Read All About It!

It’s not okay to judge a book by its cover, but it’s certainly okay to judge someone by the books they read or at least that’s what the newest dating website Alikewise is arguing. The site matches singles up based on their taste in books.

To be honest, I’m surprised this idea hasn’t surfaced sooner. Of course, I always eye a guy’s books when I’m at his house and immediately start forming opinions of him.  Even if his little sister gave him the complete set of Stephanie Meyers’ vampire stories, that’s still a little weird.  I get even more concerned when I ask a guy the latest book he’s read and his response is Sports Illustrated.

So now, in addition to judging people on their looks and interests, we can now judge them on what they’re reading.

Need a way to approach your cutie booklover? Check out Flavorwire’s 25 pick up lines to use on bookworms.

As an aspiring writer, I was thrilled today to find out I write like Kurt Vonnegut. All my writing insecurities suddenly vanished because I found out I was officially awesome. Or at least I thought I was for a grand total of five minutes. The Web site I Write Like allows visitors to find out what famous writers they write like by submitting their text to be analyzed for style and word choice similar to the pros.

It was no surprise to me I was a genius. I knew it all along; it’s everybody else that still needed to hear the news. (I’m talking to you mom!) After being compared to Vonnegut my writing paralleled Chuck Palahnuik the author of Fight Club. Now, not only was I awesome—I was also a badass. Clearly, this analytical tool was flawless.

My fellow co-worker, Ali, entered her text into it and it spat out Dan Brown. She tried again. Dan Brown. And again. Dan Brown. Apparently, she was a Dan Brown closet-fanatic and had forgotten to tell me. But when she entered in an Italian letter to a friend of hers and the answer was still Dan Brown, I realized my favorite tool in the world might be flawed after all.

Want to find out who you write like? Enter your latest blog post, journal entry, or unfinished book chapter here.

No reader wants to judge a book by its cover, yet, we all do.  And what we also judge is the title. Besides the alluring cover, these clever words are what stands out. My initial thought is, if the writer has an entertaining title, chances are it’s a somewhat decent book (even though that’s not always the case).

What does a good title say? That the writer, at the very least, is original, maybe even witty.  If it makes me laugh out loud, I will definitely be picking up that book.  For instance, when I saw the Best Book Title list on Goodreads and came across When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? my first thoughts were, what a great question and I hope this book has the answer.

Another eye catcher was Don’t Pee on My Leg and Tell Me it’s Raining, which sounds like the making of a classic, despite the fact that Judge Judy wrote it.  Let me follow that up by saying I haven’t read most of these books; I’m assessing them solely on their amazing titles.  The titles alone make me want to hang out with the authors that wrote them because they are either 1) going to be hilarious or 2) crazy.  Either way, it’s sure to be a good time!

A few other favorites I found were Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, I Am America, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and She Got Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts. Books that are not on this list but, in my opinion should be, are How to Best Avoid Dying, Bombproof Your Horse, and The Making of Moron.

Some titles that have to yet to be written which I would like to see in print include: The Muffins are Taunting Me, The Insider’s Guide to Boy Bands, I Eat Two Boxes of Cheez-Its a Week, Carebears: Where are They Now?, The Secret about Waffles, I Taught You the Thug Life, I Never Close the Cupboards, There is a Screwdriver Stuck in My Eye, The Bartender Escorted Me Home, The History of Footwars, My Post-Apocalyptic World Trip in an Ambulance, The Comeback of the Fanny Pack, The Story of a Devil Child and, The Law Does Not Apply to Me, all of which could also be the title of my memoir if I ever wrote one.

Have any great titles of your own? Let’s hear them! Looking for more interesting book names? Check out this list.

There is nothing greater than finding that perfect book. You suddenly find yourself in a far off world, escaping your own life, slaying dragons, or walking the halls of high school again. Boy, is it fun! The plot has captured your attention and you feel the characters are your friends. You’ve even imagined chatting with them on the phone or having a drink together at the bar. You are ready to add them as a friend on Facebook. That’s how much you love them. It’s basically a fabulous relationship. And then you come to a realization. They’re not real.  And what do we book-lovers hate more than finding out our imaginary friends aren’t real or meeting people who spell “you’re” as “your?” When we see our favorites stories and characters destroyed by the big screen. Plot elements are left out, the stars never look like we pictured them and the whole time we watch the movie we compare it to the book.

My first thought for these movie adaptations is the heart-wrenching ache the writer must have to endure to see their work produced in a manner in which they hardly have any control. For example, I was dying to see the movie The River King after reading the book by Alice Hoffman, but I was immediately disappointed.  The movie wasn’t even half as great as the book and my concept of the story and characters was soon replaced with Hollywood’s version, which was much worse.

Some other classic books turned into bad movies include the How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat,  The Da Vinci Code, Dear John, Stardust, The Hours, and Nancy Drew to name a few.  For more bad movie adaptations check out this list.

I will say that there are some movies that have done books justice, such as the adaptation of the comic book The Dark Knight, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Wizard of Oz.  The Harry Potter movies are another great series that delivered the wizard world perhaps even better than J.K. Rowling could have envisioned it, and the movie stays true to the story and characters. I loved Ron as much in the book as on screen and that’s saying a lot. (Even though he still yet to respond to my Facebook request. Going on day 435.) And if you are already itching to see the next movie, like me, check out the newest trailer.

The next book to hit the movies this summer will be Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts.  It will debut this August. Stayed tuned to see if Elizabeth Gilbert’s fans will continue to love her adventure once it’s on the big screen.

Our days of tattered paperbacks and cumbersome hardcovers may soon come to end, but are we truly ready for it? The unending debate continues.

Can books outlast our rapidly shifting social movement away from print media? Gone are the days when books contained the hottest social codes and the literary industry thrived off of the scandalous texts of novels like D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.  While books can still cause some commotion for crossing conventional lines, all of our gossip and scandal tends to take form in modern social media. Instead of discovering our rebellious desires from Holden Caufield’s exploits, we love Perez Hilton’s scandalous tweet about Lindsay Lohan’s latest drunken escapade.  Societal codes are constantly being reworked in an effort to stay current and up to date, typically reflecting our latest technological progress.

Today I typed “books” into Google News and, true to our collective obsession with every latest gadget, my first result directed me to an article on the newest Kindle application. With all of the arguments I’ve witnessed between Kindle junkies and traditional paper book backers, there’s definitely the possibility that the literary world has incited World War III.

I don’t think the next version of Facebook or the next Perez Hilton will render books irrelevant, but book lovers like myself need to prepare themselves for the new wave of literature. I’m not excited to scan rolling text of the latest Nicholas Sparks tearjerker on Kindle, but I might just have to accept that fate. I truly believe we’ll be flipping paper pages for the next decade, but eventually books will concede to the dominance of technology. I’ll wait with bated breath

What do you think of technology in the literary world? Are we defacing a respected pastime? Follow this link to the Wired article that fueled this post.