A great Slate piece on why you don't find technology (computers, cell phones, etc.) in children's books.

Quoted: Technology, as we well know, has become a ubiquitous part of American children's lives. And yet there is one place—a whole world, actually—where children are safely walled off from wired and wireless devices. That is the world of picture books.

Whoa, big news in book publishing. I feel like this encourages publishers to become Judith Reagan type figures, though, sadly...

Quoted: Peter W. Olson, one of the top figures in American publishing, has been under pressure over lower profits.

Check it out! My best friend Rachel's beau just wrote a novel - my copy's on its way... I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but this one looks really cool.

Quoted: A film director has a nervous breakdown, checks himself into a mental institution, and meets the inspiration for his next film.

Happy birthday to the bard!

Quoted: America celebrates Shakespeare's birthday this April 23 with a sonnet contest at the Folger Library and festivities at New York's Shakespeare Society.

Happy Birthday, Mad Libs!! Best form of entertainment ever...

Quoted: Do you remember playing Mad Libs as a kid? Author Leonard Stern tells the story of  how the game came to be, and offers up an original Mad Lib about TODAY. Go on, play ... we promise you'll have a ___ time.

This book looks great - it's a satire on a really particular self-help genre that is super popular right now. The sad thing is, the author got the idea for the book because he was told he was too nice to ever advance. So, he experimented with being a major a@#hole, got the idea for this book, and is having the last laugh. Good for him. I also love all the various euphemisms for a@#hole in the article (like "orifice").

Quoted: A satirical new book serves up a 10-step program on how to be, well … an a--hole "I was the nicest guy in the world—and it was killing me," he writes in "A$$hole: How I Got Rich and Happy by Not Giving a Damn About Anyone and How You Can Too," his new mock-help masterpiece.

I see where the writer is going, but it's not an easy call. This doesn't really work for CDs/books that never have the promise of selling big in the first place...

Quoted: What should record labels, software giants, & other media companies do about digital piracy? There are two options: Get tough and defend intellectual-property rights with every legal & technological trick in the book, or tolerate some illegal copying in the hope of generating buzz & making money in some other way.

A review of A Blue Hand: The Beats in India. I had no idea that India had this kind of influence on the Beats (specifically Ginsberg), although it's not surprising. Sounds like an interesting read.

Quoted: Fifteen months in India in the early 1960s had a lasting influence on American poet Allen Ginsberg.

Oh wow, the mystery of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's plane disappearance might be sloved! I love his book of essays about flying - so beautiful.

Quoted: Researchers may have found the German pilot who shot down during WW II the airplane of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of “The Little Prince.”