Weekend roundup

The weekend was a bit light on bookish stuff. There was the concluding part of Zadie Smith’s piece in The Guardian about reading and writing and a couple of things in The Times and Sunday Times about the future direction of the printed word.

Smith’s piece in The Guardian, which has been the comment of numerous bloggers, wrapped things up by calling for more writer critics. It seemed to validate the approach most lit blogs take when they review, think and argue about a book, which all displays a passion for reading. Having seen the popularity of books that potentially offer a guide to how to read better it comes as no surprise that Smith’s article has been seized on by so many people.

The Sunday Times covered the future of the library, with more digital content coming in the future, and The Times revealed that Google wants to follow the iPod and do something similar for books. Wasn’t that Sony’s plan last year with the eReader? Still it was all used to stir up some doom and gloom about the traditional book format.

One of the most frustrating things when I was studying was that you would pop up to the library and find that the one copy of the book had been taken and all you wanted was one chapter. Being able to view and download that (there will be some copyright issues no doubt) would have made life a lot easier.