Blog'em Dano

• Shane Gericke of Naperville has published a paperback thriller, Blown Away. Retired Sun-Times reporter Brenda Rotzoll, who worked with both of us, led me to Shane's Web site, which led me to Amazon for the $7 paperback. Of course by the time I emptied my shopping cart the tab had grown to $34.


• My library is a Zero Population Growth zone, so I'll have to add a few more books to the Salvation Army donation pile in the garage. I can start with volumes available online via the American Studies archives of the University of Virginia. I came across the Hypertexts site while looking up crossword puzzle answers for my wife (I understand if she does this it's cheating, but for me it's OK) and it prompted me to start the Open Stacks section of my blogroll.


• The new blog of the National Books Critics Circle revisits John Updike's rules for reviewers. Rule #1 works for criticism of all sorts: "Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt."