A way of publishing your poetry to large number of people, to the audience that cares, this is the fundamental promise of twiHaiku, new online Twitter publishing application that leverage the core virtues of Internet and social networking.

Just listen to a few tweets from the followers who are discovering that poetry is very much alive on the web and now it is living in ways that were never possible or existed before the creation of Twitter and twiHaiku:

“30 seconds in and I already have a huge crush on @twihaiku …. ”
@saponista

“All poets should follow @twihaiku !”
@poet_laureate

“@twihaiku – Oh that sounds fantastic !!!”
@NoBitterLemons

TwiHaiku official website presents an easy to use online application that aims to collect and publish quality original short poetry, which moderated selection of the best twiHaiku poems is available at TwiHaiku Twitter account page. It is a pure poetry channel, without an usual Twitter noise, for all poetry lovers to follow, read, discuss, rate, search and contribute to the best collection of the short verse poetry online.

@twihaiku page
Favorite new place to rage
Where I play a Sage.

Twihaiku by @rekouche

Social media marriage made in electronic heaven

Just in case you did not know, Twitter become one of the, if not the single most important Web 2.0 medium in the world. More people are joining this micro-blogging service everyday, discovering twitter poetry, and many different forms it is taking on.

Status message-inspired nature of Twitter (brief text messages uploaded to a web site that others subscribe to, follow and read) is perfect for scripting concise poetry such as haiku, short or light verses poetry,  because you are limited to 140 characters (to fit in a standard SMS message). This means you’re limited to around 5 letters per syllable, which should be plenty to create a masterpiece.

Beautiful and sad
Seemingly without purpose
Little flightless bird.

TwiHaiku about animals by @madmadamimm

TwiHaiku – Twitter hijacked all for poetry!

Poems that can fit inside 140 characters – Twitter Poetry – Very 21st century! We care about poetry precisely because it exists outside this frenetic word-space. In a world echoing with tweets and stats and sound bytes, our need for poetry has never been greater.

TwiHaiku is poetry for today and our fast-paced lifestyles. Starting from the simple Twitter question: “What are you doing?”, reader and the writer within are enticed to get involved, to share with the community their sincere attitude about world that surrounds us, with the perception of what is occurring at the moment, concisely and without embellishment.

I took to the jail
Flowers grew between the bars
Beauty set me free

TwiHaiku about life by @JimCrowePoet

Giving a new meaning to the poetry in cyberspace, TwiHaiku website offers friendly collaborative interface that significantly extends the obscure list of Twitter interacting options. In addition to the simple poetry submission, similar to the other social networking services like Digg, StumbleUpon or Facebook, twiHaiku users may easily vote, bookmark, search or discuss their favorite poems, directly influencing and refining the content of the Twitter page.

This way, only the top quality content is presented to the followers without an frequently emphasized  drawback of ordinary Twitter accounts that incorporate a lot of not relevant and usually meaningless content (like the owners daily routine preferences)

New poetry form for the 21th century

The destiny of TwiHaiku project is now entirely in hands of the online community and its vast creative potential demonstrated so many times in recent years. If successful, this project may mark a new chapter in the history of modern poetry, and be the roll-model for many similar ventures waiting to reshape the way we are consuming the poetry today.

You may follow twiHaiku and contribute to its daily poetry sessions on its official webpage at www.twiHaiku.com.

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While some poets may argue passionately that poetry isn’t true poetry unless it adheres to the rules of classical form, there are times when a well-used poetry form can go stale for you. Knowing that there are many more different types of poems and poetry, may lights your fires as a reader or a poet, to get you going.

Purpose of this article is not to be the presentation of all different kinds of poetry formats (although we maintain to be a valuable resource by elaborating all Poetry Genres & Different Forms of Poems here »). Our intention is to disclose and depict those particular types of poems that, in our humble opinion, bring the most excitement and positive impulses, and at the certain point are exotic by their form or the origin.

TwiHaiku

TwiHaiku, Twitter Haiku or Twitter Poetry – is a novel form of short verse poetry that unifies genuine virtues of traditional Haiku (brevity, point to an actual, lived experience, evoking deep feelings in the reader..) with simple, straightforward purpose and interface of Twitter application.

You don’t have to be a writer to write TwiHaiku

Although twiHaiku does not restricts its form to any particular set of rules, and you do not have to be a poet to write it, it strives to convey the significance of the poetic experience in expressing your genuine thoughts and feelings, in accordance with the particular object, event or phenomenon.

Early wake up.
Strong about life,
strong about love,
strong about people.
Only too weak about my baby girl.

One may ask what separates a TwiHaiku from Haiku or other short, light verse. TwiHaiku is a poetry for today and our fast-paced lifestyles. Starting from the simple Twitter question: “What are you doing?”, the reader and the writer within are enticed to get involved, to share with the community their sincere attitude about world that surrounds us, with the perception of what is occurring at the moment, concisely and without embellishment.

TwiHaiku about twiHaiku

The butterfly in the concrete city of Eden.
So fragile and so beautiful.
Silent cry that you follow instinctively,
is the kiss of salvation.

TwiHaiku official website aims to collect and publish quality original short poetry, which moderated selection of best twiHaiku poems is available at TwiHaiku Twitter account page for immediate subscription.

Acrostic

Acrostic poems are fun to write. You can
Create your own poem by using the simple
Rules found below.
Others and many will enjoy reading your poem and
Seeing your illustration on the bulletin board.
These type of poems are different because rhyming
Is not important.
Choose your words wisely.

Did you know that The Dutch national anthem (The William) is an acrostic! The first letters of its fifteen stanzas spell WILLEM VAN NASSOV, (one of the hereditary titles of William of Orange), defining the main structural characteristic of the acrostic poetic form.

The term Acrostic is derived from the Greek words akros, “at the end,” and stichos, “line.” , and it was first applied to the prophecies of the Erythraean Sibyl, which were written on leaves and arranged so that the initial letters of the leaves always formed a word.

Probably the most famous acrostic was made on the Greek for Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior:

Iesous Christos, Theou Uios, Soter

ch and th being each one letter in Greek The initials spell ichthus, Greek for fish; hence the frequent use of the fish by early Christians as a symbol for Jesus.

This type of poems were common among the Greeks of the Alexandrine period as well as with the Latin playwrights Ennuis and Plautus, and we may find some reflections of this ancient heretage in work of famous modern authors like Vladimir Nabokov (in its story “The Vane Sisters“), Lewis Carrol (the final chapter if its “Through the Looking-Glass“) or Edgar Allan Poe in the poem entitled simply “An Acrostic”:

An ACROSTIC by Edgar Allan Poe

Elizabeth it is in vain you say
“Love not” — thou sayest it in so sweet a way:
In vain those words from thee or L. E. L.
Zantippe’s talents had enforced so well:
Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,
Breathe it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.
Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
To cure his love — was cured of all beside —
His folly — pride — and passion — for he died.

In this poem (just one of several acrostics Poe wrote for the amusement of female admirers), Zantippe is actually Xanthippe, the wife of the famous Greek philosopher Socrates, that was known for her quick and violent temper.

Double Acrostic

There can be much more complex acrostics involving for example double and triple acrostics, that occupy an important niche in the history of word puzzles, for it is generally recognized that they were the predecessors to the crossword puzzle.

Probably invented in the 1850’s, the double acrostic was a fad in the latter part of the 19th century. Queen Victoria was believed to be very fond of the double acrostic which, by this time, had evolved from a verse-form into a type of puzzle. This acrostic was supposedly written by her royal hand:

A city in Italy A river in Germany A town in the United States A town in North America A town in Holland The Turkish name of Constantinople A town in Bothnia A city in Greece A circle on the globe

NapleS ElbE WashingtoN CincinnatI AmsterdaM StambouL TorneA LepantO EcliptiC

Triple Acrostic

Type of poems in which the first, middle, and last letters of each line spell out the same word or a phrase (in our next example, the name Chantell) in one or a both (vertical) directions. A bit of a challenge to write, but of course it is lots of fun and worth the effort.

CHANTELL by Dave D.

Chantell is full of graCe, a rainbow arC
Her heart radiates tHe essence of birtH
Always looking to cAre, gorgeous ariA
Never has one beeN so helpful and fuN
Tellingly soulful, witTy, and our delighT
Eternally eloquent, Evanescent dovE
Loving, lovely, intelLigent, and surreaL
Listen to her bell toLl, a distant peaL

How to recognize a good acrostic poem? Apart of an imperative of being the great reading experience, good acrostic poems succeed in telling a story that is intriguing and usually a bit humorous at the same time, within the confines of the form.

Weather you are writer or just a fan of poetry, you may find acrostic a great fun to write. It is simple and can be practiced on that train or bus ride to work when we don’t have anything better to do than look out the window. It also reeves up your mind for the day ahead.

You may find more interesting details about this form of poetry here: Acrostic Poems

Haiku

Japan’s most popular unrhymed poetic form, The Haiku is just a tiny poem, “the size of your breath”, that glorifies the importance of the poet’s first impression, just as it was, of subjects taken from daily life, and of local color to create freshness. It traditionally consists of three lines. The first line contains five syllables, the second line contains seven, and the last line five. The traditional subject-matter is a description of a location, natural phenomona, or wildlife.

The ocean waves crash,
As a storm brews in the sky,
Mad mother nature

The Haiku originated in Japan and its name is generally translated as “good words.” One of the first Japanese writers who practiced the Traditional Haiku specific form was Basho, Matsuo. (1644-1694). The name Basho (banana tree) is a sobriquet he adopted around 1681 after moving into a hut with a banana tree alongside. During the years, Basho made many travels through Japan, and one of the most famous went to the north, where he wrote Oku No Hosomichi (1694). On his last trip, he died in Osaka, and his last haiku indicates that he was still thinking of traveling and writing poetry as he lay dying:

Fallen sick on a journey,
In dreams I run wildly
Over a withered moor.

by Matsuo Basho

The Modern Haiku derives from the haikai (a linked-verse poem) which was created by a group of poets as a long series of small stanzas. The first stanza, which was called the hokku (”starting verse”), set the tone for the rest of the poetic chain, and thus it enjoyed a privileged position in haikai poetry. It was not uncommon for a poet to compose a hokku by itself without following up with the rest of the chain.

Largely through the efforts of Masaoka Shiki (the famous Japanese author, poet, literary critic, and journalist), this independence was formally established in the 1890s through the creation of the term haiku. This new form of poetry was to be written, read and understood as an independent poem, complete in itself, rather than part of a longer chain.

Few great examples of modern Haiku by outstanding Japanese haiku masters:

Sick and feverish
Glimpse of cherry blossoms
Still shivering.

by Akutagawa, Ryunosuke. (1892-1927)

From a bathing tub
I throw water into the lake -
slight muddiness appears.

by Kawahigashi, Hekigodo. (1873-1937)

First autumn morning:
the mirror I stare into
shows my father’s face.

by Murakami, Kijo. (1865-1938)

American Haiku is a short form that evolved from the Japanese Haiku form. There are many different types of poems in American Haiku sub-genre, ranging from the simple 5-7-5 style taught in most grade schools, to more complex styles that not only consider every single element to be important, but also demand a certain type of punctuation.

they’ve gone…
where the beach umbrella was
the sand not quite so hot

by Lindsay Dhugal

Faceless, just numbered.
Lone pixel in the bitmap-
I, anonymous.

by Alexey V. Andeyev

Many of the thousands of poets outside Japan studying and writing this brief form in English and other languages are becoming aware that it will be an accepted form of poetry for time to come.

You may find more interesting details about this form of poetry here: Haiku Poems

Limerick

“There are three distinct types of limericks: Limericks to be told when ladies are present; limericks to be told when ladies are absent but clergymen are present–and LIMERICKS”.

Definition of Limerick by Don Marquis

The limerick, has been and probably always will be “an indecent verse-form”. Any nonsense poem that lacks five lines, thirteen metric feet, or the aabba rhyme pattern is simply not a limerick. It might be a sing-song or a la-de-da, but it’s not a limerick.

There ONCE was an OLD man from WHEEL-ing
Who HAD a pe-CUL-i-ar FEEL-ing
Said the SIGN on the DOOR
Please don’t SPIT on the FLOOR —
He JUMPED up and SPAT on the CEIL-ing.

The first, second, and fifth lines are trimeter, while the third and fourth are dimeter. Often the third and fourth lines are printed as a single line with internal rhyme.

The metric feet MUST be anapests ( da da DUM ) although the leading foot of each line may be an iamb ( da DUM) and the last foot of each line may have a trailing unaccented syllable ( da da DUM da). If you can’t sound out the da-da-DUMs, no Limerick involved – Sorry.

A mosquito was heard to complain,
‘A chemist has poisoned my brain!’
The cause of his sorrow
was paradichloro-
triphenyldichloroethane.

The simplicity of the limerick quite possibly accounts for its extreme longevity. Variants of this form dating as far back as the fourteenth century are found in English nursery rhymes and animal-warning poems such as “The lion is wondirliche strong”. Since then, the form has appeared sporadically throughout the history of the English language, from the bellowing songs of half-naked street beggars during the sixteenth century to the drinking songs of inebriated pub-crawlers in the seventeenth century.

The term limerick itself has its apocryphal origins in the refrain “Will you come up to Limerick,” a now-forgotten tavern chorus from the Irish town of the same name.

Despite its popularity in pubs and taverns, formal poets were familiar with the limerick; Shakespeare employed the form in several of his plays, King Lear and Othello. However, one does not need the talent of Shakespeare to compose a limerick, but merely a sense of humor.

The reprinting of Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense in 1863 inadvertently created the English limerick fad. The English humor magazine Punch, inspired by Lear’s book, began to publicize the “new” form within its pages, and thus began the limerick craze. In about 1870, some forty years after the original publication, A Book of Nonsense was re-published in an edition with color illustrations. In all likelihood Edward Lear colored them himself.

The limerick has refused, and still refuses to die, despite its curious role as the vehicle of cultivated, if unrepressed, sexual humor in the English language.

Different Types of Poems – Instead of the conclusions

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“Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution” | Dobzhansky.

Surprisingly, both Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on February 12, 1809. In 2009 we mark the bicentennial, the 200th anniversary of both their births. There are many other things connecting these two influential men, most of all the sense of truth and of championing new possibilities in how we see our world, as well as the fact that deeds of both have changed our world forever.

November 2009 also marks the 150th birthday of Charles Darwin’s epochal evolution text On the The Origin of Species. To commemorate the occasion Danish theater prepare Darwin-Inspired Opera called Tomorrow, in a Year. The piece is set to debut in Copenhagen in November 2009, and takes as its inspiration Darwin’s thoughts on evolution, change, transformation, and mutation.

It brings us to new understanding of intellectual and social roots of Darwin’s main theories, that many scholars now refer to Darwin’s interest in art an literature. As a milestone not only in the history of science but also in cultural history, Darwin certainly developed his theory of evolution by means of natural selection in the context of 19th-century society as well as the science of the time.

Charles Darwin – Reading List

In his childhood Darwin was an avid reader, and this continued throughout his entire life.

His interest in literature may be ascribed to Charles Darwin’s elder brother, Erasmus Alvey (1804—1881). He was interested in literature and art rather than science. Charles wrote that he was “inclined to agree with Francis Galton (a half-cousin of Charles Darwin) in believing that education and environment produce only a small effect on the mind of anyone, and that most of our qualities are innate” (The Life and Letters, London, 1887).

Maybe under his brother influence, Charles attended Revd. Case’s grammar school in Shrewsbury. Ironic as it may seem, Charles Darwin was a lazy young man, and a slow learner in school. His increased interest in natural science was spurred on by hobbies outside his formal education, end his real passions was Hiking, Chammistry and Book Reading.

One book that influenced Darwin a great deal in his youth was titled “Wonders of the World.” It may have been this book that first put the idea into Darwin’s head to explore exotic foreign lands. His reading list in this periods, non surprisingly, also included:

• Shakespeare’s historical plays
• The poems of Byron,
• Scott,
• Thomson, and
• The Odes of Horace.

After his first year at medical school at the University of Edinburgh, during the summer 1825., Darwin spent much of his time hiking around northern Wales and reading Revd. Gilbert White’s book: “The Natural History of Selborne” (published in 1789). This book taught Darwin to appreciate the richness and beauty of birds, insects, and other creatures, so much in fact, that he started his own field notebook on his observations of birds. Most important of all, this book helped young Darwin develop the habit of making very close observations in nature, a habit that would serve him well all his life.

During his last year at Cambridge University, after completing his final exam (he scored 10th place!) Darwin read Sir John Herschel’s “A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy“. The primary influence of this book was that it convinced Darwin that there were no limits to the wonders that scientific investigation could uncover, and this instilled in Darwin a burning zeal for science.

Another book he read (in the Spring 1831) was Alexander von Humboldt’s 7-volume “Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America During the Year 1799-1804“. It was this book that really got Darwin’s imagination spinning, and he was now dreaming about exploring the glorious tropical rain forests of South America (he was unaware of the H.M.S. Beagle voyage at this time).

The Origin of Species|	The Young Charles Darwin|	The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist|	Darwin’s Sacred Cause

Charles Darwin’s Favorite Authors

During the Beagle voyage he always read Milton’s “Paradise Lost” when he had a spare moment. While living in London after the voyage, he became fond of the poetry of William Wordsworth, and Samuel Coleridge.

In his later years Darwin was very fond of novels by Jane Austen, and Elizabeth Gaskell, the poems of Lord Byron, and the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott. Darwin was always quick to point out that he did not enjoy novels with a depressing ending. His wife, Emma, would read novels to him twice a day while he reclined on a sofa, and he took great pleasure in this daily routine.

Charles Darwin – Literary Opus

Charles Darwin is known to the world for one book. “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”, to give it its full, long-winded Victorian title, was published a century-and-a-half ago this year. In truth Darwin was a prolific author. He churned out volume after bestselling volume on earthworms, coral reefs, emotion, orchids, barnacles, insectivorous plants and, of course, human origins.

Darwin’s literary talent was probably best reflected in his voluminous letters which makes him perhaps the most prolific correspondent in the history of science. This body of work has been edited and presented selectively in a variety of sources, most notably the projected-32-volume “The Correspondence of Charles Darwin” (Cambridge Univ., 1985-), and can be viewed at Darwin Online (darwin-online.org.uk). It begins with a 12 year old’s diary entries about his brother’s rude behavior and proceeds chronologically, one chapter per one year’s smattering of abridged correspondence. Included are letters on Darwin’s studies, his family and personal life, and various reflections on subjects as varied as barnacles and poultry.

These letters also tell a gripping tale of high seas adventure and exploration, but its real value is in unveiling and testifying Darwin’s genius methods. Darwin also heavily marked books, and added plenty of personal remarks in the margins. His method of reading was very methodical – he used to take notes on the scientific books he read, and then made abstracts from his notes.

Charles Darwin’s Beagle Diary	Animals Charles Darwin Saw (Explorers Adventures)	Charles and Emma	Selected Letters of Charles Darwin

Art and Literature Inspired by Charles Darwin

Perhaps because he left behind such an extensive chronicle of his own writings, Darwin, the man, has inspired abundant literature aiming to understand the workings of his mind, his personal passions, and his inner demons.

Darwinian theory inspired directly or indirectly literature and theater. for example, “naturalism,” Emile Zola’s novels, and even played out by the novel and utopian writings prior to 1858. creating a public forum in which the new revolutionary theory would be debated.

Darwin’s writing had a significant influence on Victorian intellectuals and 19th and Early 20th Century English Literature as well. The changes can be traced through consideration of the poetry of Tennyson, the autobiography of Edmund Gossee, and the novels of Elizabeth Gaskell and Thomas Hardy.

While there are numerous books about Darwin for children, many revolving around the voyage of the Beagle, The Voyage of the Beetle is one of the most attractive and effective in teaching about natural selection. Concise and wonderfully illustrated and formatted, The Voyage of the Beetle is a wonderful tale about Darwin’s thought process concerning “that mystery of mysteries” – the mutability of species.

Darwin – The Legacy

By the time Darwin was twenty-two years old he was by no means a “finished naturalist” and most of this talent should be related to the selection of a literature peaces he absorbed by that time. It provided him with a general knowledge of a wide variety of scientific fields. Perhaps what was more important, however, is that through its intensive reading, Darwin had developed a burning passion for natural science and an unbounded enthusiasm for exploration.

The foundation was now set for Darwin to become one of the greatest naturalists of the 19th century, as well as the timeless inspiration for many artisans in the following times.

” There is grandeur in this view of life,
with its several powers,
having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one;
and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity,
from so simple a beginning
endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful
have been, and are being, evolved.”

Charles Darwin

…

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Electronic book readers aren’t useful because they replicate books, but because they add value to them.

If you are an avid reader, you may find it much more convenient to download books then trying to get them from the bookstore or library. However, sitting in front of a PC monitor to do your reading is usually frustrating experience. Furthermore, notebook and tablet computers are too big and bulky for this simple task, while the most PDAs have too small of a screen for convenient reading.

What we want is a hand-held, portable device that can read a variety of file formats, especially scanned, non-text PDFs. A large screen, long battery life, and good interface are other attributes of a perfect electronic book reader.

Portable Ebook Readers Technology

With its iPod, Apple has demonstrated that millions of people are willing to carry around digital devices with their favorite content. After music, why not novels and nonfiction?

Many experts are convinced that digital books, after plenty of false starts, are finally ready for takeoff. With latest product releases we have definitely went out the infancy stage as the present electronic book readers are stronger, better and more functional then their predecessors, and finally are offering a viable alternative to traditional books.

The most important step forward is introduction of “digital ink”. This innovative display technology also called “electronic paper” solved some key problems. By using a sophisticated method for arranging tiny black and white capsules into words and images with an electronic charge, this advanced technology makes the text on display looks just as sharp as ink on a printed page. Unlike a laptop screen, these screens are non-reflective: The more light that streams down on them, the better they look thus working fine in direct sunlight. At the same time, new technology also significantly reduced the buttery power consumption.

Amazon’s innovation, and it’s a brilliant one, is to use cellular wireless — specifically, a high-speed technology called EVDO that runs over Sprint Nextel Corporation’s nationwide network. This means that you can log on at will from almost anywhere in the country (and surely very soon from anywhere in the world). There are no access charges for using this network; you pay only for any content you download.

Electronic Book Reader – Pros and Cons

To help you decide whether this gadgets are worth your consideration and your money, let’s look at what you get and what you “loose” by opting for such an electronic reading device.

Main Advantages of Ebook Readers

The key of success: portable ebook readers do much more than simply replicating a traditional book.

• Ebook readers are great devices for sourcing books, the same way you are sourcing music or movies online.
• They let you downloaded books in less than a minute on to the device and take them with you wherever you go.
• With most of the devices, best sellers and new releases go for $9.99, meaning they are often significantly cheaper than even discounted hardcover print versions.
• Thanks to electronic book reader’s generous memory capacity, you may have your entire library of books and a dictionary available at all times, at hand, in your pocket.
• By implementing sophisticated technologies like E Ink and smart design, these portable reading devices closely mimics the size, weight, and feel of a book.
• You may experience new dimension of reading, much like surfing the Internet — moving from content to content as your moods and needs changed.
• They provide an convenient way of reading your favorite RSS feeds, or entire newspapers and popular magazines pages, or even to surf the web by using built-in Web browsers.
• An electronic book reader can also play music and other multimedia files you import from your computer.
• A wireless capability in some of e-book readers lets you access and purchase content remotely, wherever you are.
• Very nice feature of some readers like Amazon Kindle is free access to the online encyclopedia (e.g.Wikipedia.org), meaning that you can get follow-up information, in real time, on any person, place or concept you happen to be reading about.
• One substantial benefit of these reading devices is the ability to change the font size at will, for those who struggle with the font size used in many paper books.

Electronic Book Reader – Cons:

• Ebook readers use various schemes of Digital Rights Management that may restrict your choice to book formats compatible with your chosen device.
• For some users it is still not enjoyable to read from the reading device for any protracted period.
• Missing the plethora of a comfort and enjoyment of an actual book.
• The digital reader’s controls can be clumsy to use.
• Paying hundreds of dollars for a device that will then allow you to buy e-books for an additional cost.
• With real books, you can swap them with your friends or give them to charity shops when you’re finished with them. With electronic reading devices – you can not.

5 Electronic Book Readers that Rules the Market – in Matrix

Here is an overview of the best 2nd generation e-book readers, all based on E Ink technology:

Brandname	HanLin eBook	Sony PRS-700BC	iRex	Amazon’s Kindle 2	Bookeen
Model	V3	PRS 700	Digital Reader 1000s	D00511	Cybook Gen3
Manufacturer	Jinke Electronics	Sony	iRex Technologies	?	Netronix
Picture
Dimensions	184 × 120.5 × 9.9mm (7.24″ × 4.74″ × .39″)	175 × 128 × 10 mm (5.11 × 6.77 × 0.41″)	268 × 217 × 12 mm (10.6″ × 8.5″ × .5″)	203 x 135 x 9mm (8″ x 5.3″ x 0.36″)	188 × 118 × 8.5 mm (7.4″ × 4.7″ × .3″)
Screen Technology	EInk Vizplex	EInk Vizplex	EInk Vizplex	E-Ink® electronic paper display	EInk Vizplex
Primary Display	(90 × 120mm) 6″ 600 × 800 pixels, 4 gray levels, 167 ppi	(90 × 120mm) 6″ 600 × 800 pixels, 8 gray levels, 167 ppi	(163×203mm) 10.2″ 1024×1280 pixels, 16 gray levels, 160 ppi	(90 × 120mm) 6″ 600 × 800 pixels, 16 gray levels, 167 ppi	(90 × 120mm) 6″ 600 × 800 pixels, 4 gray levels, 167 ppi
Secondary Display	n.a.	front light	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Touch Screen	n.a.	yes (finger or stylus)	yes (WaCom Pen, DR1000S & DR1000SW editions)	keyboard	n.a.
Full-screen Refresh Rate	0.9s	?	0.85s		0.9s
Power	Li-ion 950mAh (Nokia Phone battery)	Li-ion	Li-ion 1300mAh	Li-ion	Li-Polymer 1000mAh
Battery Life	9′000 pages	7′500 pages	claimed 24hrs(measured 8 hrs)	with EVDO: “4 days”, without: “up to two week”	8′000 pages
Weight	200g (7.05oz)	283g (10oz)	570g (20.1oz)	289g (10.2oz)	174g (6.13oz)
OS	Linux	Linux 2.6.23	Linux 2.6.24	?	Linux
Boot Time	16s	n.a.	50s		20s
SDK	yes	yes	yes		?
CPU	Samsung Arm 9 200MHz	Freescale i.MX31L (ARM1136JF-S core, 532MHz)	Freescale i.MX31L 400MHz?	?	Samsung S3C2410 (ARM920T 200MHz)
Memory	512MB, Internal 2M NOR Flash, 512MB SD Card included	128MB RAM, 512MB(NAND) Flash (~384MB user accessible)	128MB Ram + 1GB SD	2GB Flash (1.4GB user accessible)	16MB Ram, 8MB Rom + 512MB Flash
Expansion Slots	SD/MMC	MMC/SD/SDHC, Memory Stick Pro Duo	SD/SDHC	NONE	SD
Other Interfaces	USB 1.1, headphone	USB 2.0, headphone	USB 2.0 (charging), (1000SW only) WiFi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth	USB 2.0 (charging), headphone, EVDO/CDMA	USB 2.0 (charging), 2.5mm stereo
Supported Formats	PDF, TXT, RTF, EPUB, LIT, PPT, WOLF, DOC, CHM, FB2, PRC/MOBI, HTML, DJVU, MP3, TIFF, JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, RAR, ZIP	BBeB (LRF/LRX), PDF, EPUB, TXT, RTF, JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, MP3, AAC	PDF, HTML, TXT, JPG, BMP, PNG, PRC/MOBI	Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.	OEB-XHTML, TXT, HTML, PDF (non DRM), PRC/MOBI, JPG, GIF, PNG, MP3
Supported DRM Formats	Wolf, MobiPocket	Marlin DRM (BBeB), Adobe ADEPT (EPUB/PDF)	MobiPocket	AZW (Kindle only, USA only)	MobiPocket
Search functionality / Dictionary lookup	no	search using touchscreen	using touchscreen	using keyboard	Dictionary lookup (using menus)
Note taking / highlighting / underlining	no	using touchscreen	using touchscreen	using keyboard	bookmarks menu
Software	WOLF Maker, WOLF Printer	eBook Library, Adobe Digital Editions	Paperless iRex Printer & Mobipocket Java Reader		Bookeen® Multi-format eBook reader
Services	iStation, ReadMan	Sony CONNECT	iRex Technologies Delivery Service (iDS)	Amazon Kindle Whispernet. E-mail conversion of DOC, HTML, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and PDF
Content Partners	MobiPocket	Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins	De Tijd, IFRA, Les Echos, NRC Handelsblad, MobiPocket	Amazon	MobiPocket, Ubibooks, Cluster21
Price	US$299	US$399	US$649	US$359	US$350
Release Date	Q3 2007	14 October 2008	mid-October 2008	Ordering began 02/09/08	Ordering began 28 Oct, 2007
Misc Info	Company has been selling e-book devices since 2000 (V2 and V8 not shown). V9 will have 9.7″ screen. Sold under other names worldwide: lBook V3, DigiBook Reader V3, Apolo-Hanlin V3, Walkbook, Papyre 6.1, BEBOOK, Astak EZ Reader.	Company has been selling e-book devices since 2003 (PRS-500 not shown). Originally only available in the US, now in Canada and the UK (PRS-505 only).	Company was established in 2001 as a Royal Philips Electronics spin-off. Base DR1000 without touchscreen, DR1000S adds touchscreen. DR1000WS adds WiFi and Bluetooth. Annotations only exportable to Windows (and perhaps only for PDFs).	Amazon pays for the wireless connectivity for Kindle so there are no monthly wireless bills, data plans, or service commitments for customers. Currently USA only. Annotations stored in plain text files.	Sold directly by Bookeen, by BooksOnBoard.com in the US & Canada, and via wholesalers. 3rd generation Cybook (1st with E Ink). Same hardware (EB-600) as STAReBOOK STK-101

Which Portable Ebook Reader is Best for Me?

All of these metrics, references and decisions… Let’s try to put it in plain English

If you read a lot of current books the ebook pricing is the best through Amazon (and you can buy content directly through the device). This is the biggest single advantage of Kindle as its bookstore is without doubt the most comprehensive of any.

The Cybook may be a better choice than the Kindle when it cams to a font style and size customization. The Kindle has one font and 6 font sizes. The Cybook has more sizes, and a larger maximum size. With Cybook, your can read in the font of your choice.

On the other side, Kindle is the only electronic book reader with a keyboard. It provides searching and annotation features that the Cybook and other readers doesn’t have. The Sony PRS-700 uses an on screen virtual keyboard where you have to click one letter at a time.

Another issue with short inches: Some PDF computer-books cannot open, crash or have too small print to read on readers with 6 inch screen like Sony, Hanlin and Cybook. (but a majority are readable)

If you prefer writing notes and annotations in your own hand writing, you should consider moving up to the iRex device, which has a digitizer pad that allows you this functionality.

Also, while the Sony PRS-700 has a highlight and note function, It has been reported that the Sony suffers dramatic slowdowns once you add more than a few annotations to a book.

Another advantage of Kindle 2 is in-line look-up to one dictionary (Oxford American dictionary is included), which is fast enough to be used routinely. It’s easy going from one word on the page to another and seeing the definition updated at the bottom of the page as you do so.

On Kindle’s downsides – It does not support PDF at all! It has to be converted to Mobi format (which the Kindle does support) – a process which may or may not work well.

The Sony does not have a backlight. An eInk screen is opaque, and hence cannot be backlit. What it does have is “side lighting” and a light diffuser over the screen which, inevitably, degrades the image quality somewhat, as does the touchscreen too.

Finally, you should be well aware of the warranty and accessibility issues before your opting. If you, for instance, buy a Sony in Australia, you will effectively be buying it with no warranty! In this case you should go for Kindle, Hanlin or CyBook.

Where Can I Buy It?

The Prospect of The EBook Readers Market

Digital book market is ignited. The critical mass of content is accomplished and you’ve got attractive hardware. Google is scanning millions of books from five of the world’s largest libraries and is about to make the contents searchable online. Amazon.com is moving aggressively into digital books, too. It sells digital versions of most of its titles, available for download instantly. With its Kindle 2.0 wireless reading device, you are a seconds away of your preferable reading wherever in the world you are.

After a few weeks of use, you may find yourself using the electronic book reader in ways you didn’t anticipate. Instead of reading a book all the way through, you are jumping around the content on the device, reading a newspaper on the train, a book during lunch, a Word file at work, a reference title when a question came up — whatever best fit the moment.

Finally, the electronic book readers pass the most crucial test for any gadget: The more you use it, the more useful you find it.

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They are known for their poetry based on love. Their famous love poems are masterpieces and treasured by posterity. We demystifies the backdrop of some of their most referenced works, by telling the story that led to their creation.

Following the sense of artistic reality, let’s have a glance at the heart and the mindset of the famous poets, at the period of creation of some of the most romantic lyrics of all time. Just to find out that the supporting stories are equally fascinating and intriguing as the poems inspired by them.

Three the Most Famous Love Poems – Background Stories

3. | She Walks In Beauty (1814) by Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

The Famous Love Poems: Story Behind the Lyrics:

Written just several months before he met and married his first wife, Anna Milbanke, and published in Hebrew Melodies in 1815, the poem of praise “She Walks in Beauty” was inspired by the poet’s first sight of his young cousin by marriage, Anne Wilmot, who was wearing a black spangled mourning dress. Lord Byron was struck by his cousin’s dark hair and fair face, the mingling of various lights and shades.

According to his friend, James W. Webster, “When we returned to his rooms in Albany (after the party), he said little, but desired Fletcher to give him a tumbler of brandy, which he drank at once to Mrs. Wilmot’s health, then retired to rest, and was, I heard afterwards, in a sad state all night. The next day he wrote those charming lines upon her—She walks in Beauty like the Night…”

Of course it’s obvious that this poem is somewhat of a love poem, expressing how beautiful this woman is that Lord Byron is looking at. Whether it is a true declaration of love or a statement of admiration (of his cousin’s beauty) is left to the reader.

The real power of these, among the most memorable and most quoted lines in romantic poetry, lies in its powerful description not only of a woman’s physical beauty, but also of her interior strengths. The poet is obviously after something much larger than mere physical description.

About the Poet:

The most notorious Romantic poet and satirist whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe, Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) was famous in his lifetime for his love affairs with women and Mediterranean boys as for his poetry.

Apart of this poem, amongst Byron’s best-known works are When We Two Parted, and So, we’ll go no more a roving, in addition to the narrative poems Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Don Juan. He is regarded as one of the greatest European poets and remains widely read and influential, both in the English-speaking world and beyond.

Byron served as a regional leader of Italy’s revolutionary organization, the Carbonari, in its struggle against Austria. He later traveled to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died from a fever in Messolonghi in Greece.

Byron: Life and Legend

Selected Poetry of Lord Byron

Audio CD: Poems By Lord Byron

Lord Byron: The Major Works

2. | Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day (around 1599) by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft’ is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s
changing course untrimm’d:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou
wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

The Famous Love Poems: Story Behind the Lyrics:

This is the eighteenth of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. Its also probably the most famous love poem in the world, and certainly one of the best-known sonnets contained in the English literary canon. One of the things that makes it so popular are the conspiracy theories if someone can call them that. Allot of people believe that this poem is written to a man – not a woman!?

There are many theories about the identity of the 1609 Quarto’s enigmatic dedicatee, Mr. W.H. Some scholars have pointed out that the order in which the sonnets are placed may have been the decision of publishers and not of Shakespeare. This introduces the possibility that Sonnet 18 was originally intended for a woman.

Actually, the first 126 sonnets are written to a youth, a boy, probably about 19, and perhaps specifically, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. His initials, W.H., appear in Thorpe’s dedication, and the first volume of Shakespeare’s plays, published by two of his fellow actors, Herminge and Condell, after Shakespeare’s death, was dedicated to William Herbert.

Whatever the truth is, Shakespeare used a conventional form of poetry to praise poetry and his beloved. A poem can stir all of the senses, and the subject matter of a poem can range from being funny to being sad. He boasted that both would be preserved nearly eternally. Five hundred years later, no one refutes his boast.

About the Poet:

English poet, dramatist, and actor William Shakespeare (1564–1616) is considered by many to be the greatest playwright of all time, although many of the facts of his life remain mysterious.

Shakespeare’s poetry was published before his plays, with two poems appearing in 1593 and 1594, dedicated to his patron Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. Most of Shakespeare’s sonnets were probably written at this time as well.

His early plays were mainly comedies and histories. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Over the centuries there has been much speculation surrounding various aspects of Shakespeare’s life including his religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sources for collaborations, authorship of and chronology of the plays and sonnets. Many of the dates of play performances, when they were written, adapted or revised and printed are imprecise.

Shakespeare spent the last five years of his life in Stratford, by now a wealthy man. He died on 23 April 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

William Shakespeare Complete Works

Biography – William Shakespeare (DVD)

BBC Shakespeare Histories (DVD Giftbox)

The Complete Dramatic Works (DVD)

1. | To… (Kern) (1825) by Alexander Pushkin

I still recall the wondrous moment
When you appeared before my eyes,
Just like a fleeting apparition,
Just like pure beauty’s distillation.

When I languished
in the throes of hopeless grief
Amid the troubles of life’s vanity,
Your sweet voice lingered on in me,
Your dear face came to me in dreams.

Years passed. The raging, gusty storms
Dispersed my former reveries,
And I forgot your tender voice,
Your features so divine.

In exile, in confinement’s gloom,
My uneventful days wore on,
Bereft of awe and inspiration
Bereft of tears, of life, of love.

My soul awakened once again:
And once again you came to me,
Just like a fleeting apparition
Just like pure beauty’s distillation.

My heart again resounds in rapture,
Within it once again arise
Feelings of awe and inspiration,
Of life itself, of tears, and love.

The Famous Love Poems: Story Behind the Lyrics:

Ana Petrovna Kern’s immortality was ensured when, on 19 July 1825, Pushkin handed her a copy of his famous lyrics.

20 year old Pushkin first met Anna, a Russian socialite and memoirist, in Olenin’s (president of the art academy) residence. Then they met again 6 years later during her stay with relatives in Trigorskoe, a manor adjacent to Mikhailovskoe, where the great poet was living in exile.

“Lately, our land has been visited by a beauty, who sings the Venetian Night heavenly, in the manner of the gondolier’s cantillation”, Pushkin wrote to his friend Pyotr Pletnev.

The poem starts with the lines “Ya pomnyu chudnoe mgnovenie…”, and Nabokov famously ridiculed attempts at the English translation of these magic lines. Aleksandr Blok marvellously metamorphosed Pushkin’s poem into his own “O podvigakh, o doblestyakh, o slave…”, while Mikhail Glinka put the poem to music and dedicated it to Kern’s daughter Catherine.

Although Pushkin’s biographers tend to idealise their relationship, it is known that he referred to her later as the “whore of Babylon” and wrote to one of his friends that “with God’s help I screwed her the other day”.

In 1826, Kern divorced her aged husband. Ten years later, she married her 16-year-old cousin, Alexander Markov-Vinogradsky. Her last years were spent in such an abject penury that she was constrained to sell out Pushkin’s letters to her.

She died in Moscow and, according to an urban legend, her funeral train passed Pushkin Square just in time when the famous statue of Pushkin was being erected there. This was their last meeting, so to speak.

About the Poet:

Known as Russia’s greatest poet, and the father of the Russian Golden Age of Literature, during a time when most great literature was being written in French and English, Alexander Pushkin (Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin) – (1799-1837) is revolutionized Russian literature with narrative poems, love poems, political poems, short stories, novels, plays, histories, and fairy tales.

Born in Moscow, Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen. Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals; in the early 1820s he clashed with the government, which sent him into exile in southern Russia. While under the strict surveillance of government censors and unable to travel or publish at will, he wrote his most famous play, the drama Boris Godunov, but could not publish it until years later. His novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, was published serially from 1825 to 1832.

Pushkin and his wife Natalya Goncharova, whom he married in 1831, later became regulars of court society. In 1837, while falling into greater and greater debt amidst rumors that his wife had started conducting a scandalous affair, Pushkin challenged her alleged lover, Georges d’Anthès, to a duel. Pushkin was mortally wounded and died two days later.

It seems as though everyone in Russia has read Pushkin and is ready to quote him; there are Pushkin streets, squares and parks in almost every major city. There are museums and monuments, and even an entire city named after him. Every type of Russian, regardless of age or political affiliation, loves Pushkin.

In America, the African American Museum in Cleveland has a permanent Pushkin exhibition, and magazines from Ebony to Black Scholar often run articles on his life and works.

However, his writing style has distinctive rhythmic patterns that are nearly impossible to translate, so non-Russian speakers have not always been able to appreciate the true power and beauty of his work.

Alexander Pushkin: Complete Prose Fiction

Russian Writers – Alexander Pushkin (DVD)

Collected Narrative and Lyrical Poetry

After Pushkin: Contemporary Poets Interpretations

Putting it all Together

There is a universal belief that famous love poems express the innermost feelings and the state of the poets heart at the moment of creation.

Even if the context was imaginative, the thought and the content of the love poems, to be truthful emotional expressions, must bare a personal touch, and should be a discrete testament of poets bounds to a particular person who was the initial addressee for its creative inspiration.

Sometimes, the insight in the creative process itself may give an additional comfort to the universal readers necessity, to peek beyond the poets imagination.

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The world is home to many famous authors. The trouble is: How to set the selection criteria for such an ineffable and unquantifiable thing as the contemporary literature itself ?

Furthermore, the various sources for reliable all-time-best-most-top and similar lists (such as Amazon, Publishers Weekly, BookSense, Nielsen BookScan, and various newspapers) tends to list references by books rather than authors, and all have different methods for tabulating their lists.

So before we took on this challenging and seemingly impossible task, we had to do some homework first.

Selection Sources and Criteria

Let’s pretend we are browsing in a bookstore, looking for our next reading. Our choice is not attached to any particular novel. We would rather like to refer to the list of contemporary authors for whom we could recommend just about any book they’ve written. These are the popular fiction writers whose hardcovers people buy the first week they come out. So let it be our first selection criteria.

• To satisfy this criteria, we should first look at Best-Selling Authors Statistics, and the best place to go is obviously The great Amazon.com for online data.
• While still in the bookstore, we take opportunity to collect some “of-line” statistics on The Top Best-Selling Authors of All Time, focusing in particular on contemporary writers. (Did you know that, as of today, more than 2 billion copies of Agatha Christie novels were sold around the globe?)
• Let’s go now to the public library across the street. We would like to get insight in the (historical) Official Statistics on the Most Borrowed Authors from public libraries before getting any pick.
• Escalating trend in downloading online free books (literary millions per month), which may be considered as another form of “book borrowing”, make us stop by Project Gutenberg – an on line public library and the largest single collection of free electronic books, to collect their Online Statistics on Popular Authors by the number of Free Book Downloads.
• Public libraries are also great places for undertaking the Encyclopedias and Popular Magazines Research, to level up a scholar profoundness and authority of our list. To do that, we have to analyze referring data from reputable sources such as Wikipedia.org, and The New Your Times respectively.
• Back to home, our Mac/Pc and broadband Internet connection. We are looking for the General Public Opinion on the Most Famous Contemporary Authors. There are several very applicable “voted by regular people” lists on Internet that we may use (such as those at BestAndWorst.com, Best100Authors.com or FantasticFiction.co.uk.
• Good literary criticism can be one of the hardest kinds of information to find on the Internet in spite the fact that noted authors often have a body of criticism attached to their work. It is always interesting to confront a public opinion with that of The Reputable Literary Critics such as those from the Time Magazine or The leading Criticism Blog – BlogCritics.org

Finally and with special caution, we need to take care of a common conception of English-speaking authors being favored in similar best-of-the-best selections over the International writers.

For that reason we called for help several very respectable lists of Most Famous International Authors (including English-speaking contemporary authors as well), from the sources such are contemporarylit.about.com, npr.org, abebooks.com or scaruffi.com.

The Ultimate List of Best-Loved Contemporary Authors – Revealed

So – here, in all its glory, is the ultimate Top of the Top 10 list, derived from the various selections and evaluations by the literature industry leaders, overall market performance, critics and ordinary people. Read it and— well, just read it

10. | Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-)

Colombian-born author and journalist, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and a pioneer of the Latin American “Boom.” Affectionately known as “Gabo” to millions of readers, he first won international fame with his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude, a defining classic of twentieth century literature. Love in the Time of Cholera is his second greatest novel by which the film adaptation was released in 2007.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel Garcia Marquez – The Movie

Love In The Time Of Cholera

9. | Albert Camus (1913-1960)

Algeria-born French author, philosopher, and journalist was the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature (after Rudyard Kipling) when he became the first Africa-born writer to receive the award, in 1957. Novelist, essayist, and playwright, best known for such novels as L’Étranger (1942; The Stranger), La Peste (1947; The plague), and La Chute (1956; The Fall) and for his work in leftist causes.

The Stranger

The Plague

The Fall

8. | Toni Morrison (1931-)

Nobel Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters; among the best known are her novels The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Toni Morrison on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

4-book Set; Sula; Song of Solomon; Beloved; the Blue Eye

The Collected Novels of Toni Morrison

7. | Haruki Murakami (1949-)

Japanese writer and translator from Kobe. He studied Greek drama before managing a jazz bar in Tokyo from 1974 to 1981. His third novel, A Wild Sheep Chase, earned the Noma Literary Award for New Writers and ended his career at the jazz bar. His next novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, won the prestigious Tanizaki Prize. In 1996, Murakami received the Yomiuri Literary Award for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. He is also known as a skillful translator of Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Carver, John Irving, Paul Theroux, and other American contemporary authors.

A Wild Sheep Chase

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

6. | Salman Rushdie (1947-)

British Indian novelist and essayist who was condemned to death by leading Iranian Muslim clerics in 1989 for allegedly having blasphemed Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses. He first achieved fame with his second novel, Midnight’s Children (1981), which won the Booker Prize in 1981. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor for “services to literature” in June 2007, he also holds the highest rank — Commandeur — in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. His latest novel is The Enchantress of Florence, published in June 2008. In July 2008 Midnight’s Children won a public vote to be named the Best of the Booker, the best novel to win the Booker Prize in the award’s 40-year history.

The Satanic Verses

Midnight’s Children

The Enchantress of Florence

5. | Philip Roth (1933-)

Proclaimed as America’s greatest living novelist and literature’s reigning heavyweight champion (Time Magazine), Philip Roth gained early literary fame with the 1959 collection Goodbye, Columbus (winner of 1960’s National Book Award), cemented it with his 1969 bestseller Portnoy’s Complaint. He has continued to write critically acclaimed works, many of which feature his fictional alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman. The Zuckerman novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral (1997).

Goodbye, Columbus & Five Short Stories

Portnoy’s Complaint

Conversations With Philip Roth

4. | J. K. Rowling (1965-)

Ranked #9 in the 2008 Forbes The Celebrity 100 list, Joanne “Jo” Rowling (pen name J. K. Rowling) is a British author, best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the idea for which was conceived whilst on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and sold more than 400 million copies. She has also written two small volumes which appear as the titles of Harry’s school books within the novels – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages, which were published in 2001 in aid of Comic Relief. Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom.

Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-6)

J.K. Rowling (Blue Banner Biographies)

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Collector’s Edition

3. | J.D. Salinger (1919-)

One of the world’s most famous recluses (He has not published an original work since 1965 and has not been interviewed since 1980), an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Ryede, the 20th-century classic of disaffected youth. He followed Catcher with a short story collection: Nine Stories (1953), a collection of two novellas : Franny and Zooey (1961), and another collection of novellas: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled “Hapworth 16, 1924,” appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965. One of Salinger’s lines, explaining his desire for privacy, is “It’s all in the book”.

The Catcher in the Ryede

J.D. Salinger (Library of Author Biographies)

A Reader’s Guide to J. D. Salinger

2. | Stephen King (1947-)

American novelist and short-story writer, whose enormously popular books revived the interest in horror fiction from the 1970s. King’s place in the modern horror fiction can be compared to that of J.R.R. Tolkien’s who created the modern genre of fantasy.

His first published novel, Carrie (filmed 1976), about a tormented teenage girl gifted with telekinetic powers, appeared in 1974 and was an immediate popular success. Carrie was the first of many novels in which King blended horror, the macabre, fantasy, and science fiction. Among such works were Salem’s Lot (1975), The Shining (1977; filmed 1980), The Stand (1978), The Dead Zone (1979; filmed 1983), Firestarter (1980; filmed 1984), Cujo (1981), Christine (1983; filmed 1983), It (1986), Misery (1987; filmed 1990), The Tommyknockers (1987), and The Dark Half (1989).

King also wrote the short stories collected in Night Shift (1978), as well as several novellas and motion-picture screenplays. Some of his novels were successfully adapted for the screen by such directors as Brian De Palma, Stanley Kubrick, and Rob Reiner.

King’s books had sold more than 350 million copies worldwide, and his name had become synonymous with the genre of horror fiction.

The Stephen King Collection (Audio CDs)

Stephen King: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)

The Films of Stephen King: From Carrie to Secret Window

Stephen King (Bloom’s Modern Critical Views)

1. | George Orwell (1903 – 1950)

British journalist and author, who wrote two of the most famous novels of the 20th century ‘Animal Farm‘ and ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)‘.

He published his first book, ‘Down and Out in Paris and London‘, in 1933 – he took the name George Orwell, shortly before its publication. This was followed by his first novel ‘Burmese Days‘ in 1934.

In 1936 he was commissioned to write an account of poverty among unemployed miners in northern England, which resulted in ‘The Road To Wigan Pier‘ (1937). Late in 1936, Orwell travelled to Spain to fight for the Republicans against Franco’s Nationalists.

Between 1941 and 1943, Orwell worked on propaganda for the BBC. In 1943, he became literary editor of the Tribune, a weekly left-wing magazine. By now he was a prolific journalist, writing articles, reviews and books.

In 1945, Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm‘ was published. A political fable set in a farmyard but based on Stalin’s betrayal of the Russian Revolution, it made Orwell’s name and ensured he was financially comfortable for the first time in his life. ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)‘ was published four years later. Set in an imaginary totalitarian future, the book made a deep impression, with its title and many phrases – such as ‘Big Brother is watching you’, ‘newspeak’ and ‘doublethink’ – entering popular use. However, Orwell’s health was deteriorating and he died of tuberculosis on 21 January 1950.

The Complete Novels of George Orwell

The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell (1,2,3&4 (Boxed Set))

The Social and Political Thought of George Orwell

George Orwell: A Literary Life (Literary Lives)

Top 5 Contemporary Classics List

By definition, Contemporary Authors are those which novels are written and published during or after the World War II. The fact is – most of the best-selling and most loved contemporary authors were born in 19th century. These authors define a specific group that we call Contemporary Classics.

In this respect we are going to make a separate listing for this venerable elite, following the same set of selection criteria that we used to compose the previous list.

• 5. | Vladimir Nabokov (1899 – 1977)
• 4. | C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963)
• 3. | J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973)
• 2. | Agatha Christie (1890-1976)
• 1. | Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

The Most Famous Contemporary Authors List – Bottom Line

We know the list may spark lots of discussions, but we hope it also sends you back to the authors and books you read with pleasure years ago as well as to books that you may not have heard of. Great authors, great reads, great at their craft. Let’s agree on this before launching any arguments, personal views, questions or suggestions, that are expected and, off course, are welcomed.

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If you are not a graphic designer or if you are simply to lazy to do it for yourself, you can still make your Twitter presence magnificent by using a custom Twitter backgrounds and themes that you may find on Internet.

Interestingly enough, there are just a few sites offering free Twitter graphics and themes (backgrounds, avatars, logos, icons, follow-me buttons) and original Twitter wallpapers.

That’s why we decided to do some aggregation work in effort to present, in one place, the best free Twitter backgrounds and themes resources available online.

10 Most Useful Twitter Themes & Backgrounds Resources

1. Twitter Gallery
   

   Great collection of free twitter themes. Nice feature is click-of-a-button installation. You can also submit your own Twitter pics and ‘follow me’ buttons.

2. Twitter Image
   

   Wonderful gallery of ready-to-use, free Twitter Background images, including complete step-by-step instructions on adding the background image to your Twitter profile.

3. Tweet Style
   

   Everything you need to have a more professional look for your Twitter presence. Besides great free background images, here you will find a lot of useful tips, tutorials and latest Twitter updates formatted as a short blog posts.

   
   

4. Web Distortion
   

   Collection of great Twitter themes ready for download. Really cool feature is the full background styles specification that you may copy – paste to your Twitter design settings page.

5. Twitter Icons And Buttons
   

   Awesome compilations of more then a hundred remarkably beautiful Twitter icons and buttons. Using some of these will definitely raise your reputation.

6. Twitter Backs
   

   Another great repository of Twitter free background images. Great thing is that files are in PSD file format ready for further customization. Another great option is that you may submit your own design and be credited for it.

7. Inspire Me
   

   Blog page of the great artist involved in making some of the most original Twitter themes. Be sure to visit a home page with even more original designs. Try to make direct contact and apply for a custom design.

8. The Closet Entrepreneur
   

   “Who would’ve thought that the presentation app used to lull audiences to sleep could also be used to create an appealing Twitter background?” Learn how to create a Twitter background using PowerPoint

9. Twitter Treats
   

   This designer offers her free services to design Twitter background images for you. There are also few original wallpapers to download.

10. The 100 World’s Greatest Twitter Tips & Twitter Secrets
    

    Once fashioned by your personal extravaganza, it is time to make your Twitter useful tool as it was conceived in the first place. Instead of being a Twitter freak, become a Twitter guru with this magnificent collection of tips and tricks for your everyday use.

How to Get Images in Twitter?

Catchy graphics are always better than plain text and they are easier to spot. If you are keen to increase Twitter followers, this compilation of useful resources will hopefully help you find some appropriate graphics that you can apply on your site.

Finally, you are welcome to share any new interesting Twitter backgrounds & themes resource you’ve stumbled upon, not being listed here.

Great Twitter Salute!
@makeliterature

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You have certainly being astonished by the creativity of some Twitter users and their Twitter page designs. It must have inspired you to make some positive changes on your twitter home page as well.

That’s why we decided to compile a kind of a Twitter Scrapbook of the most originally designed Twitter pages out-there.

10 Most Original Twitter Pics & Pages

This is an unsorted list presenting the overview of design trends and the most original pages you may find on Twitter today:

1. @zaythar
   

2. @pinksage
   

3. @Weezul
   




4. @expathos
   

5. @MatchesMalone
   

6. @stressless
   

7. @RottNKorpse
   

8. @fotograaf
   

9. @problogger
   

10. @MakeLiterature
    

Are These the Best Twitter to Follow ?

Twitter is all about micro-format, thus to distinguish yourself from the crowd, good graphics & design should make your personal touch instantly visible for the potential followers. It is usually great indicator of the quality of one’s Twitter profile and its public Twitter image as well.

If you have stumbled upon some great Twitter designs and original Twitter profile pages not listed here, please share with us.
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A  book review is a critical evaluation of the book that provides a thoughtful and in-depth analysis, and evaluation of the main idea, and purpose of the book. In a word, it presents the assessment of the quality, meaning, and significance of the book.

We’ve all heard the saying, “So many books – So little time”. In the modern society, book reviews play a vital role in helping us decide which books are worth our investment in time and money. People don’t want to waste either, reading books they won’t enjoy, so they rely on book reviews to help them go for a particular reading.

The key to writing good literature review lies in good planing. What points to include and what to omit. Spend a necessary time thinking before you even set pen to paper. To assist you in this process here is a book review template with few useful tips on how to make it right.

Steps for Writing a Good Book Review

Top Tip 1: Don’t read the book!
At least, not yet. Instead, start by looking at it.  Is it a richly manufactured item aimed at collectors? What does the cover illustration indicate the book will be about? What sort of blurbs are included? How is it categorized by the publisher? All of these will give you a clues to the nature of the book you’ll be reading and will  indicate the book’s target audience.

Top Tip 2: Read the book!
It may sounds silly, especialy in respect to the first tip, but you have to pay due care and attention to the author’s work and only then can you be confident of critiquing it.

• Introduce the subject, scope, and type of book
  Identify the book by author, title, and sometimes publishing information. Specify the genre of book and what categories does this book fall into? Help your readers to review with perspective.
  
• Put the book in context
  Sometimes you will need to include background to enable reader(s) to place the book into a specific context. Is it the first of its kind or an imitation? The author’s first book or fifteenth? Spend some time relating this book to others in its category to further explain the book and your judgment of it.
• Briefly summarize the content
  Once you’ve put some thought into the reviewer mind set, writing the review is the easy part. Briefly review the story line for readers, being careful not to give away anything that would lessen the suspense for readers. One tactic is to either summarize the key concepts or the key characters.
  
• Provide your reactions to the book
  How did the book affect you?  What caught your attention, and when were you bored? When was the book suspenseful? Which characters did you like, and why?  Here you must be cotious not to fall into a chatty style that is more about your own experiences while reading the bok than an analysis of what the author has produced.
  
• Summarize your ideas
  Close with a direct comment on the book, and tie together issues raised in the review. Let the readers know what the author was trying to get across and if he actually succeeded.
  
• Pass judgment
  If you liked or disliked the book, this is the time for you to say so. Try to present a balanced argument about the value of the book for its audience.

If you choose to read other critics who have written about the book, do so only after you have read the book and formed your own opinion to avoid being unduly influenced by others.

Negative Book Reviews

Why Books Get Negative Reviews? Book reviewers love books. They want to enjoy and recommend good readings. When a negative review is given, it is usually because the author failed to do the work necessary to receive a positive review. If you have to write a negative review about some fiction book, here are the major points that may envoke your critics wrath.

• Poorly composed basic Fiction Elements – weak story line, poor character developments, choppy writing.
• Poor editing and proofreading – apart of all issues related to the luck of professionalism, these directly distract the reader from following the plot and should be criticized in your review accordingly.
• Poor research – If a reviewer is an expert in the subject matter, he is going to notice mistakes the author made or facts he left out.
• Miss-targeting the audience – Children’s books written in confusing style or treating inappropriate subjects and topics are good example.

Why you should go for writing a negative review? Well, evene a negative review is better than no book review. In the long run, you may help some creative people out-there to become a better writers and hopefully sell more books

Book Reviews on the Run

How to write a book review is not just another of hot literature questions.

You are a bibliophile, a bookworm or a lover of the printed word, you have just read a book and are offering your opinion. As people see and read your review, they will most probably be enticed to read the book (if it’s a good review) and the message of the book is spread further and wider.

So the next time you discover one of those real life-changing books, why don’t you take a bit of time to do a review on it? It might just be a blessing to someone who really needs it.

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It’s not that those who have the ability to write find it a breeze all the time – there are times when they feel frustrated and fed-up because the words don’t flow as freely as they ought to and/or because they have too much work and too little time to finish it in.

I wouldn’t call this situation the clichéd “writer’s block” because it’s a combination of factors where you know what to write, you even know how to write it, but compelling deadlines make it impossible to devote the attention to detail that you know is required.

If you’ve ever been in such a situation, or if you draw a blank when you reach for words, here’s what you need to do:

• Don’t take shortcuts:
  It’s tempting to finish in a nutshell and expect the reader to be satisfied with what you’ve provided, but when you’re known as a quality writer, when you have standards to uphold, it’s not wise to take shortcuts.

  If you find yourself running short of time once too often, it’s time to take stock of your time-management skills rather than compromise on the quality of your writing. Wake up earlier than usual or go to bed a couple of hours later, spend less time on the phone or doing things that don’t contribute to your work, and put work first on your priority list.

• Read as much as you can:
  One way to improve both your writing skills and your style is to read as much as you can. Don’t stick to just the genre you like; instead, read as many styles as you can so that you find yourself improving and adding to your repertoire as time goes by.
• Adopt styles that you admire:
  I’m not even suggesting that you plagiarize, so if you thought I was, get the idea out of your mind. All I’m saying is that if you like a particular style of writing, try and write in a similar fashion once in a while to see if it suits you. If it does, then it’s well and good; if not, you could always try a new one.
• Don’t try too hard:
  The words have to flow from the heart or it’s just not happening the right way. I don’t have to read my work once I’m done to know that I’ve written rubbish – I often know as I’m writing it. And when I find myself crossing a certain imaginary quality line, I know it’s time to abort the process and start all over again.
• Take pride in your work:
  When you’re really struggling with both the quality of your work and time factors, take a break and remind yourself of how good a writer you really are. Go over your work, especially the articles or books that you and others consider your best. This will give you the much-needed boost of confidence you need to get back into the flow again.

Finaly, you will need to experiment and find the approach that best helps you to overcome your inspiration problem. Keeping the above mentioned points in mind will certainly help. Let me know what you think.

By-line:

This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of online universities. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com
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*If you would like to consider writing a guest post for this blog, please contact us with your proposal by e-mail.

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