Random Links and Observations

Since I am literally finishing the manuscript of my book today, I do not have the time (or the available brain cells) to put together a post on a single topic.  But as I have been taking short sanity breaks and perusing my Google Reader, I thought I would at least share with all of you some of the things I have found to be both interesting and useful.

• The Daily Beast has this great Holiday Book Gift Guide.  I love how each book has a heading on who it is geared toward.  Such as No. 11 "For the Friend Who Still Wears Fedoras."  Great list for both gift ideas and for ideas on what you should add to your own to-read lists.
• The Book Spy is watching what you are reading on the subway and blogging about it online.  For the record, if you ever see me in an airport, on the beach, on a train or bus, and you are reading, I am totally spying on you too.  I just don't blog about that shady part of my work.  Seriously though, spying on public readers is a great way to find out what books people are actually reading, as opposed to the best seller list which only lists what they are buying.
• I really liked this list of "Books to Rekindle Your Sense of Wonder" from NPR's 3 Books series.
• The New York Times has released their 10 best books for the year.  And yes, they still love Freedom.
• The UK and Ireland are proposing a "World Book Night" in March 2011.  Click through to read about the project and to see a list of the books people will be reading.
• The Grammy nominees for best audiobooks were just announced.
• This week's update to the Best Books of the Year aggregated list on Largehearted Boy.

And finally, one of my favorite authors of all time is Herman Melville.  A new biography of the author came out last month and Ron Charles has this great video review of it.  Also as fan of the author's work, I loved the extra references to Melville that Charles embedded in the review.