Warren Adler's Blog, page 49

America’s Facebook Generation Is Reading Strong

Share this: Pew’s study found that 60 percent of Americans under 30 used the library in the past year.

In what may come as a pleasant surprise to people who fear the Facebook generation has given up on reading — or, at least, reading anything longer than 140 characters — a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project reveals the prominent role of books, libraries and technology in the lives of young readers, ages 16 to 29.

Read more: NPR.org

(Photo: iStockphoto.com)…

13 Books for Your Halloween Reading List

If you’ve had enough of the mostly terrible and seldom excellent horror flicks that invade your TV screen during Halloween, it’s time you get your chills from a book. Warren Adler, with the help of his staff and interns, has complied a list of 13 unlucky books that will satisfy your cravings for blood and creeps. Sharpen up your own scary reading list if you already have one. Let us know if we missed any titles or any books you want to resurrect from the grave and add to the list. Here’s the list in no particular order:

Novels:

 

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

Misery by Stephen King

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Dr.…

Stuck in the Middle

I must confess that the only place I felt politically comfortable was the thirty years I spent in Washington, D.C., circa pre-Reagan assassination attempt. Politics in those days was a day job and at night the politicos would mix and mingle and checked all their animosity at the door and everyone was in the middle. From what I see from here, those days are over.

Newsweek to Cease Print Publication at End of Year

Newsweek, the weekly magazine that for decades summarized the news for households across the United States but struggled to maintain relevance in the Internet era, announced on Thursday that it would cease print publication at the end of the year.

Tina Brown, founder of the Daily Beast Web site and the driving force behind its merger with Newsweek, announced the move on Thursday in a message on the Daily Beast.

“We are announcing this morning an important development at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Newsweek will transition to an all-digital format in early 2013. As part of this transition, the last print edition in the United States will be our Dec. 31 issue,” Ms. Brown said in a message co-written with Baba Shetty, the recently hired chief executive.

The all-digital version of the magazine will be called Newsweek Global and operate on a paid subscription model.

Read more: David Carr & Christine Haughney, The New York Times…

Last Man Standing

For years people have been asking me how studios, producers, film executives and actors make their decisions on picking books to adapt to theatrical movies and television... Like most things in life, there is never one answer.

10 books you absolutely must read

 

People love telling others what to read. There’s always a new list popping up that contains all the books you most definitely should read before you get hit by a hovercar. Usually these lists are just an opportunity for the author to show off about the books they’ve read (or pretended to at any rate). So here’s my contribution:

10 books you absolutely must read:

1. Every single book by your favourite author

2. The one that a friend recommends even though it’s in a genre you’ve never read

3. The one by the debut novelist you aren’t familiar with

4. The books that mean something to your parents

5. At least one book that was written in another language (preferably a translated edition…unless you can speak the language. In that case, show off)

6. The one with the really cool cover that caught your eye

7. The one you found on a park bench/train carriage

8.…

What is your favorite writing instrument?

According to Bestselling Author Warren Adler, before he owned a personal computer, he used to write on three electric Smith Corona typewriters – one at home for everyday use, the second was in his office, and third was kept at the back of his car for on-call or impromptu writing.

How about you? What is (or was) your favorite writing instrument?…

Immersion in a Good Book Has Big Effect on Brains

“Phillips’ hypothesis was that the areas of the brain that regulate “paying attention” would be more engaged when readers were engaged in their Austen. What she actually found was much more. Though the full analysis of the data has not been completed, it appears that the whole brain seems to change when you’re absorbed in a book, rather than simply skimming it. Parts of the brain in charge of emotional response light up, as do, most unexpectedly, the brain’s motor controls and spacial reasoning areas, as if the reader were using them to spatially recreate the events of the story in their minds.”

Read more: Susana Polo, themarysue.com…

Political Books: Goodreads Compares Parties’ Literary Tastes

“According to the infographic, Romney fans and Obama fans on Goodreads each read a median of 26 books in 2012, however, they typically were not picking up the same titles. While Obama fans were three times more likely to read “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen and two times more likely to read “Nickled and Dimed,” a nonfiction book about the minimum wage by Barbara Ehrenreich, Romney fans were four times more likely to read “Heaven is for Real” by Todd Burpo, a true story about the son of a pastor in Nebraska.”

Read more: Madeleine Crum, The Huffington Post

 Read more: Madeleine Crum, The Huffington Post






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A Strange and Treacherous Family Reunion

On the treacherous trails and isolated wilds of Yellowstone Park, an aging father, George Temple, seeks to use a nostalgic horse trek to reconcile with his estranged daughter and son.

In Warren Adler‘s new thriller “The Serpent’s Bite,” they hadn’t seen one another since the passing of George’s wife nearly five years earlier. The family reunion is intended to bring back memories of their first trek 20 years earlier.

But the story reveals secrets that plague the family, and lead to disaster.

And along the way we meet Courtney Temple, who may be one of the most evil women in fiction.

Listen to Warren Adler

 

Read and listen more: The Bookcast…