Margaret Atwood loves Twitter.

Seriously, she loves the Twitter. She writes:

One follower led to another, quite literally. The numbers snowballed in an alarming way, as I scrambled to keep up with the growing horde. Soon there were 32,000—no, wait, 33,000—no, 33,500… And before you could say LMAO (“Laughing My Ass Off,” as one Twitterpal informed me), I was sucked into the Twittersphere like Alice down the rabbit hole. And here I am.

Oh my goodness, Ms. Atwood, I officially love you.

Celebrity gossip? Count me in

I am a devoted Jezebel reader, and they have yet to let me down. A perfect example of this continued excellence is this gallery of 20 celebrity biographies you must read. Damn you Jezebel, giving me more to read...

Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters

Never had to have a chaperone, no sir, I'm there to keep my eye on her.

Sisters are important, reader types, because, as the song says, they care, share, stick together--all sorts of things. Celebrate sisters with this list of the best books about sisters, which I think is pretty good (except it includes I Capture the Castle, which I haaaaated last time I read it).

And, to leave you with the immortal words of sisterly love: Lord help the mister, who comes between me and my sister, and Lord help the sister who comes between me and my man.

Yes, Twilight is a writing style

This discussion of the writing style of the Twilight novels is one of the funnier discussions I've read. I know hating on Twilight has been done to death (I am especially guilty of this one), but this piece ends with my favorite comment on these books perhaps ever:

Marc: Holy [bleep], did I just stumble into actual analysis of this thing?

Say what you will about loving it or hating it--you will stumble into an actual analysis, and it will blow. Your. Mind.

And the bans played on

Sometimes society feels a need to band together and say, "Heck no, our chittlins should not be reading!" And when that happens, Mommy kisses Daddy, and the angel tells the stork, and the stork flies down from heaven, and leaves a diamond under a leaf in the cabbage patch, and the diamond turns into a banned book.* Yes, the explanation doesn't make much sense, but the books that get banned also don't make much sense. Little Women? The dictionary? Nice work, America.

*Five imaginary dollars if you can tell me a) what movie that's from and b) why it is the greatest movie of all time.

Guided iPad tours? Sign me up

Oh wait, the tours are on the internet. Then...don't sign me up.

Happy Apple morning to you all!

Shel Silverstein writes from beyond the grave

Shel Silverstein, beloved poet, will be publishing a second posthumous collection for children. I would be more excited, but I recently saw a staging of "Shel's Shorts," which was, perhaps, the dirtiest collection of short plays I have ever seen. Shel, your childlike wonder is now tainted by hilarious dirtiness.

Don't believe me? The first one stars a guy who dreams about effing his daughter. I saw this sitting between my parents. Emotionally scarred!

A man of twists and turns

No, not that man. In fact, men are not the only twisty turny creatures, as these stories fit the description as well! The link leads to a map of the paths of four different stories and the different geographical locales they have shown up in through time.They all start in the Fertile Crescent and most end up in LA. Coincidence?

History! So important!

Sexy politicians, emotional scars

Sorry for the unexpected hiatus, reader types, but I was laid low last week by these erotic excerpts from novels written by politicians. These are super, super disturbing, and may make you too need a week off. Consider yourself warned!

And, of course, all thanks and shame to CKHB, for sending this along. Thanks, I think...

Sorry for the radio silence, folks

Things have been a little crazy in Combreviations-land, but things should be back to normal later this week/early next week at latest.

Until then, besos for you, sirs and madams!

Eat, pray, watch

The trailer for the movie of "Eat, Pray, Love" is up.

Thoughts?

Say what?

Dialogue and conversation are very, very (oh so very) different. Evan Maloney says:

Dialogue is, of course, distinct from conversation. While people have conversations, characters have dialogues – and, ideally, every piece of dialogue in a story is a means to a narrative end. In real life, conversations can be purely pragmatic, or solipsistic; sometimes they're nothing more than an antidote to silence, sounds to fill the quiet margins of our social lives.

True story, sirs. True story.

Round it up

Am back on the "alive" wagon--proof is in my Pimp My Novel Round Up.

I fought St. Patty's Day, and St. Patty's Day won

Thus, no posts today, while I drink Gatorade and try not to puke in my Chicago Manual purse.

Dogs and fonts

To the font lovers of the world: doggy typefaces!