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Hello,
beautiful and sexy lovers of books,
As you
may have noticed, we're a few days late with our September
update. This month sort of snuck up on us and kicked us square
in the chests. It happens when two of the three members of
the editorial crew are in education. Copy editor Jennifer
Hadlock just started her first semester teaching middle school.
Yennie just finished a very long and strenuous summer semester.
And Kyle is a drunk. So you can imagine how hectic life is
for us outside of the HBC.
The workload
this month has brought to our attention the need to find another
copy editor to help us operate more smoothly. If you'd like
to help us out, please drop us an e-mail.
Bringing
on more help is actually rather encouraging, as it tells us
that we're flourishing. Because of the support of people like
you, who come back every month and check out our site, we
are inspired to keep working hard and are excited to keep
bringing you reviews of new books, old favorites, and various
book-related ephemera. This website is now over half a year
old, and we keep getting new writers and more content. Thanks
for appreciating what we do, and thanks for your continued
patronage and support.
Sadly,
we know that book-lovers such as ourselves are a dying breed.
A recent AP-Ipsos
poll revealed that over one fourth of American adults
had not read a single book in 2006. Twenty-seven percent did
not read a single book in an entire year. The respondents
to the poll were quoted saying things like, "I just get sleepy
when I read," and the impressive, "Fiction just doesn't interest
me. If I'm going to get a story, I'll get a movie." Fan-freaking-tastic.
Vonnegut loses to Underdog. Solid.
One of
our new writers, Chris Mackowski, ponders this saddening phenomenon
in his first article for us: "I Cannot Live Without Books—But
Many People Can." Here, he expands upon his recent post in
the HBC LiveJournal community, detailing his love of books
and why they matter to him so much. We're sure you can relate.
As you
can imagine, some of us at the HBC extend our bibliophilia
to writing. This month, Yennie brings us a look into her struggles
to write a rather uncharacteristic book for her—one with
vampires and werewolves. It is, as you may imagine, a bit
embarrassing to discuss, not just for her but also for one
of her students and, potentially, Stephenie Meyer, the best-selling
author of the YA vampire story Twilight. Feel free
to read it and make fun of her. Yennie, that is. Laughing
at Stephenie Meyer would be mean, as she is a nice person.
As for
reviews, we find ourselves interested in picking up at least
one of the books we feature here every month, and this one
is no different. This month, we have an interesting assortment,
from analyses of a Great American Novel (Why Kerouac Matters)
and Japanese New Wave cinema (Eros Plus Massacre) to
insightful essays by humorists (The Braindead Megaphone)
and poetry lessons with a British comedian (The Ode Less
Traveled).
We hope
you are finding the website equally useful in your quest for
new reading material. As always, feel free to drop us a line
with stuff you liked on the site, books you think we should
read or check out, or pictures that you colored of you flying
kites with us. We would appreciate it.
<3,
Kyle
and Yennie
(September,
2007)
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