Weekend Book Link Wrap Up

We are coming up on Banned Books Week. Although, I celebrate banned books every week, I recommend you all take a moment and peruse the list from the ALA's website and find yourself a banned book to enjoy.  There are many crossovers on the Banned and Best books lists.  You can find the ALA list by clicking here.

And now to catch up on my book link backlog.  Here goes:

• Buzzfeed has a list of 25 Jokes Only Book Nerds Will Get. Some of them are pretty amusing.
• Also, over at Buzzfeed is this list of 30 "Guilty Pleasure" Books That are Also Awesome.  They include my favorite not so guilty pleasure, the Stephanie Plum books, so this list is okay with me.  As with any guilty pleasure, though, you'll find plenty of these that you think are just utter crap, and you will be just as right as the people who love them.
• Flavorwire has a list of 8 Classic YA books that Will Screw You Up For Life. I've only read two of them and agree that both were kind of horrifying.  I guess you should expect V.C. Andrews to really mess you up. Not to mention that I think she's a zombie. She's been dead for decades and is still churning out books.  I find that as creepy as those incestuous and suicidal attic dwellers she made up and got famous for.
• The National Book Awards long lists are up for all of the genres.  I'm kind of surprised by how few I've even heard of, let alone read.  I guess the TBR list is growing again.
• Michelle Dean has posted 35 Great Travel Books That Will Take You Around The World Without A Plane Ticket at Flavorwire.  So many great authors make this list.  
• Jason Diamond outlines 5 of the Most Scandalous Affairs in Literary History for Flavorwire.  Who knew that Mary Shelley was a swinger?  
• Also at Flavorwire and by Jason Diamond is this article of the 50 Works of Fiction in Translation That Every English Speaker Should Read.  I take issue at The Savage Detectives. I was unable to get through it because I found the language so stiff. The book is so acclaimed that I felt it had to be the result of poor translation. And, doesn't it seem that translation from Spanish to English should be fairly easy? As much as I loved 1Q84, I think I'd have picked Kafka on the Shore by Murakami first.  If you want to be wowed by translation, Murakami's work are wonderful.  I also think it's very important for people to spread the word about good translations of books.  The translator can make a huge difference in the reading experience.
• I love these Ryan McArthur prints. Book Riot showcases a selection of The Bookish Minimalist Prints of the artist.  
• Book Riot's Kelly Jansen discusses the Problems with Gendered Reading. If you've seen Maureen Johnson's cover flips than you are already aware of the argument.  The Book Riot article has side by side covers of The Catcher in the Rye. The original, red with the horse and one of a girl in a sundress, standing in a field.  They refer to the one as "girly", but I just wonder what it has to do with The Catcher in the Rye?  I'm not sure if exchanging covers to make a book appear more like it's intended for a female or a male, is just manipulative or if you can consider it somehow offensive or sexist.  As a kid, I read the books my mom bought for me and the ones she bought for my brother. A good book is a good book, no matter who the intended audience, or the perceived intended audience.
• Roald Dahl's birthday was last week and the good people at Flavorwire posted 10 Beautiful Posters Inspired By the Books of Roald Dahl.   I can't even begin to pick my favorite!
• And, because, who doesn't want to become a better person, Flavorwire has this list of 9 Soul-Cleansing Books to Help You Become a Better Person.  I'll give them a try and see if I feel at all improved.
• I've signed on for my first readalong as part of Septemb-Eyre, reading, obviously Jane Eyre.  It's the first since I joined a group reading Middlemarch many years ago.  I like this system. You break a book down and see each other's thoughts.  I've never belonged to a bookclub, but do sometimes think it would be kind of fun to have one with people whose company I enjoy.  Jason Diamond, at Flavorwire posted on The New Golden Age of Online Book Clubs.    This could be a way for me to go.  Less calories, no gossip, just books.
• Check it out:  Retreat by Random House has come up with The Reading Bingo 2013 Challenge. Sounds fun to me!
• I'll end today with this list of Bookish Quotes of Note, Volume 3, as published by Book Riot.

That'll have to do it for today. Please let me know if you stumble across any great book news or links!