Category Archives: Readings

Hunter S. Thompson at Yale

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

Weird just like you’d expect. Yale, Hunter S. Thompson and the Social Contract: the Good Doctor in Drag by Alan Farago.

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One of the Only Posts on Usage Here

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

Excuse me while I exercise my inner dinosaur, or maybe it’s just my language curmudgeon, but every time I read the phrase “one of the only” I think less of the writer.

What does “one of the only” actually mean? I imagine it to be a lazy writer’s way out when the author thinks the person — it’s a phrase usually applied to a person — is in fact unique, but the writer is not quite sure, so out comes “one of the only” as a hedge. In other words, “one of the only” means “one of the few, or maybe the only the only, I don’t know for sure.” Well, heck, why not look it up somewhere?

Mr. Google tells me that I’m not one of the only people bothered by this — though clearly not everyone who has noticed the rise of this odd phrase cares. More surprisingly, some others think “one of the only” means “one of a small group,” although why the author can’t then say that, of just “one a few,” I don’t know.

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Food for Thought

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

While I enjoy fine dining in Paris, check out The Evil Waiter Case in the U. Miami Law Review.

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Take a Shelfie?

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

Take a pix of your books and get free e-books?

After years of reading and posting rants about DRM and format shifting Pete and Marius (bitlit.com’s founders) decided to do something about it… They built an app that let’s you get the eBook for free or at a huge discount if you own the paper copy. The app is called BitLit and it’s available for free on Android and iOS. They’ve made deals with over 200 publishers including O’Reilly and Packt, and there are over 30,000 titles that are eligible for free / discounted ebooks if you own the paperback. Here’s how it works: First you take a shelfie (yes, a picture of your shelf) and the app will identify all the books on your shelf — hurrah now you have a complete inventory of your library! But, you’ll also get a shortlist of any books you own that are eligible for free/cheap bundled eBooks. To claim a bundled eBook you just need to write your name onto the copyright page of the book and snap a photo using the app… a few seconds later you should get an email with a download link to the eBook in ePub, PDF, and mobi formats.

via User Friendly.

Should I do this? I’m gonna bet that basically none of my books qualify. Plus there are I’d guess about 70 shelves, each of which would have to be photographed in two parts. Plus some of the books are double-shelved, so you’d see only the outer row…but as those tend to be the cheap novels, they’re probably the ones most likely to have an e-copy (as opposed to the academic books). Plus I am suspicious of the “free/cheap” line — will this mostly be a way to market to me?

No, great idea, but until there are more the books available in the scheme I’m not sure I’ll bother.

Well, maybe one test shelf, just to see…

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Wonderful Layered Short Story

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

Sleeper by Jo Walton at Tor.com crams in themes about dystopian spying, virtuality, how we create our pasts and our futures, and identity. All in just a few words.

When I grow up, I’d be happy to write something Jo Walton feels is worth re-reading.

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‘American Dream is a Continuous Process’

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Kevin Sack’s A Lost Boy Grows Up is the story of a Sudanese ‘lost boy’ come to America who, many years later, decides he wants to be an Atlanta policeman. It isn’t easy, but he’s chasing his American Dream.

(Yet another example of why we should favor a more welcoming immigration policy.)

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