* The List: A Story of Rejection, by J. A. Konrath:
The novel, rejected by everyone, is right now selling over 100 copies an hour, currently earning $3.50 a minute. That’s $210 an hour, $5040 a day. And it seems to be picking up speed.
Hopefully, it will catch up to my novel Trapped, which is also in the Top 100 (for the third time) and is currently ranked at #73. Trapped was part of a two book deal with Grand Central, but they rejected it. I published it myself in June of 2010. Since then, it has earned me more than $100,000.
* The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup was re-released in paperback, and updated; I didn’t even realize it had been re-released; I read a library copy because the hardcover was $70 or some ridiculous, academic amount. Now it’s $21, which is still too much but at least within the range of mortals. Curiously, still no eBook edition.
* See also “Between the Lines” on California’s perverse parking culture. And it is a culture, as much as a policy or set of requirements.
* The “About” page of Altucher Confidential is shockingly compelling and convinces me that I should be reading his blog.
* John Jeremiah Sullivan: Too Much Information and David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King. I never liked Wallace’s fiction, but this makes me want to try Infinite Jest again. Perhaps I was reading it poorly.
* We haven’t met the aliens because they’ve become enmeshed in video games. Alternately, the reason we haven’t met any aliens morphs with the contemporary issues we’re starting to notice; during the Cold War, nuclear annihilation was a probable parable. Today, it’s cultural suicide abetted by technology.
* The Mac Air as a Tool For Writing; I am rather fond of my iMac, to the point where it’s hard to see myself upgrading until hardware failure.
* Independent Bookstores Are Not Doomed: Here’s how they can fight back against Amazon.
* I already linked to this but see no reason no to do so again, since a reader sent it to me: Bookshelf porn. Note that this involves no actual nudity; the books are closed.
* Library porn; though I can’t help wondering at the uncomfortable-looking chairs in many of these.
* The slow erosion of legal rights; “terrorism” and “drugs” appear to be the keys to removing Constitutional safeguards.
* Dan Ariely: I got a pen! (though as a gift). I know his feelings.
* Ending the Infographic Plague.
* The Book of Books: What Literature Owes the Bible.
* “What Hacker Apprenticeships Tell Us About the Future of Education.
The Story's Story 