The Open Road Blog

'Tis the season to believe in a little magic, and I read a wonderful example of that last week that spoke to my not-so-inner child. One of my favorite bloggers, Jenny Lawson (a.k.a. The Bloggess) did a fantastically funny post on Babble. It was all about Santa and why we should believe in him, and ostensibly why we should continue to encourage children to believe. Enjoy, and happy holidays!—Lara

This week I guest blogged over at STC Craft | Melanie Falick Books about the gift-giving season and the joy of making handmade gifts—inspired by our new ...

Fans of fantasy far and wide can appreciate Adam Gopnik's New Yorker piece entitled "The Dragon's Egg: High fantasy for young adults." J.R.R. Tolkien, an apparently "boring" professor at Oxford in the 1940s, had a bit more to say than his briefs on Beowulf. Little did his students at school know what magic he had up his sleeve that was pouring onto paper at home. Tolkien's fantasy empire began an entire revolution of fantasy fiction, enjoyed by young adults and adults alike. Gopnik's article traces the evolution of fantasy across the decades, marrying its importance with our understanding of ...

Google supports Veteran's Day with their new Google for Veterans and Families project. Former Army Ranger and now Google staff member Mike Reeves serves as the face of "Vet Connect," sharing his post-Iraq and Afghanistan tour experiences through a series of videos that can be found through Google. The goal is to help veterans feel like they have a support group, and that they can connect more easily with other veterans and their families. Reeves also sees it as a way to speak out about what he and other soldiers have been through, which he finds therapeutic, and hopefully helpful ...

The Newbery Award—the highest literary honor given for children's books—has been bestowed to distinguished authors since 1922. That's ninety classic and important books to get through. (Newbery winners and honors on our list include winner Julie of the Wolves, honoree Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon Maybe., winner M.C. Higgins, the Great, and honoree The Planet of Junior Brown.) But, in case you don't have time to read all ninety, this weekend, you can catch the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival, a celebration of those prestigious Newbery Award–winning books in homespun video format. The contest, ...

There is an interesting article on the works (and women) of H.G. Wells in this week's New Yorker. "Wells sincerely believed in sexual frankness and women's liberation, at a time when Victorian chastity was curdling into a burdensome hypocrisy." The article speaks to H.G. Wells' relationships with (many) women, including biographer, journalist, feminist, essayist, critic, and otherwise famous figure Rebecca West. West's disdainful 1911 review of H.G. Wells' novel Marriage elicited both ire and an invitation to lunch from the author—a meeting that resulted in a love affair with the married Wells. Read more about Rebecca West and ...

In preparation for Hurricane Irene here on the East Coast, the New York Times has put up a very helpful Tracking Map. Stay safe, everyone!—Lara

I enjoyed John Tierney's essay on decision fatigue in the New York Times, adapted from his forthcoming book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. Tierney states that the very act of making decisions depletes our ability to make them well and asks how to navigate a world of endless choice given this reality. Click here for his interesting read on self-regulation.

Also: "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone ...

Here's what publishers and readers need to know about BookLamp, "a new way to discover new books, using the full text of a book to match readers to books based on writing style."—Libby

Courtesy of Arts & Letters Daily, here is a piece about Albert Barnes, the highly intelligent, intensely proud, and noble art collector, who, over the course of his lifetime, amassed a 30 billion dollar trove of work by some of the world's greatest artists. In an act of defiance against the Philadelphia art world, Barnes purposely exhibited the collection in a small suburban setting ...

Who doesn't love fan art of comic book superheroes? While sometimes the artwork is remeniscent of our kindergarten finger-painting days, there are those rare exceptions that just blow your mind. Thanks to one of The Book Smugglers, I have discovered three great artists who have given their own spin to the classic comic book heroes. Some beautiful posters from Jonathan Kuten (my favorite being Gambit); some simple, fantastic Marvel posters by Marko Manev; and finally, some really great alt. scenes for alter-egos from Phil Noto. Enjoy!—Lara

This is pretty cool, re: redefining what makes a book ...

The United States Postal Service recently unveiled its brand new Mark Twain "forever" stamp. It's part the Literary Arts series, which includes stamps featuring other literary greats like Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald. As Carolyn Kellog explains, "'Forever' stamps, which cost the price of a first class-mail stamp -- 44 cents -- can be used even if the price of a first-class mail stamp changes. Even, ostensibly, for another 100 years." Full story over at Jacket Copy.—Justin

Awesome People Reading, shared by Bethanne Patrick in this morning's Shelf Awareness for Readers, is such fun! (Except I can't make out the ...

Via Tech Crunch: "Twitter has just rolled out a nifty little feature. Now on anyone’s profile, when you click on the “Following” link, you’ll be able to see exactly how they see Twitter. In other words, you can see the same timeline of tweets that they see when they’re looking at their main feed." Frankly, not sure how much I like this!—Libby

It's always an exciting moment to stumble across a book that makes you cry, makes you think, or makes you fall over with laughter. I lucked out this week and found a humor book that made me do all three! ...

Oliver Reichenstein of IA makes an astute case for a "Business Class for News," which, as a long-time happy subscriber to Ars Technica's Premium Service, I think has much greater potential to be a viable business model for publishers than does a traditional paywall. 

Cory Doctorow in the Guardian has a great, quick write-up of the recently-released "Media Piracy in Emerging Economies" report: 

"This weighty, 440-page report took thirty-five researchers three years to produce, and it is a careful, thoroughly documented rebuttal of practically everything you've ever heard or read about copyright infringement in the ...

Personally, I was very excited to see this: A Spanish company is starting what can only be described as "Netflix for Books," launching later this summer. Also, Amazon to start Kindle Library Lending Program with Overdrive.—Pablo

This week in The Guardian, David Thomson writes about the movies of Terrence Malick and the anticipation surrounding the release of his latest film The Tree of Life. Malick is one of my favorite contemporary American directors and, like countless others, I'm anxious to see The Tree of Life. The movie is set to open May 4 in the U.K., but there ...

Remember producing spin art at childhood carnivals (and, if you were really fancy, with your in-home toy set)? Claire O'Neill's NPR piece, "How Sound Can Create Sculpture," tapped into my fondest paint memories this week. Dentsu London—the creative agency behind last year's iPad light painting video—has merged music, paint, and photography to create Water Figures. "Water Figures are sculpted by the action of sound waves which eject water based paints into the air from the surface of a rubber membrane (balloon) placed over the front of a small speaker like those used for computers," explains Linden Gledhill, the biochemist/photographer who ...

Sure, we talk about books all the time. But Open Road is plugged into the world beyond books, too. Each Friday we'll step outside of the industry silo to call out what caught our eye. Whether we're talking about technology, museum exhibits, education—and, yes, sometimes books—we're happy to share Links We Like with readers.

• Although I liked being a Girl Scout as a kid, I was always jealous of the adventuring the Boy Scouts got to do. Playing with bees? Swinging around giant rocks? Making fires? And, in 2011, building robots. According to NPR, the Boy Scouts have now ...