In today’s Monday’s Link Roundup don’t miss Why obituaries seduce us. It examines why the best obituaries are mini biographies. And whether your interviewing, writing, or promoting you’ll definitely want to read The psychology of language: Which words matter the most when we talk.
- Bookstore Of The Year 2013. “Every year, industry bible Publishers Weekly names a Bookstore of the Year, and it announced yesterday that the 2013 award would be given to to Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, “the center of the fictional Yoknapatawpha County in William Faulkner’s novels.”
- StoryPress for the iPad. “StoryPress is an iPad app (with an Android version promised “real soon now”) that helps you preserve your memories in your own voice by recording spoken history…Subscribers to StoryPress are greeted with a sequence of questions to help them create a story. The app uses a book metaphor for each story, allowing the user to enter the author’s name, date of birth, and story title. Users also can use a photo from their iPad photo libraries for cover art on their story.”
- Why obituaries seduce us: They’re a door on a world that’s vanishing. “Properly done, obituaries are “biographical essays that set a life in context, pay tribute to achievements, and account for failures and faults,” as Sandra Martin, who has produced many great ones for this paper, wrote in her recent collection, Working the Dead Beat: 50 Lives that Changed Canada.”
- Free “Perspectives on Personal Digital Archiving” Publication. “We [Library of Congress] are very excited to unveil our new e-publication, Perspectives on Personal Digital Archiving! This is something new for us: a published compilation of selected blog posts published in The Signal. All of these posts are written by NDIIPP staff as well as guest bloggers from inside and outside the Library of Congress. This resource can serve as a primer for the digital archive novice, as well as a refresher for those with more experience.”
- The psychology of language: Which words matter the most when we talk. “Recently, a lot of the long standing paradigms in how our brain processes language were overthrown. New and cutting edge studies that produced quite startling and different results. The one study I found most interesting is UCL’s findings on how we can separate words from intonation. Whenever we listen to words, this is what happens:”
- Too busy? Maybe you’re procrastinating. “Here’s the thing: when we’re busy we can easily trick ourselves into thinking that all of that activity means that we’re not procrastinating. We’re busy, sure, but we’re not focused on the things that should really have our attention. If someone were to tap us on the shoulder and say, “that thing you’re doing, is that the best use of your attention right now?” we would hesitate to agree. We’re busy procrastinating.”
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