Local LIT

The 2007 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNERS, announced November 14, include Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner, for non-fiction; Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson for fiction; and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indianby Sherman Alexie for Young People’s Literature. Robert Hass won the poetry award for Time and Materials.
READ COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS

Note: 2006 National Book Award fiction finalist and Philadelphia author KEN KALFUS will be reading from his novel, A Disorder Peculiar to the Country, which is set in New York after 9/11, at Bookcourt, 163 Court Street, Brooklyn, New York, at 7 PM, November 15. For more information call 718-875-3677 or visit www.bookcourt.org.

 I just signed up to read Swann’s Way through Daily Lit, a great site similar to Suzanne Beecher’s DearReader.com, in that one receives able-to-be-read-in 5-minutes snatches of books serially by e-mail, for free. In Daily Lit’s case, however, the books are all classics (Beecher primarily focuses on new releases), plus some open source, and you select the exact title you wish to read, as opposed to the site choosing a title for you based on your selected genre. Daily Lit allows you to find your desired title by browsing authors, titles or categories. You can select to have your mini-readings sent to you at a designated hour on weekdays, on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, or daily. The site also tells you into how many five-minute sections the book is divided, so you can figure out how many weeks or even months it may take you to read your chosen book in its entirety.Interestingly, the site offers classics in French, Italian, German and Spanish as well as English.Daily Lit also has forums you can join if you wish to converse with others who are reading your same title. If you want to join a forum, you need to register — also free. If you just want the book e-mailed to you, there is no need to register.