Monday, December 21, 2009

It's snowing! It's snowing random links, that is.

I'm on vacation, at my parents' home in Southern California for the holidays. I made it out of New York on the last non-canceled flight to Los Angeles Saturday afternoon during the snow storm! Speaking of the storm, I was actually a teeny tiny bit sad to have escaped, because I really love snow, and there's something so special about the first big snow of the season. But I was happy to live vicariously (whil in 70 degree weather) via lots of photos and videos online. Here's my favorite:



This year really flew by. I'll try to do a proper wrap-up in the next few weeks, but today I'll direct you to agent Nathan Bransford's great "Year in Publishing" post.

And here's a recent article about a business practice in publishing that nobody talks about. In fact, I know very little about how this works and found the article fascinating myself.

I was a guest blogger over at the Debutante Ball last week, and posted about research--how I researched to find my dream publishing job, that is! Read it here.

Also, related to Meghan's post about eBooks, this is an interesting article about an experiment regarding the issue of DRM, or digital rights management.

And finally, in honor of the sad news that actress Brittany Murphy died over the weekend, and also the recent news of Kirkus's demise, I was reminded of my post from this past May about Bad Reviews, which referenced both subjects (albeit somewhat indirectly). And will add that despite my negative feelings towards some of the reviews in Kirkus, I was saddened by the news. It really is a loss to publishing. You can read more thoughts about this over at the Horn Book blog.


And to conclude this random post, let's get back to snow. Anyone who knows me well knows that my favorite snow book, which is also my favorite picture book of all time, is The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Other snow books I love are Robert's Snow by Grace Lin, and Uri Shulevitz's Snow.

What are some of your favorite snow books?

Happy Holidays, everyone!!

6 comments:

Lynn said...

I think I'd have to agree on Snowy Day. Christmas Snow is fun too, especially for little ones (with the push button).

yamster said...

I'll add my hearts to The Snowy Day, but I also like Snowflake Bentley a lot. Congrats on making it out of snowy New York, though!

Anna Alter said...

Great links! Especially fascinating article about bookseller real estate and also the one about copy protecting ebooks... so much change coming in publishing!

Libby Koponen said...

Favorie snow book: WINTER HOLIDAY by Arthur Ransome, without a doubt. I reread it every winter -- ideally, on a really cold snowy day. It was his own favorite of all his books and there is something about it that captures the essence of winter and childhood.

I was astonished to learn this weekend that my friend Susan Sherman, Art Director at Charlesbridge, rereads it every year too -- during the first snowfall.

I'm also fond, very fond, of THE SNOWY DAY and SNOW FLAKE BENTLEY, but as everyone who knows me well knows, novels are my real loves.

Nathan Bransford said...

Thanks for the link, Alvina! I'm also jealous to have missed the snowstorm. I used to love walking through my Brooklyn neighborhood right after it snowed.

Of course, dealing with the F train during/after a snowstorm was enough to make a guy want to move back to San Francisco. But I do miss it.

Hope you have a nice holiday!

Brian H. said...

My fave books about snow or ones that have snow in them are:

Christmas by Peter Spier

Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton

Too Many Mittens by ???

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston

Oh yeah, almost forgot Brrrrr by Stevenson.