Oscar Notes and Other Thoughts

Academy Award nominations are out today, and bookish films again led the pack. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, adapted from a F. Scott Fitzgerald novella, received 13 nominations. Adaptations The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire were also nominated for Best Picture, as was the adaptation of the stage play Frost Nixon. There seems to be a sizable contingent of people angry that The Dark Knight wasn't nominated for Best Picture (Heath Ledger was nominated for Supporting Actor). I suspect a Facebook group has already been started.

The big loser this year seems to be Revolutionary Road, adapted from Richard Yates' excellent novel. It received only one major nomination, Michael Shannon for Best Supporting Actor. It always seemed like an 'un-filmable' novel to me, and perhaps, ultimately, it was.

But the Oscars aren't everything, and the internet never stops humming. With that in mind, a few other links of note today:

• If you're an author and you're building a website, you ought to read this excellent post from The 26th Story. Among the sites they cite (ha!) as good examples is Sloane Crosley's site. If you recall, I liked her book trailer very much.

• Via The Elegant Variation comes this SF Chronicle article about the excellent indie Greywolf Press, publisher of daring fiction and "the most important, interesting and rich poetry list of any press anywhere."

• At Good, Anne Trubek tells us "Why We Need to Paint Books Now." Interesting take, although I'm dubious of anyone proclaiming the death of printed books. Egon Spengler was wrong, print is most assuredly not dead.

Trivia coming up in just a bit. Sharpen your thinking caps!