The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Bookish Quote of the Day:

"When a book and a head collide and there is a hollow sound, is that always in the book?"

-Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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Today in Literary History...

On this day in 1962 George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion was published in a new "fonetic alfabet," as commissioned by his will. Those who wished to attempt Shaw's cheaper, more rational system were instructed to "Keep the back of the book pressed against your lips, and advance toward the mirror until you are able to see the individual characters clearly enough to be able to copy them...."

For more literary history, visit Today in Literature.

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New Book On My Radar:

Leviathan
by Scott Westerfeld
Pub: Simon Pulse, 2009
448 pages

Summary in a Sentence:

In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.

Read the Reviews:

Libri Dilectio, The Zen Leaf, and The Infinite Shelf.

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Interesting Links to Peruse: 

• Library Journal releases its Best Books of the Year list.
• Hrmm...a book on the cultural history of menstruation? What will they think of next...
• Recommended historical mysteries from Historical Tapestry.
• A most interesting review of Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat.