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What makes a game replayable or a movie rewatchable? In this episode, Holly and I meander through what gives — or doesn’t give — something replay value and talk about some of our most played, read and watched bits of entertainment.
Thanks to our Facebook fans and Twitter followers who contributed to the Stuff Mom Never Told You Summer Reading List 2011 (SMNTYSRL2K11)! Here’s a selection of reading recommendations to get you through this mind-melting summertime swelter.
I just started reading “Travels With Charlie,” by John Steinbeck, which begins with the words: “When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch.”
Turns out, of course, that maturity doesn’t cure this itch.
I’ve been going through a lot of books lately — you’ve seen my reading list, right? — and it’s been some time since I’ve read anything as dark and as brilliant as “The Hunger Games.” I know that this book and its two sequels were intended for young adults, but several sequences in the first book alone shook this grown-up to the core.
The film adaptation’s in the works now, but it’s sparked a veritable Internet firestorm over its rating. There’s no denying that “The Hunger Games” deals with some very adult situations for a book designated for grades 7 and up, so the question remains: Is this PG-13 material? Should it be?
Have you ever looked at your recreational reading list and started sweating?
Normally, a mountain of unread books plus time equals bliss, but on New Year’s Day, I looked at the pile of unread books in the corner of my living room and actually got a little nervous. I gleefully joined a book club last month, and now that the books have arrived and the buzz has abated, I realize that I’ve got a lot of reading to do.
Now, I could knock all these books out by March or I could let that pile overwhelm me, but Salon’s Laura Miller has suggested an idea that would let me have my cake and eat it too.
Neil Gaiman’s been talking about starting a new tradition in his blog and Twitter feed: gifting scary books on Halloween. This nifty idea has been dubbed All Hallow’s Read, and since HowStuffWorks.com’s editorial staff is full of readers, it seemed like a great excuse to put together some picks for things that spook, terrify or horrify us … especially if we could get a little off the beaten path of books typically shelved under “horror.”
A Tour of Potentially Smelly Bookshops
by Amanda Arnold | August 25, 2010
What’s nice about bookstores is that you get to stand in a room where people’s imaginations are filed. So it’s kind of like standing in a room with infinity.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but infinity has a distinct odor: “a combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness,” in the words of a scientific report on the aroma of old books.
The Ultimate 2010 Stuff Mom Never Told You Reading List
by Molly Edmonds | August 11, 2010
Three months ago, Cristen and I asked our Stuff Mom Never Told You listeners to send us their summer reading lists. The response has been wonderful, and we’ve been sharing the reading lists during the podcasts, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. But we’ve gotten such wonderful suggestions that it seemed crazy not to put them all together in one place, so I now present the Ultimate 2010 Stuff Mom Never Told You Reading List. Take a look, and just try to make it all the way through without thinking that you need to go to the bookstore or library right this minute.
The “Twilight” book series gets its fair share of heat around here: We’ve wondered if protagonists Edward and Bella are in an abusive relationship, scrutinized Edward’s abstinence and even pondered whether the story was even worth taking seriously. Now, a report from the American Library Association has shed some new light on the popular saga — and the news isn’t good for the vampire crew.
This article breaks down the cost of a book into its component parts and, in the process, provides some interesting facts about book publishing: Math of Publishing Meets the E-Book To print a $26 hardcover book the costs include: 1) The actual cost of printing and warehousing physical books: $3.25 2) Marketing: $1 3) The [...]
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