By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/24/2016
Happy National Geek Day! Why today? What’s so special about May 25th? Well, a long time ago, in 1977, Star Wars opened in 32 theaters! That’s when science fiction went mainstream! Yeah, there were Trekkies, but they were lowkey… there wasn’t a movie yet, and they mostly congregated at the Holiday Inn on weekends, along with […]
By: Maryann Yin,
on 1/14/2015
Which authors do you admire most? The team at blinkbox books has created an infographic that examines the careers of several famous authors including J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Meg Cabot, Stephen King, and Haruki Murakami. For each author that is listed on this image, their “breakthrough” novel is highlighted.
Both Douglas Adams and J.R.R. Tolkien hit it big with their debut novels, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The Hobbit: There and Back Again. F. Scott Fitzgerald became well-known at age 30 for his third book, The Great Gatsby, while Leo Tolstoy achieved great success at age 42 with his sixth title, War & Peace. We’ve embedded the full infographic below for you to explore further—what do you think?
By: Maryann Yin,
on 10/13/2014
IDW Publishing announced at New York Comic Con that it has formed a partnership with Ideate Media to publish “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.” This comic series is based on Douglas Adams’ 1987 humor novel.
Publication has been scheduled for 2015. Chris Ryall, the chief creative officer and editor-in-chief at IDW, will serve as the writer. Fables artist Tony Akins and Chew co-creator Rob Guillory will collaborate on the artwork.
Ryall gave this statement in the press release: “I know that an American writing Dirk comics is going to get a certain segment of British Adams fans a bit brassed off but, much like in the case of the oft-referenced Schrödinger’s cat in the Dirk novels, we can all agree that until the world opens these comics, they are both good and not good, right? And certainly Adams’ writing transcends all borders and has rightfully earned him a worldwide following. I can’t wait to bring Dirk into the world of comics.”
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By: Maryann Yin,
on 9/9/2014
Google has created a Doodle to celebrate Leo Tolstoy’s 186th birthday. The image pays homage to three works by the famed Russian novelist: War & Peace, Anna Karenina, and The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
Artist Roman Muradov designed the piece. Google has posted an essay Muradov wrote explaining his creative process: ”The language of cartooning, likewise, is the language of reduction; it’s less descriptive than realistic artwork or film, and is less likely to replace the reader’s vision. It seemed fitting to focus on Tolstoy’s central theme of dualism and to highlight his stylistic nuances through the rhythm of the sequences – the almost full moon against the almost starless night, the red of Anna’s handbag, Ivan’s fatal curtains that stand between him and the light of his spiritual awakening.”
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By: Powell's Staff,
on 4/29/2014
It's spring! The sun is shining. The flowers are in bloom. The Blazers are winning (fingers crossed). We're in a good mood. So for our latest round of Required Reading, we lined up our 25 favorite funny novels. Whether biting, riotous, savage, or slapstick, each of these books consistently makes us laugh. ÷ ÷ ÷ [...]
By: Maryann Yin,
on 11/4/2013
Google has created a Doodle to celebrate Shakuntala Devi’s 84th birthday.
Devi became well-known for her ability to generate complicated mental calculations which earned her the nickname, “the Human Computer.” Through her lifetime, she wrote and published novels, cookbooks, and nonfiction titles. Here’s more from the Times of India:
“Shakuntala Devi figured in the Guiness Book of World Record for her outstanding ability and wrote numerous books like Fun with Numbers, Astrology for You, Puzzles to Puzzle You, and Mathablit. At the age of six, she demonstrated her calculation skills in her first major public performance at the University of Mysore and two years later, she again proved herself successful as a child prodigy at Annamalai University.”
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By: Maryann Yin,
on 3/11/2013
Google has created an interactive Google Doodle celebrating Douglas Adams‘ 61st birthday. The UK author is best known for his comedic science-fiction series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Check out this YouTube video which shows how internet users can interact with this animated doodle. Random House posted a screenshot of the art piece on Facebook and drew 266 “likes.”
Here’s more from ABC News: “Google’s doodle includes references to Adams’ work: a towel, which according to Adams’ book, is an essential item for space travel, a cup of tea, a staple of his oeuvre, and when users click the door in the doodle, Marvin, the beloved ‘paranoid android,’ from ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide‘ appears.”
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By: Jon Steele,
on 6/1/2012
So this is it. The end of a day of sitting on this bench next to Lake Geneva, thinking about stuff and remembering. And just now, I was thinking about sleep. I don't know about you, but this is how I go to sleep... I lay there, imagining places I've been in my life. If [...]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/24/2012
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© 2012 Torsten Adair
Started in 2001 in tribute to Douglas Adams, May 25 has been designated Towel Day.
Those who appreciate the genius of Douglas Adams are encouraged to celebrate the day by carrying a towel in public.
Why a towel?
To quote from the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy:
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)
The Scots figured this out centuries ago, wrapping an extra-long towel around their body as clothing. Arthur Dent, by sheer accident and providence (and really improbable but not infinitely improbable probabilities), perfected the use of a dressing gown as a very portable and functional towel.
There is an official towel, although it is currently out of production. There are many other variations, some of them available for purchase.
If you feel like celebrating, the Towel Day website has a long list of events happening worldwide. In the USA:
By: Shelley Workinger,
on 3/1/2012
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By: Jama Rattigan,
on 6/13/2011
ABINGER (n.)
#32 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet.
MsBlueSky/flickr
Liff (lif) n. A common object or experience for which no word yet exists.
I'm guessing there are an infinite number of liffs floating free in the world, just hoping someone exceedingly clever will chance along and name them. Two clever someones, Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, compiled the first humorous dictionary of liffs back in 1983: The Meaning of Liff, followed by a revised and expanded edition, The Deeper Meaning of Liff (1990). Along with these "no name" objects, feelings and situations, Adams and Lloyd also noted "thousands of spare words which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing at places."
Words like Dunfish, Jeffers, Knaptoft, Ranfurly. They were real places, but who ever heard of them? Better yet, who'd ever think of visiting them? Why not match these place names with a needy liff?
Our job, as we see it, is to get these words down off the signposts and into the mouths of babes and sucklings and so on, where they can start earning their keep in everyday conversation and make a more positive contribution to society.
Thought you might enjoy a Sampler Platter of Liff Lunchables, à la Adams and Lloyd. All but a couple are food related; I've added a few extras to compensate ☺. Nibble on them, maybe give them a good chew (you're bound to chuckle). There's plenty to go around!
One who washes up everything except the frying pan, the cheese grater and the saucepan which the chocolate sauce has been made in.
BECCLES (pl. n.)
The small bone buttons placed in bacon sandwiches by unemployed guerrilla dentists.
CROMARTY (n.)
The brittle sludge which clings to the top of ketchup bottles and plastic tomatoes in nasty cafes.
DUDDO (n.)
The most deformed potato in any given collection of potatoes.
EPPING (participial vb.)
The futile movements of forefingers and eyebrows used when failing to attract the attention of waiters and barmen.
FINUGE (vb.)
In any division of foodstuffs equally between several people, to give yourself the extra slice left over.
GOOSNARGH (n.)
Something left over from preparing or eating a meal, which you store in the fridge despite the fact that you know full well you will never ever use it.
HENSTRIDGE (n.)
The dried yellow substance found between the prongs of forks in restaurants.
INIGONISH (adj.)
Descriptive of the expression on the face of a dinner party guest which is meant to indicate hug
By: Jason Boog,
on 12/8/2010
BBC Four has released a few short clips from their adaptation of the late Douglas Adams‘ spacey private detective novel, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. The video is embedded above.
Actor Stephen Mangan will star as Dirk Gently, alongside co-stars Darren Boyd and Helen Baxendale. The script was written by Howard Overman, the writer behind Misfits and Vexed.
Here’s more from BBC Four: “Anti-hero Dirk Gently operates his eponymous detective agency based on the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. Perpetually broke, hopelessly chaotic and utterly infuriating, most people suspect Dirk is nothing more than a cheap conman. And they might be right – but nevertheless his methods, though unusual, do often produce surprising results.” (Via io9)
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By: [email protected] (Mark Blevis and Andrea ,
on 11/30/2010
After a 14-month hiatus, we dust off Just One More Book to participate in the Canadian National Day of Podcasting, a virtual event intended to bring stale shows out of retirement for one-day in a festival-like reunion of online content creators.
In this episode, we highlight some of the chapter books we’ve read since parking JOMB last year.
Andrea’s picks
Mark’s picks
By: Maud Newton,
on 5/26/2010
I doubt I would have been so ticked off at Garrison Keillor’s death-of-publishing op-ed this morning if a friend hadn’t called yesterday to tell me how insulted she was by similar comments he made at a recent Authors Guild gala, but seeing newspapers endorse this sort of twaddle does get tiresome.
Judy Berman invited me to elaborate on my Twitter comments, and you can read my and others’ responses to Keillor’s article over at Flavorwire.
See also Douglas Adams’ 1999 essay “How to Stop Worrying and Love the Internet” (“anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really”).
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By: Molly Blaisdell,
on 11/25/2008
Today's friendly high five comes from the spirit of the hilarious Douglas Adams. 
Douglas Adams is the first voice I ever heard that looked around and asked some fairly decent questions. "WHAT? WHY! You've got to be kidding me. What the blankety, blank, blank?(You fill in the blanks.)I remember the pure joy of reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was one of those books that makes you laugh and laugh as you turn the pages. Adams was my literary guide to the absurdity of life.
That's it, folks. There are these absurd moments in life, like yesterday morning when I was reaching for my cup of tea, and my laptop was sitting on an uneven surface. I hit my computer with my elbow. As I turned back from the tea to steady the laptop, I moved too fast and my computer tipped up and smashed against my lip. My lip began to bleed. I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. Another similar kind of moment, I used to love to drive to town. There was the intersection where I would stop and on clear days see a beautiful view of the Olympics. Now I can see the view of "A Contained Storage Facility." I mean, really.
Mr. Adams gave voice to this lack of rationality and order that surrounds us. I think exploring the absurd can bring vim and vigor to our work. You might try that today.
I totally struggled with which video clip to share. I finally settled on this one.
And now some excellent sage advice from a "pretty good" writer:
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
Douglas Adams
Last of all, think about attending the Seattle Kid-Lit Drink Night (I'm pretty sure that Douglas Adams would have been all in for an event like this)...
"Did you do Molly Blaisdell’s Golden Coffee Cup Challenge? NANOWRIMO? Did you make any kind of writing and/or illustrating goal in November?
If you hit the jackpot…if you plodded along…even if you didn’t take a single step…come to celebrate and hang out with your peers at our own Kidlit Drink Night! November 30th at Broadway Grill in Seattle (on Broadway in Capitol Hill, across from the QFC – 328-7000) at 5:30pm. Cash bar. Molly will be giving out the Golden Coffee Cup awards (Don't worry if you're from out of town, you don't have to be present to win. "
Street parking is available, or you can park at QFC for a small parking fee (or get your ticket validated by making a purchase).
Questions? Go to Holly Cupala's blog or ask me. :) Hope to see you!
Posted by MollyMom103 at 6:00 AM 0 comments
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 9/19/2008
11:45-12:15 pm (This is a short reading from The Graveyard Book, and a Q&A).
1-3 pm (and it'll probably go longer if they don't need the space, but may be cut off if they don't have anywhere to move it to, or have something else planned for me at 3.00pm).
We may wind up with people who would like to be at the reading/Q&A who skip it in order to be early in the signing line. But that's if they've actually told people where to line up for the signing, which they may or may not do.
Last time people were in the signing line before dawn. I don't think that would work this time, as I'm not doing a morning signing.
Hey Neil,
I would love to know what time the Columbia University reading is taking place on September 30th. I am very excited t go but don't know what time to arrive. Thanks.
-Dan
The details are now up at http://www.neilgaiman.com/where/ -- according to which it starts at 7.00pm.
I see in "Where's Neil" that you'll be doing a signing in New York City and Philadelphia. With New Jersey right in between, why not a stop here?
Because the people who aren't on the East Coast, some of whom are travelling hundreds of miles to get to the readings, would rise up as one person in their anger at the unfairness of it all, and destroy New Jersey in their rage. Which would be sad, because there are lots of bits of New Jersey that are actually quite nice.
When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she (allegedly) attempted to get books she didn't approve of out of the public library. This is scary. Are free speech organizations like the CBLDF and the First Amendment Project going to take this issue on?
No. They are too busy fighting actual cases of censorship from all the way across the political spectrum, to bother with partisan silliness. (Here's the Snopes report on Palin's non-existent Bookbanning.)
What you fight is specifics: bad laws, bad arrests and the like. People trying to ban books and comics and people trying to stop other people selling or publishing or creating comics and books and suchlike.
You don't fight "alleged attempts to get books out of a public library" ten years ago. To "take this issue on" I suspect would consist, Father Ted-like, of people walking around Sarah Palin with placards saying "Down with This sort of Thing" and "Careful Now", which would probably not result in increased freedom of speech.
Hi Neil! This Andrew Drilon (I was the creator "Lines and Spaces", the Alex Niño tribute comic which won the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Award last year). I've been making lots of short comics since then, under the banner title Kare-Kare Komiks, and they've gotten nice comments from people like Emma Bull and Warren Ellis, so I thought you might be interested:
http://www.chemsetcomics.com/category/kare-kare-komiks/
Anyway, I'll be posting "Lines and Spaces" there tomorrow, for those who are planning to enter the contest this year (the deadline's at the end of the month), and I'm hoping you can help spread the word.
Consider it posted.
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By: Cheryl Rainfield,
on 9/18/2008
If you love the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, you’ll either be excited or upset by the news that there will be a sixth book written in the series–not by Douglas Adams, who is dead, but by children’s author Eoin Colfer. Adams’ widow gave permission.
Adams had had plans to write a sixth book, saying that the fifth was bleak and that he planned to write the next on a slightly more upbeat note. But he didn’t have time to write it before he died. Colfer and Penguin haven’t released any details about the plot yet.
Colfer was a fan of the Hitchhiker books since his schooldays. He said that being given the opportunity to continue the series was “like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice. “For years I have been finishing this incredible story in my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real world. It is a gift from the gods.”
I think it’s a good thing Colfer loved the Hitchhiker works so much; perhaps he’ll be able to retain the voice.
This situation is similar to Budge Wilson writing the prequel to the beloved Anne of Green Gables series–working hard to keep the author’s voice and style, and the stories that arc the series. When it’s done well, it offers a gift to readers who love the series. When it’s not, well, there can be outraged fans.
What do you think about an author writing a book in a series where the original author has died?
Thanks to Shelf Awareness for the info.
By: Venetia Butterfield,
on 9/17/2008
It's been a busy fortnight here at Penguin Towers.
Two weeks ago we were contacted by the agent representing the estate of Douglas Adams who asked us if we might be interested in bidding for the right to publish a sixth installment of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to be written by Eoin Colfer. Needless to say we were and a crack team threw themselves into creating one of the best pitches anyone has ever seen. This (and a large-ish cheque) happily won us the rights to publish And Another Thing... and late last night we broke the news to the legions of fans of the Hitchhiker's series and the almost equally hardcore fans of Eoin's Artemis Fowl books.
We knew that there would be intense interest in this news and we wanted the fans to be the first people to hear it, so at 6pm last night we alerted them to these audio recordings which they quickly spread around the internet. 'Big media' grasped onto the story early this morning culminating in an appearance by Eoin Colfer on Radio4's Today programme.
Now, in the very brief lull between announcing this news and planning the delivery of the most exciting publishing event of 2009, we have a few moments to sit back and watch these most passionate of fans debate the merits of resurrecting the series.
Reactions have ranged from the ecstatic, to slightly concerned, to completely appalled via speculation that this might be part of an even deeper conspiracy. If you want to add to the noise, leave a comment below. We don't speak Vogon, but we do look forward to hearing from you.
Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher
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By: Neil Gaiman,
on 4/18/2008
This is the best news I've had in ages -- being able to announce it at the beginning of tonight's reading was an enormous thrill:
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=154204
And I want to say thank you to Gordon Lee for bearing up so well and hanging in there. It's hard for the people who think that the authorities are out to get them. It must be much harder when the authorities really are out to get you.
As I said when I made the announcement, the CBLDF has spent over $100,000 to make sure that this attempted miscarriage of justice didn't happen, all of that money raised a dollar at a time from fans and readers and professionals. So two nights ago we had an event for publishers, the kind who publish books (and who are now publishing graphic novels), in order to spread the idea that a) they needed to know what the CBLDF is -- they may need us, and b) we'd like them to take out corporate memberships.
There's a few photos of the event at the bottom of this blog entry...
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/04/18/icv2-conference-and-cbldf-reception
The CBLDF reading tonight was fun, and Bill Hader is hilarious. (His impression of me listening to Al Pacino pitching his interpretation of the Sandman movie would have been worth the price of admission, if I'd paid to get in, which I hadn't.)
...
Last Summer I was interviewed (or rather, Winterviewed) all over my house by Miss Winter McCloud -- it's just gone up at http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16044
...
Last week, Sharon and Bill Stiteler came out and we took advantage of a warm Sunday to go and say hello to the bees, and do the spring inspection (and spring cleaning)of the hive. (We'll be putting in some new hives over the next few weeks.) Sharon blogged about the bee inspection over at
http://www.birdchick.com/2008/04/spring-bee-inspection.html
I was fascinated by this, in the way you can only be when you once wrote a book about something (actually I'd finished writing the book when most of this was happening. A small glimpse into what might have been on the sequel to the infocom Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Computer Game... -- http://waxy.org/2008/04/milliways_infocoms_unreleased_sequel_to_hitchhikers_guide_to_the_galax/
...
By: Stacy Curtis,
on 10/8/2007
We just got back from San Diego. The whole time I was there, I had Dr. Seuss-itis. We were less than 20 miles away from where Dr. Seuss lived in La Jolla. I had planned on going to La Jolla and hopefully finding the tower where Dr. Seuss lived, but on the day we had planned to go, there was a landslide in La Jolla and we thought it was best we stay away from all the hubbub. Anyway....I
Actually, Douglas Adams was born on March 11th, May 25th became Towel Day a few weeks after his death in 2001