Macquarie Dictionary, a leading Australian dictionary, has chosen its 2008 Word of the Year, ‘toxic debt’, which is not actually a word, but who’s quibbling about getting two-for-one in these dark economic times? Honourable mentions include ‘flashpacker’ (bit behind the times on that one, Macquarie, it’s been around a lot longer than just last year) and ‘bromance’ (non-sexual but close relationship between two men, beyond mere friendship; though the non-sexual bit isn’t necessarily apparent straight-off: when two Aussies were asked if they had a bromance, they explained that they were not gay, though they might look gay. “Is it the pink shirt? It’s the pink shirt, isn’t it?” I just liked how utterly unsurprised they were by the question, it was very sweet).
Gnooks will give you author recommendations based on who else you like: Use ‘Gnod’s recommendations’ to enter in three of your favourite authors (thus providing data for the self-adapting system) and it will throw up a bunch of recommendations which you vote on (thus providing feedback and improving its recommendations). The real fun bit is the outcome of a lot of people feeding in their preferences, the gently swirling Literature Map.
The Map worked well for a couple of favourites of mine (in that I already knew and liked some of the authors that floated close to my entry and so trust that the other nearby names are worth trying), but threw up John Kennedy Toole (The Confederancy of Dunces) for Michael Chabon, which was way off for me (might be blasphemy, but I didn’t like Dunces at all). Regardless, the system will only get better as more people use it, and what a great way to get new book recommendations.
Go to the parent site, Gnod, to try it for music and movies too. And – excitingly – I entered in three Australian bands and it not only knew them but tossed up a bunch of other Australian bands/singers, so it’s not just big US names in this system.
If your fiction includes animals, you might be interested in this overview of the use of animals in fiction and what it says about us, published by the Australian Literary Review.
And ABC’s Bookshow has a follow-up on Speculative Fiction in the wake of the Aurealis Awards, including a discussion of different paths to publication for two of the winning authors. Listen or read transcript here.
