Since we are somewhat time-challenged at the moment, we’ve decided to embark on an ill-advised idea that calls for your participation.
Return of the Reluctant hopes to shake up these pristine pages with the First Annual Naughty Reading Photo Contest.
What we would like our readers to do is send us your visual approximation of what naughty reading is. Naughty readers do not have to be exclusively female. To keep this thing equal opportunity (and desirable for any and all sexual persuasions), we want naughty male readers too. Send your entries in JPEG form to ed AT edrants.com before August 31, 2005. (Filesize should be no more than 60K per entry. Anything over that will be disqualified.) Photos are limited to one per participant. So do send us your best photo. We will post the photos (along with designated credit, if desired) as they come in and eventually establish them on a separate page.
So that there is some incentive for this thing, the winner will receive a Powell’s $20 Gift Card.
From here, we will announce three finalists which you, the readers, can vote on.
So have at it, naughty book lovers, academics and librarians alike! Show the world right now that reading is sexy and salacious!
Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz: Being wrong, as it turns out, isn't just the other variable in a binary opposition. Indeed, the relationship between our beliefs and the vast body of knowledge is one of humanity's big problems, but, at times, one of its great virtues. This thoughtful volume outlines numerous examples of human folly, from end-of-the-world prophets to ocular misperception, and makes a strong case for becoming more transparent about human fallibility, even when the results can be quite deadly. (
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orrigner: This sweeping epic, which has been rightly identified in some corners as a "Holocaust page turner," puts to rest any and all rumors that the historical novel is dead. Orringer's great talent for balancing fine Romantic details, a vigorous synthesis of prewar Paris and Magyar strife, and Nazi brutality demonstrates a remarkable evolution from her previous short story collection, How to Breathe Underwater, and makes this a must read. (
If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This by Robin Black: Forget Wells Tower. Robin Black's marvelous short story collection, which has been needlessly ignored by The New York Times and The Washington Post, is very much on the level: far better than anything written by that lumbering Young Turk. These subtle stories have the maturity to avoid belabored metaphors and neat conclusions, revealing numerous nuances about the human condition in its careful use of understated language. (