The short story that "did more in nine pages than most novels do in nine chapters"

I discovered "The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson, on my Kindle Fire when I was on vacation last month and after I raced to the end of this gripping but quietly horrifying tale — it doesn't take more than 15 minutes to read the 3,378 words — I wanted to know more about the author and also understand what her aims were when she wrote this piece.

It turns out that it was The New Yorker that first published "The Lottery" almost 65 years ago. As a recent note in the magazine explains, "The Lottery" proved to be perhaps the most controversial short story The New Yorker has ever published: "After it ran, in the issue of June 26, 1948, hundreds of readers cancelled their subscriptions or wrote letters expressing their anger and confusion over what the story meant. Jackson, who contributed twelve short stories to the magazine, became a literary sensation almost overnight."

The full text of "The Lottery" is available on the American Literature website. Read it here. (There are some discussion questions, too, on this PDF version.)

Also read, for background information, this post on the Neatorama blog: "The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson".

What a fantastic book cover (and 18 more that are just as special)!

This is one of 19 book covers chosen by graphic design experts from around the world who were asked by the New York Times to name one of their favourite book covers from 2012 and briefly describe its appeal. Book lovers, and those who have an interest in design, are sure to get a special thrill from viewing this slide show: "Favourite Book Cover Designs of 2012".

Each cover is accompanied by the expert's comments. For instance, Nicholas Blechman, art director of The New York Times Book Review, has this to say about the cover of Watergate (above):

This design zeroes in on the single most iconic event of Watergate: eavesdropping. The cover is appropriately deceptive: the jacket shows an elegantly minimal phone, made with die-cut holes. Underneath, printed on the case, is the inside of the phone wired for tapping. I love the playful before/after effect of this cover, the way it conjures up an analog era of clunky phones, and the visual tension that comes from perforating the word “novel.” It is conceptually flawless, and very cool.

My other favourites from this list? No. 2, No. 8, No. 13, No. 14, No. 17.... oh, what the heck! They're all wonderful!

What you need to think about when writing your blog (or when writing. Period.)

Here's some terrific advice from a great American writer, Kurt Vonnegut, who has compiled eight rules for great writing (pay particular attention to No. 7):

1. Find a Subject You Care About
2. Do Not Ramble, Though
3. Keep It Simple
4. Have the Guts to Cut
5. Sound like Yourself
6. Say What You Mean to Say
7. Pity the Readers
8. For Really Detailed Advice...

Read this post by Maria Popova, my favourite blogger, to understand what Vonnegut means: "How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word".

ADDITIONAL READING:

• "10 essential tips for becoming an effective blogger"

• Some great advice for first-time bloggers

Heart of the MATTER: Why do some people want to amputate a perfectly healthy limb? And why would any doctor help them?

"MATTER" styles itself as "the new home for in-depth, independent journalism about the ideas that are shaping our future". The founders say it isn't quite a website, it's not really a magazine, and it's not exactly a book publisher either: "Instead, MATTER is something else — a new model for high-quality journalism...."

MATTER has published three articles so far. The debut piece, "Do No Harm", made quite a splash, with The Guardian publishing an exclusive extract. MATTER later produced two more long-form, narrative features.

THE COVER PAGE OF "DO NO HARM".

In "Do No Harm", a disturbing story by science writer Anil Ananthaswamy, we learn about a psychological disorder that causes some people to want to amputate a perfectly healthy limb. "The feelings the condition generates are extraordinarily powerful — so strong," Ananthaswamy says, "that sufferers often seek out the most radical of treatments, and a few unorthodox surgeons risk their reputations to assist."

Read the Guardian extract here: "Please amputate this leg: it's not mine".

Here, via the MATTER website, you can view a slideshow of exclusive images from the story: "Do No Harm".

How do you deal with a boyfriend who scampered off with a hottie, was dumped by her, and now wants you to take him back? What do you say to him?

This is just one of the many awkward situations for which light-hearted but sensible advice is dispensed by Philip Galanes in his popular New York Times column, Social Q's. What would you do, really? Here's what Galanes has to say:

That old-time gent who talked about turning the other cheek was definitely on to something, especially where Botox and other injectables are concerned. Tolerating errors in others is merely good sense, prone as we are to screw-ups ourselves.

But now that you know what your beau is made of, be careful (nay, hesitant) about taking him back. Losing a boyfriend, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, is a misfortune; losing him twice looks like carelessness.

Don't you just love that punchline?

Here are a few questions (some have been abbreviated here for reasons of space) that you may find yourself asking one day. Check out the advice offered by Galanes in each instance:

• What is the appropriate amount of time to take off from work when a pet dies?

• A good friend makes a habit of placing her cellphone on the table whenever we invite her to dinner. She answers text messages and plays games throughout our meals. I have tried to dissuade her by using humor. It hasn’t worked. She says we all have annoying traits, and real friends overlook them. How should I handle this the next time she breaks out the phone?

• A friend who was morbidly obese lost a considerable amount of weight, which greatly improved her appearance. I complimented her on her weight loss and told her how great she looked. But I was mortified when she replied that she’d lost the weight because of a terrible disease.

• A friend signs her text messages to me, “Love, Susie.” I feel as if a gun is being held to my head and guilty that I don’t return her love or her signoff. What to do? 

  Read other Social Q's columns here.

"10 Essential Tips for Becoming An Effective Blogger"

See how many experts (not just me) are saying the same things when it comes to writing/blogging: "10 Essential Tips for Becoming An Effective Blogger".

This particular post by Monica Carter Tagore, who has written more than a hundred posts about writing for the Writer's Living website, may be about how to shape your blog if you're a writer, but the points made and the advice given by her apply to every kind of blog.

Make a note especially of these points:

#3. Get a name that works. Get your name or one that quickly identifies what the blog is about. Don’t go for cutesy, weird names that test your reader’s memory.

#5. Create good content. You don’t have to be a stellar writer when it comes to blogging or making a living writing. But you do have to produce good stuff. Nobody wants to read boring, confusing, or rambling posts.

Also read:

• Some great advice for first-time bloggers

• You still don't have a blog?

• How to write more successful blog posts

Additional reading: Here are two important points about blogging made by inveterate blogger Lesley Carter:

#Put your nose to the grindstone and write! More content leads to more readers, as long as you can maintain quality.

#Write great headlines. There’s no faster way to catch the attention of people in your niche than an intriguing headline.

Read up on all 10 tips on Lesley Carter's list here: "10 Great Ways to Get Noticed as a Blogger".

• Thanks for the alert, Maitreya J.A.

• EXTERNAL READING: She is India’s most popular celebrity blogger, has a full-time staff of 10, and reaches out to a quarter million followers every month — Meet Miss Malini.

Is it Masters Degree? Or Master's degree? Or master's degree?

Mark Nichol, the editor of the Daily Writing Tips blog, deserves a round of applause for putting together what he calls "10 Tips about Basic Writing Competency".

If you wish to be taken seriously as a professional writer, as he says, these tips, conveniently divided into four categories — formatting, style, usage, and spelling — are sure to help.

Read Nichol's post here.

(And it's "master's degree", which is what I have been telling my students for the past ten years.)

• You also will want to check out these 15 commonly misspelled words: "Why you can't spell".

ADDITIONAL READING — posts by Mark Nichol:

• Hoodwinked by hyphens?

• How do you know the company you are going to be working for is right for you?

• You still don't have a blog?

• Plagiarism: Check out the facts

Another work of art from the pioneer of comics journalism

Earlier this year, in February, I had published a post on the pioneer of comics journalism, Joe Sacco, the man who has proved — literally — that journalism is an art form. Subsequently, I purchased, for the Commits library, two of his books: Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza.

Let me reiterate here what I have written in my post: There's no journalist I know or have heard of like Joe Sacco and there's no reportage I have seen or read that is like Sacco's astounding graphic representation of the human condition.

After reading both Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza, I became impatient to lay my hands on his magnum opus, Journalism, which was to be published later in the year. As soon as the book became available on Flipkart, which was last month, I bought a copy, which I am reading avidly now and which I'll place later in the college library. (Indian readers will not want to miss the section on the untouchable community of Musahars in eastern Uttar Pradesh.)

Coincidentally, DNA, whose magazine section yesterday was devoted to books, had a major piece on Journalism. "In an era of screaming reportage whose shelf life is less than 24 hours," Amruta Patil wrote in her review, "Sacco is dogged in his commitment to 'slow journalism', that rare art of allowing insight to percolate over time through carefully observed stories."

Read the DNA feature here: "Reporting for Duty".

And buy your own copy of Journalism on Flipkart here for only Rs.380 (24% off). Believe me, it's a steal at that price.

• Also read: "Joe Sacco: The man who has proved — literally — that journalism is an art form".

The way you arrange your books says something about you, doesn't it?

Of all our newspapers, only Mint Lounge has the gumption, as far as I know, to devote a whole issue to reading. And only Aakar Patel, one of our finest journalists and my favourite Mint Lounge columnist, has the cerebral wherewithal to write a delightful column on the topic of how to shelve your books.

"Classifying one’s books," Patel writes, "is not done to arrange them in some cosy intellectual order. The point is to be able to find a volume when it is required, and to know what books you have on a particular subject."

He continues:

I feel about this because I have spent considerable time developing a system which achieves these two ends.

And then Patel, who owns 5,000 books, proceeds to elaborate on his classification system:

By colour
By series
By publisher
By alphabet
By series
By language
By theme
By subject
By genre
By interest
By geography
By quirk

Read the column in its entirety here: "Bibliophilia needs smart shelving".

MY BELOVED BOOKS AND BOOKSHELVES STARRED IN A MAGAZINE ARTICLE IN 2011.

Bibliophiles will especially love, and identify with, what Patel writes in the penultimate paragraph:

Few things are as pleasurable to me as opening a package of new books in the mail. Living amid them is very heaven. Perhaps expensive paintings are also like that, but I doubt it. All of your other possessions, your cars and watches and homes, are about how the world sees you. Your books influence how you see the world.

• Also read: What media students can learn from Aakar Patel, college dropout turned journalist.

• Additional reading: "Why you must read".

Lusting after books? Let this librarian help

When I visited Ooty recently, I picked up two utterly captivating books at a "book fair" (a permanent used-books store, really), which is located a short walk away from Commercial Road in the heart of town. The View from the Ground, by veteran novelist and journalist Martha Gellhorn, cost me Rs.250 (Flipkart is selling it for Rs.550). I bought the second book, which sort of jumped out at me from the shelves, for only Rs.150 (it costs Rs.777 on Flipkart). More Book Lust, for that is the name of this frisky critter, is the creation of the seemingly indefatigable Nancy Pearl.

Pearl, a Seattle-based librarian, is clearly in lust with books. Her first compilation, Book Lust, was such a hit that it flew off the shelves (much like its sequel did that day in Ooty) and made her America's most famous bibliothecary. In fact, as the New York Times reported afterwards, Pearl even became the model for a librarian action figure (''With amazing push-button shushing action!'') created by a novelty company.

Both Book Lust and More Book Lust, with recommendations for all tastes and in all genres, help book-lovers arrive at the answer to that perpetually nagging question: What do I read next? Pearl's website is a big help, too — it offers updated recommendations on books that came out after the publication of her two best-sellers and on books that do not feature in either Book Lust or More Book Lust.

I have already made a list of books I want to check out for myself now. And, thanks to More Book Lust, I have also discovered Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels. Not unlike Pearl, who writes that Child wasn't a favourite of hers to begin with, I didn't think the Reacher books were for me. Over time, I have grown to love non-fiction and serious fiction; I am less keen on popular fiction. But after reading what Pearl had to say in the section "Lee Child: Too Good to Miss", I fired up my Kindle and found to my joy that I have the e-book versions of all the eight titles she recommends. I have since finished reading The Enemy. Next up: Killing Floor.

• Book Lust, published in 2003, recommends 1,800 titles, while More Book Lust, released in 2005, discusses another 1,200 titles.

NANCY PEARL'S INGENIOUS RULE OF FIFTY
Here's some sound advice from Nancy Pearl concerning finishing a book you have picked up (from More Book Lust):

One of my strongest-held beliefs is that no one should ever finish a book that they're not enjoying, no matter how popular or well reviewed the book is. (Except, of course, if it's for a homework assignment or for a book group.) Believe me, nobody is going to get any points in heaven by miserably slogging their way through a book they aren't enjoying but think they ought to read.

I live by what I call the "rule of fifty", which is based on the reality of the shortness of time and the immensity of the world of books. If you're fifty years old or younger, give every book about fifty pages before you decide to commit yourself to reading it, or give it up. If you're over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100 — the result is the number of pages you should read before deciding whether or not to quit. (If you're 100 or over, you get to judge the book by its cover, despite the dangers in doing so — see the section "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover".)

A WORD, OR TWO, FROM A.WORD.A.DAY FOUNDER

ANU GARG IN CONVERSATION WITH NANCY PEARL.

• One thing led to another, as it often does when surfing the web, and clicking on a link on NancyPearl.com led to my discovering a video of her interview with Anu Garg, the Seattle-based software engineer who founded A.Word.A.Day. If you use Dictionary.com regularly — and who doesn't? — you will have noticed the "Word of the Day" panel in the top left-hand corner. Yes, that Anu Garg. Watch the illuminating interview here.