that this statistic about Wikipedians is not more widely commented upon.
So to go back to the question above: Can you trust Wikipedia? Morozov’s answer: “Most of us have stopped asking and simply bookmarked it.” Perhaps we should be a bit more inquisitive.
Marjorie Kehe is the Monitor’s book editor. You can follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/MarjorieKehe.
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Mary Karr: the buzz about “Lit: A Memoir”
By Marjorie Kehe | 11.10.09
“Lit: A Memoir” by Mary Karr seems to be the darling of the book critics this week. And now, on top of a stack of reviews that positively glow, there’s an interview with Karr on Huffington Post today. Most interesting question: “Do you think quality writing can be taught?” (more…)
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Kindle for PC and then maybe Kindle in color?
By Marjorie Kehe | 11.10.09
It’s getting to be hard to keep track of all the different ways/places you can read these days. Kindle for PC, now available, will allow you to use Kindle connections to read on your PC. (Kindle for iPhone, of course, lets you do the same on your iPhone.) (more…)
