Breaking Movie News: Deathly Hallows = Two Films

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be broken into two films (Story Here).

The international money machine that is the Harry Potter industry aside, I'm not sure how I feel about that... on one hand, it certainly has enough detail in it to be two movies, but I think Goblet of Fire did as well... and they've cut out so much detail out of the previous movies, how will they put it in now? I mean, they might actually have to go back and add some of the details that were skipped over in the other movies for everything to make sense.

Then there's the other small matter of where do you break it in half?

What do you think?

Are You A Re-Reader?

If Jenn was British, she'd undoubtedly be a part of the 80% referenced in this article. Me, on the other hand, I'm still wondering if I'd be included. Apart from the Harry Potter series (how could you not read those countless times?), I mostly never re-read, unless of course, there's a movie in the works. Most books aren't really worth the time anyway.

But "Pride and Prejudice" as a top re-read? Really?

So what about you, would you be a part of the 80%? And what would be atop of your list?

Terry McMillan versus Publishers of Ghetto Lit

There's been an email going around for the last couple of weeks in the African-American community that I have debated writing about. Mostly I've just been too busy to write, and I still in some ways feel like I should let this pass without saying anything, however….

Ok, some background – I have long felt that a lot of black authors sacrifice themselves, their integrity and just plain good writing at the altar of money. Lots of people call these books "ghetto lit", I call it just plain trash. I've been biding my time, waiting until I was able to review a few more of these books on the blog before I opined about this phenomenon, which to me seem to be getting worse and worse. Ms. McMillan's email is directed to three women in charge of publishing these books at Simon & Schuster (they are also her ex-husband's publishers) and for the most part I agree with her on just about all of the issues. My issue with this whole thing is quite simple – what took her so long to take this stand? Why now, not more than a week after her ex's book (a fictional tell-all) was released? Makes one wonder.

Literature Nobel Awarded to Writer Doris Lessing

This post is a little late, but I felt the need to give the nod to this years Nobel Literature Award winner, Doris Lessing (NPR article).

Looks like I'll be bumping The Golden Notebook up closer to the top of my list of books to read this year.

--Though I can never hear/read Doris Lessing's name without thinking of the author song from that ingenious 90's band, Moxy Fruvous. Anyone else have that problem?!?

[silence... crickets... more silence...]

Yeah, didn't think so...

Books For Boys

I love this story. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do justice to a summary so I won't even try. Read it here.


This left me hopeful and inspired. What about you?

Related: Women Read More Than Men

Women Read More Than Men

It's a good thing I took "Must Read" off of my list of things to look for in a husband, because I'd be looking until I was ninety! I joke, but this recent article from NPR which states that women read more than men is disturbing. Though, it's not surprising to learn this, I hate finding concrete evidence to confirm these kinds of suspicions. To be fair, the article focuses on fiction reading only and it also offers up some interesting theories to explain this phenomenon, one of which is:

At a young age, girls can sit still for much longer periods of time than boys, says Louann Brizendine, author of The Female Brain. "Girls have an easier time with readin g or written work, and it's not a stretch to extrapolate [that] to adult life," Brizendine says.

Alrighty then! However, they can sit in front of the television either watching it or playing video games for hours on end, right. (Ok, so playing video games isn't exactly sitting still, but you catch my drift).

Apparently, the Harry Potter series (thank heavens for JK Rowling) may have helped to turn the tide a little bit on the reading habits of boys but there is still the issue of young people reading less than older people.

YIKES!

So, let's recap: 25% of American adults are not reading at all, men and boys read less than their female counterparts and then there the age gap.

Imagine the reading landscape 20 years from now.

That's nothing to joke about.