A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Taken from an essay from the New York Times Book Review, Dec. 3, 2006. How's this for a chuckle? The Diagram Group's "Oddest Book Title of the Year" prize has been contested annually since 1978. The award is run by the British trade magazine The Bookseller, and is eagerly voted for by publishers and booksellers. Below are some winners: 2005-- People Who Don't Know They Are Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It... Gary Leon Hill 2004-- Bombproof Your... Sign in to see full entry.

I'm supposed to be letter-writing, but I'm here instead. The director of my program wants me to write and send in my cover letters as soon as possible, and I want to get them done before tomorrow, when my dad comes to visit all day. The problem is, I have no motivation right now to do them. Oh, I've tried; but everything I write comes out sounding wrong. At one point, I actually wrote, "I want to work in book publishing because I love books." While this statement is in fact true, its not really... Sign in to see full entry.

Why? The DVD player on my computer doesn't seem to be working, so I've been without my daily TV fix for about two days now. Its not that the player can't read the disc; but that whenever I put the dic in and hit "play," the screen goes back and goes back to the menu again. Very bizarre! Anyone out there good at fixing Dell CinePlayers? In the meantime, I've been downloading recent episodes of Desperate Housewives off the ABC website. I missed the first six episodes of the third season, so I'm a... Sign in to see full entry.

Today I had two meetings, both of which were very productive. About a week ago I wrote an e-mail to the director of my summer publishing course outlining the frustration I was going through with regards to my search. He agreed to meet with me this morning to see what suggestions he could give me. I walked away from the meeting with a lot of concrete advice. He wants me to write letters to select people who came to speak during the course as well as speak to some of the instructors in the Masters... Sign in to see full entry.

I recently applied for a position at Penguin--another one. I sent my resume directly to the hiring manager, skipping over the generic Human Resources e-mail address they're so fond of putting out on job search websites. This was this morning. A few minutes later I got an out-of-office reply message. It said, "I will be out of the office for Thanksgiving and I will return on Monday November 27th." What's strange to me about this is that this woman hasn't updated her e-mail yet, even though... Sign in to see full entry.