If you’re looking for something to do next weekend, keep the Printers Row Lit Fest in mind. There will be more than a few literary stars, fun activities, and interesting discussions. After skimming thru the list of events, I would say there’s an even balance between authors, poetry, food demos, and readings for youth, among other types of happenings. Look for the singer Sting, who will be on hand to work on a storytelling project!
Shira S.
Julia Keller will interview Michael Connelly downtown through the Printers Row program on Nov. 28 at 7PM. There is an admission fee. The bestselling crime writer of the Harry Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer novels is coming out with a new book this month, The Black Box.
Shira S.
Another subtle way 
technology has affected society: it’s not as easy as it used to be to see what your neighbor on the train is reading. Is this aspect of people watching kaput? Thoughtful article in the Tribune complete with a map of who’s reading what throughout the CTA system.
Shira S.
John Keilman, Chicago Tribune reporter, defends the printed book against the Kindle in this article from today’s edition. Using Gary Shteyngart’s sad sack of a protagonist, Lenny Abramov, from his novel Super Sad True Love Story as an example of someone hopelessly out of date because he still reads “bound, printed, nonstreaming media artifacts,” Keilman begins his argument in favor of traditional books. Simply stated, he thinks a printed text reader’s ability to navigate between the covers of a book with relative ease using physical bookmarks, dog-eared pages (horrors! a librarian exclaims), and
a sense of where in the text a particular passage occurred (i.e., halfway through, near the end, etc.) are all tools that make reading books of high literary or academic content much easier than the all button pushing needed to navigate with an e-reader. Keilman acknowledges the plus side of e-readers for pleasure reading or what is called “receptive reading”–going from start to finish in a straight line, but for “responsive reading”–using the text more deeply to build and store knowledge, the printed book is the sure winner in his mind.
Barbara L.
This article is a great starting point for getting acquainted with horror short stories. After reading about these 12 stories I feel motivated to pick up some of the old and new authors in this collection. I definitely want to reread Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and perhaps after that try Laird Barron’s “Old Virginia,” which is about CIA human experiments that have decidedly nonhuman dimensions.
Another nice feature- you can access a couple of stories from the article.
(This wonderfully spooky cover is from American Fantastic Tales and includes Harlan Ellison‘s ” I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.” )
Shira S.
evanstonpubliclibrary.wordpress.com 
