Thursday News: News is bad for you, David Mamet to self publish, not so horrific paper crafts
Publishing Newsself-published8 Comments
News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier – The Guardian had an article about how news is bad for you because it is irrelevant, misleading and actually bad for your body.
Panicky stories spur the release of cascades of glucocorticoid (cortisol). This deregulates your immune system and inhibits the release of growth hormones. In other words, your body finds itself in a state of chronic stress. High glucocorticoid levels cause impaired digestion, lack of growth (cell, hair, bone), nervousness and susceptibility to infections. The other potential side-effects include fear, aggression, tunnel-vision and desensitisation.
I thought it was particularly ironic given how horrible CNN appears to be botching the news. Look at the headlines that were on its website yesterday regarding the Boston Marathon bombing. The Guardian
The 15 Most Horrific Crafting Abuses Ever Committed Against Books – Buzzfeed put together a list of “horrific crafting abuses” which I thought were going to be a bunch of regretsy artifacts made out of books. But apparently horrific in this case equals any use of books that is destructive. “Accurate, because it feels like you’re carving out my heart when I look at this.” The paper lantern one looks like a fire waiting to happen but other than that, I was highly disappointed at the low level of horror achieved. Buzzfeed
David Mamet and Other Big Authors Choose to Self-Publish – Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet will self publish his next publication with the help of his literary agency, ICM Partners. Mamet cited marketing as one of the reasons he is going the indie publishing route.
Both Mr. Harris and Mr. Mamet said that the big publishers focused mostly on blockbuster books and fell short on other titles — by publishing too few copies, for instance, or limiting advertising to only a short period after a book was released. NYTimes
Aw, I liked some of the things made. I have a router cover sitting on my desk made out of an old goodwill hardcover hollowed out, because I’d rather see a book all day than blinky lights. Most thrift stores have hundreds of old hardcovers (Goodwill near me has 40 copies of Twilight alone…), it’s better than consigning them to eventually be recycled.
I agree with Sunny that I liked some of the things made out of the books! I love books, but there are many books in thrift stores and I don’t see a problem with repurposing and reusing them.
As long as the books are not rare editions, I don’t get what the big deal is with repurposing them. The only thing that really bothered me was that the “To thine own self be true” was stencilled on top of a page from Love’s Labour’s Lost.
@cecilia: There are so many copies of Shakespeare around though. Plus it is in the public domain. You could print those pages out and age them yourself.
@Jane: I think her point was more that it’s the wrong play!
@Ros: Oh, of course. LOL.
Not horrified, either. Kinda like the table.
Agree that reading the news can make me sad. But you know what makes me more sad? Reading the comments people leave. That’ll make a person lose faith in humanity in a hurry.
Yeah those book crafts did not strike me as horrific. Of course it’s one thing to re-use a paperback, and another to chop up a hardback that’s not really damaged. I always wish book crafts had something more posted by the makers – for instance some books have water damage/mold or pages missing, etc. and so the maker was salvaging something already ruined and about to be tossed. Which seems like a good thing. But I see a lot of crafts done with old covers and endpapers that look completely pristine. That does make me sigh. And also wonder if they knew how to check to see if their edition was worth salvaging. All the craft stuff I’ve done was with xerox’d pages from the original and then tinted to look old. Most of the crafts on that page could easily be done with xerox’d pages and you’d not be able to tell the difference.