I rarely ever give up on a book once I start reading, and in fact, I can’t remember the last time I did so. But I’m afraid that I’m giving up on a novel today. Surprisingly it’s a Stephen King novel, and I’ve liked most of his stuff in the past. The book I’ll be giving up is called Cell: A Novel.

The plot of the novel is intriguing: An event called "The Pulse" makes people using their cell phones go crazy and start killing each other. On that premise, the story follows a character named Clayton Riddell is in Boston. He’s an artist and just managed to sell his comic book series to a publisher. Clay happens to be in Boston when The Pulse hits and takes cover from the ensuing violence with a few others in the lobby of the hotel he’s been staying at (and that’s where I stopped reading).

My problem is with the characters. They are simply not believable and I have not really been given a reason to care about them. For example, Clay is supposed to be an artist, yet when he and a few other survivors are trying to figure out how many cell phone users are affected by the strange event, Clay says:

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In a blow to the online retailing community, a judge in New York struck down two lawsuits by Amazon and Overstock, giving a new state tax code, which would require online retailers (such as Amazon) to collect taxes from their customers, the green light:

Things are not looking good for Amazon and other online retailers who have been avoiding collecting sales taxes from customers, and for customers who have avoided paying them. A fairly new New York state tax law—dubbed the "Amazon Tax"—has been given the green light as a judge dismissed two lawsuits alleging that the law is unconstitutional. The judge said the law isn’t unfairly targeted at certain retailers, and that online retailers who make a decent chunk of money off of New York residents should help shoulder the burden of tax collection.

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With all the bad news we hear just about every day (i.e. economic crisis, world unrest, etc) it’s always refreshing to read some good news. You can imagine I was very happy when I came across this article from the New York Times talking about how fiction reading is increasing among adults!

The National Endowment for the Arts released a report that says for the first time since 1982, reading is actually increasing among most age groups. This is contrasted to a report the organization released 4 short years ago that said reading of literary works had dropped sharply.

Why the shift in reading habits? There are several factors at play:

Instead he attributed the increase in literary reading to community-based programs like the "Big Read," Oprah Winfrey’s book club, the huge popularity of book series like "Harry Potter" and Stephenie Meyer’s "Twilight," as well as the individual efforts of teachers, librarians, parents and civic leaders to create "a buzz around literature that’s getting people to read more in whatever medium."

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Sometimes I’m surprised at who is also a fellow literature junkie, no matter how low a politician they might be. Case in point: Yesterday I wrote this post about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his penchant for quoting poetry during press conferences.

Well today, the Chicago Tribune caught on to his literary musings in this piece, and even seeks to throw in some analysis of the Governor’s taste in poetry:

The governor’s identification with Tennyson’s hero might also raise eyebrows: In Greek mythology, Ulysses was less noted for honor than for craftiness, the ancient equivalent of wink-and-nod politics. Of him, Tennyson wrote: "I mete and dole/unequal laws unto a savage race."

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Even though poetry isn’t quite a dead art form, it has sure lost a lot of popularity over the years. Perhaps that is why it’s amusing…ah…sad that it has taken a corrupt politician like Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to thrust this forgotten art back into the spotlight, at least temporarily.

Today, after the Illinois House of Representatives voted to impeach the Governor, his response was in part a quote from a poem by Alfred Lloyd Tennyson, as reported here in the Chicago Tribune:

He closed his remarks by quoting from "Ulysses," a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

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There’s really nothing new or surprising from Publishers Weekly about holiday sales from the nation’s two largest booksellers: Barnes & Noble and Borders. I got my usual email update yesterday and in this article, PW said sales were bad for both booksellers:

Store sales fell 5.2% at Barnes & Noble in the nine week holiday period ended Jan. 3, dropping to $1.1 billion. Same store sales at the nation’s largest bookstore chain fell 7.7%; B&N had predicted that comp sales would fall between 6% to 9%.

By most accounts B&N is still in pretty good shape with an impressive balance sheet, good leadership and tight control over spending. Borders fared a little worse over the holiday shopping season, which only seems to add insult to injury to the chain after a year of ups and downs:

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Friday is here and so is the winter weather, at least in the Chicago area. I think when I checked the weather, it’s supposed to snow most of today and throughout the weekend. I love winter driving!

And Friday also means it’s time for this week’s installment of Friday Link Love. As I always do, I spent this past week scouring all corners of the intertubes for the most interesting reading I can find. So if you’re in Chicago and getting blasted by this winter weather, then it should be nice to stay at home with some good reading. Wherever you are, enjoy the links!

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Despite being a big fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, I must confess that it has been a while since I’ve read any of his work. Luckily for me, in my early days of reading Fitzgerald, I bought many of his novels and short story collections – so I have no shortage of reading material.

But back then I was young and lacked any formal literary education (except what I received in public high school, which can hardly be called formal). I didn’t understand where Fitzgerald and his work fit in the canon of American literature. And I still don’t. Why? Because it’s been so long since I’ve read any of his stories and novels.

I figured now is as good a time as ever to start revisiting some of Fitzgerald’s major and minor works. Especially nowadays, with the economy being compared to the Great Depression, Fitzgerald’s writing is more relevant now than ever. His own life revolved around "making it big" as did many of the themes in his writing.

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One facet of writing I struggle with, especially when dealing with short fiction, is writing an ending to a story that doesn’t cheat the reader. I’m sure many of you have read a story or novel, gotten to the ending, and said, "Hey, that ending really sucks!" So how do you prevent this unfortunate circumstance from infecting your own writing?

Since I still struggle with endings, it’s difficult to write advice that gives a clear remedy to the problem. But I have found a few ways that can help reduce your chances of a bad ending.

Plan ahead

This one is simple: Plan your story out in advance, including the ending. This will prevent you from writing 90% of a story and then getting stumped because you can’t think of a good way to end that sci-fi/romance (for example) you’ve been working on for the last six months.

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I finally got around to reading Khaled Hosseini’s very popular A Thousand Splendid Suns (aff link), and very few books will keep me up reading late into the night (despite having to be up early the next morning), but this book did exactly that.

The novel starts off modestly enough, showing the difficult life of a girl named Mariam who lives in a small hut outside a village in Afghanistan. Mariam’s life is complicated by the fact that she was born an illegitimate daughter to the mistress of a wealthy businessman. After a family tragedy, Mariam is quickly married off to a man named Rasheed and the two move to Kabul. Needless to say, her life doesn’t get any easier.

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