To Mock a Killingbird (tweet) There's Waldo Many thanks to the original tweeters  Secret Pop Readers
Samuel ‘Dictionary’ Johnson once declared the act of reading more important than the subject matter. We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?
Cheap chapbooks … penny dreadfuls … lurid pulp fiction … horror comics … Mills and Boon romances. It seems every age has its literary snobs who think that Dr Johnson’s wise words have nothing to do with them. A survey for World Book Day 2009 mapped the gap between what people actually read and what they claimed. Respondents were invited to submit their ‘guilty secrets’ online, the results of which were published as part of the celebrations. World Book Day is designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of reading marked in over one hundred countries, so the ‘guilty secrets’ idea was well-intentioned in championing reading in the international fight against illiteracy -- and its ramifications for poverty. But who is honestly shocked to find that J K Rowling triumphs over Shakespeare? Or that Manga is more accessible than the classics? WORLD BOOK DAY INTELLIGENCE
-- 65 per cent admit to falsely claiming to have read a classic -- 62 per cent prefer to dogear pages rather than use a bookmark
-- 61 per cent admittd JK Rowling as a guilty secret
-- 48 per cent bought a book as a gift then read it first
The Rapture of Long ReadsAccording to some cultists, who've been busy disseminating the prediction, May 21st could be the eve of Rapture - the day God gathers the chosen ones and smites the world. Since May 22nd may never dawn, why not induce sleep apocalypse and take a really long book to bed. Here's a selection. 10 Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind: Heathcliffe! It's late already!  7 Edward Rutherfurd' London: The Novel: Hundreds of years in more than as many pages 6 Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: Characters slowly worn down by war 5 Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon: conspiratorial math-based saga 4 Amy Rand's Atlas Shrugged: 1000 pages + murder and spiritual rebirth 3 Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex: Epic gender-blending from early Greece to 1960s fallout 2 Stephen King's It: Evil born every 30 years; takes nearly as long to read 1 Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time (aka Remembrance of Things Past) all one and a half million words! Edgar Rice Burroughs: Salesman of the Pulps
It was during his time as a pencil sharpener salesman, that Burroughs first put pencil to paper to write books. Realising that he could equal 'the rot' of many of successful pulp writers he turned his hand to a range of popular genres. Although many are now considered classics, at the time pulps were not highly regarded.
Burroughs was not above writing for profit and the author's focus on the popular allowed him to see further than paperback fiction. Surprising many in the business, he was able to exploit the Tarzan brand via syndication into comic strips and movies.
Although Burrough's hardback first editions are highly collectable, it was through the pulps that he introduced his greatest characters, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. His prolific output kept many artists employed both during the golden years of pulp and with later generations when revived interest meant reprints of the most enduring titles. The artwork for imprints like Four Square and Pinnacle is as lurid and lowbrow as the titles themselves, and both mocked and celebrated equally.
Over the coming week, scores of first issue paperbacks are being listed, many in unread and mint condition, others with a little tanning to the pages but with fantastic sleeves. The books can be found in the vintage section.
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 Hairpiece: a wry look at furry fiction
Having contributed to the book Hair, Styling Culture and Fashion, published by Berg, I thought I'd continue the theme of self-grooming by combing the archives for five books with hirsuit subjects. 5 Hairy Hyde 1 Shakesbeard
As the prime signifier of the phallus, the beard is an obvious target for both physical and verbal attacks. Beard pulling was a great insult. Spenser talks about causing ‘beard affront’ (Faerie Queen, 1590) and Shakespeare of ‘beard[ing] thee to thy face’ (King Henry IV Act 1, Scene 1). Such emasculation could be more than symbolic: Alexander ordered his soldiers to shave in case the enemy caught them by their beards during face-to-face combat.  Spinning a cult yarn: urban marketing myths?
According to Alison Baverstock, author of How to Market Books (Kogan Page), there are six keys to dealing with the media to ensure free publicity for books.
Determination and persuasiveness: those two are a bit obvious. Other essentials include a reassuring speaking voice, unshakable belief in the product and an endless supply of patience. The last, but certainly not the least -- so far as the blogging generation is concerned -- is imagination. With that in mind, here are five cult novelist inspired urban myths ... or are they perhaps the inventions of cult publicists? 5. The Chuck Palahniuk short story Guts, a cautionary tale about masturbation, has caused 70 readers to faint. 4. Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in just three weeks (actually, it was written over seven years, typed up in three weeks, then revised over several months).
3. Alex Garland’s The Coma is both a document about, and the therapy for, writer’s block.
2. Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson copy-typed entire William Faulkner novels, expecting to appropriate the latter’s style and creativity.
1. The novels of J.T. (Jeremiah Terminator) LeRoy are not the childhood memoirs of a gender-bending ‘lot lizard’, but the results of author Laura Albert using her imagination. Just too good to be true, eh?
 Back to basics: what to be seen reading on the economic downturn
The credit crunch means readers, like consumers in general, may become partly motivated by the need to save on spending. But this needn’t mean a trip to the nearest bargain book basement. Austerity and decadence follow each other around and appear to be binary opposites. In fact, during periods of abundance, minimalist aesthetics and urges to declutter are at their most acute. And when times are hard, glamour is at its most defined and desired. Fashion is a great barometer of the economy for this reason.
Second hand clothes are like second hand books: there’s vintage and then there’s vintage gold. The latter are both more valuable and more satisfying when found at a snip. Shabby chic is worth its weight in gold for another reason. Wearing a fashion one-off means mega-bucks, money wasted once it’s become ‘trendy’. Vintage classic shows off your personality and style, without comment about what’s in your purse.
Mark Twain once defined a classic as something everyone wants to own but no one wants to read. It’s true that you cannot judge a book by its cover, but it’s also true that that cover can speak volumes about you. Especially if you manage to prove the American satirist wrong, and read the darned thing.
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