Essay - Read a Book, Get Out of Jail - NYTimes.com

Thinking yesterday about the twisted mind who could light another fire yesterday, after all the devastation we've seen in the last three weeks, I started thinking about the failure of imagination, specifically of being able to put yourself into someone else's position and understand that other people are real, and not just bit players in your own drama.

So when I saw this study this morning, it seemed especially relevant!

(And these particular fires, by the way, were put out - the winds were not as strong as predicted, and the CFA were ready. I'm especially grateful, not just for my own home and those of my neighbours, but because Tom ended up in the middle of the small second blaze, on foot with a hose, in inaccessible terrain... things could have been a lot worse.)

Here's the article:


Essay - Read a Book, Get Out of Jail - NYTimes.com

Watch Nim's Island, become a more helpful person...

Brad Bushman of Michigan University of Michigan’s School for Social Research – set up a simple experiment to see how we are affected by what we watch:

" staged “a minor emergency” just outside one of two cinemas – one showing the violent horror film The Ruins, the other featuring the family-friendly Nim’s Island. On four occasions – as patrons were either entering or exiting the theater for each film-- a woman with a wrapped ankle suggesting an injury or sprain dropped her crutches. The moviegoers witnessed her struggling to pick them up."

It seems that watching The Ruins made people 26% slower to help than if they watched Nim's Island.

I've read similar research before, but this was more specific than any I'd seen, with the 4 comparisons, and involved adults.

I'd love to know whether any similar research has been doing with what we read. I know how strongly what I read affects me, and I doubt that I'm unique in that.

To read the whole article:

Miller-McCune | Article | Depicted Violence Desensitives Viewers to Real Violence

Essay - Can’t. Stop. Writing. - NYTimes.com

I sometimes worry that if I've been writing very slowly for the past few years, but on the other hand, I still sometimes feel embarrassed about how many books I've written – I know exactly what Geoff Nicholson means here: Matters of literary quantity have been much on my mind since a new book of mine was published recently. A fair percentage of the reviews described me as “prolific” or “highly prolific,” in one case “wildly prolific.” Now, I’m not going to argue about the accuracy of this. I’ve published 20 books in 22 years (some quite short), and I’d say that’s not excessive, given that I don’t have a day job. But accurate or not, “prolific” definitely didn’t feel like an unalloyed compliment.

to read the whole article:

Essay - Can’t. Stop. Writing. - NYTimes.com

Savvy's Newberry Honor

I met Ingrid Law last March at the Public Librarian's Convention in Minneapolis, when Walden Media took us both out to dinner - I was there for signings and a pre-screening of Nim's Island, and they'd invited her, to start the supremely justifiable buzz for Savvy.

I'd already read the first line of "Savvy" - I can't quote it here because I've loaned my copy out (again!) but that first sentence told me that this was a highly original voice and that I'd be amazed if I didn't love the book. Well, I was amazed by many things, but not that one - the whole book lived up to the promise of that first sentence, and I loved it.

I was absolutely delighted to see that it had become a Newberry Honor book last week. It absolutely deserves it - and, although this isn't what book awards are about - it couldn't have happened to a nicer person. I was not surprised to read that when her local paper phoned to interview her she was in the supermarket buying groceries for the food bank, to spread her good luck around.

Congratulations, Ingrid!