Merilyn Simonds | Writer

Archive for the category: Books in the News

Spring LitBits 2019

Spring LitBits 2019

March 29th, 2019 Books in the News, Writing
March marks the beginning of the new year for indigenous peoples in this part of the world, and for gardeners everywhere. The sense of renewal that requires real effort to conjure on January 1 comes naturally in March. It’s spring, the equinox is past, the sun is now in ascendance and the world is bursting with blossom and courting display.

Read more

December LitBits 2018

December LitBits 2018

December 2nd, 2018 Books in the News, Bookshops, LitBits
Each year when I arrive in San Miguel de Allende, I set my suitcases inside the door and immediately walk out into the town. Yes, the sidewalks still insist we tread single file; the Parroquia still glows pink as the sun sets; the iron benches in the Jardin still hoard the day’s warmth. But look! The giant Christmas tree has moved to Plaza Civica. From our new digs, I hear the bells of not three churches, but five.

This first walk settles me in the same way that running my fingers over the spines of my books settles me: reading the titles, even thinking of them, lifts my heart into a place that is at once familiar and everlastingly new.

Read more

Under the Influence

Under the Influence

February 26th, 2018 Book Creation, Books in the News, Digital Divide, reading
When Helen Keller was eleven, she wrote a story called “The Frost King.” The Perkins School for the Blind published it in their alumni magazine. Almost immediately, Helen was accused of stealing the idea from Birdie and his Fairy Friends, a book she’d never heard of. Her teacher, Anne Sullivan, discovered that someone had, in fact, read the book to Helen when she was eight, finger-spelling the words for the blind, deaf child. Helen had no memory of this. For hours, the girl was grilled by a jury of teachers. She was absolved, narrowly, but the ordeal triggered a nervous breakdown. She never wrote fiction again.

Read more

Where Books Go To Die

Where Books Go To Die

October 16th, 2017 book history, Books in the News, Future of Books
The tower of books on a bookseller’s front table swells the newly published author’s heart with joy. She swoons, imagining all the happy readers laying down their hard-earned dollars to take this book home, where they will slowly turn the pages, revelling in her story, finally shelving her book with all their other treasured tomes. This is the fantasy.

Read more

Books UnPacked blog logo

Sign Up for Books Unpacked Blog

Want occasional news from my literary world? Advance notice of new books, samples of works-in-progress? Join the circle of book-lovers who receive LitBits.

Sign up for LitBits

Why a blog?

Because sometimes the world moves too fast for books.

Because it feels good to be part of the conversation.

As I wrote Gutenberg’s Fingerprint, I thought a lot about books, what they are, what they mean, why I love them, how they are changing and how they are becoming what they started out to be. The brain doesn’t turn off when an editor says “Stop!” so in Books UnPacked, these thoughts spool on, exploring the past and future of books, and the actual books I’m unwrapping to read.

If you subscribe, you'll be notified whenever I post a new blog. As a bonus, you'll also automatically receive LitBits.

You won't be swamped with emails - I'm too busy writing books to blog daily or even weekly, though I hope to post a couple a month. You won't hurt my feelings if you decide to unsubscribe.

I’d love to hear from you, so please join the conversation at the end of the blog.