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Drumroll please 

Northwestern University Press had better get its presses rolling. The Nobel prize for literature has been awarded to Imre Kertesz, a Hungarian survivor of Auschwitz, published in English only by a minor university press. (Northwestern, which I grew up in the shadow of, is not minor, but its press is decidedly so.)

It is often commented upon that English-speaking nations tend to be parochial in their literature. The French, Germans, Dutch and Scandinavians all seem to read far more translated fiction than we do. But looking through Kertesz’s bibliography, it seems equally small publishers are responsible for his work in France and Germany.

The uncluttered life 

Today’s New York Times has a typically thin but enjoyable profile of techie people who have pared down the technology in their lives. I found it resonated well with me.

Anu Garg of AT&T Labs, and the progenitor of A Word A Day, is one of the people quoted. “I felt one should make only as many appointments as you can keep in your head. That’s how I see myself with technology. I make a living with it but I don’t have to let it take over my whole life.”

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