links for 2010-01-10

• Writing About Writers: An article by Bob Thompson | The American Scholar
  I spent four years on the book beat, and looking back — I took early retirement from the Post last summer — I’m still amazed and grateful for what it permitted me to do. An obsessive reader since childhood, I got paid to read mostly excellent books and have extended conversations with their smart and interesting authors. And if those conversations threatened to become problematic for any reason, all I had to do was remember the Didion Rule:
  When in doubt, ask writers about writing.
  It sounds childishly simple, and perhaps it is. But it helped me avoid (mostly, not always) the more formulaic book beat stories: how Writer A struggled and struggled and finally made it big, for instance, or how cleverly Writer B’s new novel was being marketed, or what a buzz Writer C’s advance had caused (“My God, they paid a million bucks for that? They’ll never make it back”).
  (tags: writing writers interview interviews authors)
• NBTttt:19th New Delhi World Book Fair 2010
  The New Delhi World Book Fair combines copyright trade, book trade, cultural activities, exhibitions and displays, information exchanges and industrial communications. The 18th New Delhi World Book Fair was organized by the NBT from 2 to 10 February 2008. With an exhibition area of 46,200 square metres, the Fair had 2172 stalls for 1343 exhibitors from 17 countries, while attracting trade visitors, publishing delegations from all major publishing countries of the world.
  The New Delhi World Book Fair has been able to create meaningful platforms for copyright trade, cultural exchanges and trade promotion and presentations by exhibitors and cultural organisations both at home and abroad.
  The National Book Trust, India is pleased to announce that the 19th New Delhi World Book Fair will be held from 30 January to 7 February 2010 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India. The theme of the Fair is “Reading for Common Wealth”
  (tags: books fair delhi world_book_fair)
• Dork News: Bulletin 1 – The Dork Trilogy
  The book is 'scheduled' to go on sale on January 30th at the 19th New Delhi World Book Fair. In New Delhi.
  Ha.
  Some details here. Basically it will go on sale at the fair at Pragati Maidan and, I have been told, simultaneously in book stores all over the place. Copies should be kept somewhere prominent at the Penguin pavilion. I have no idea if the situation will be conducive to signing or readings. But as we get closer to the date I'll make some for of arrangement. Of some kind.
  (tags: sidin books blogging corporate_slavery humor)
• Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning – Peter Bregman – Harvard Business Review
  Now is a good time to pause, prioritize, and focus. Make two lists:
  List 1: Your Focus List (the road ahead)
  What are you trying to achieve? What makes you happy? What's important to you? Design your time around those things. Because time is your one limited resource and no matter how hard you try you can't work 25/8.
  List 2: Your Ignore List (the distractions)
  To succeed in using your time wisely, you have to ask the equally important but often avoided complementary questions: what are you willing not to achieve? What doesn't make you happy? What's not important to you? What gets in the way?
  (tags: lists prioritization work business life)
• Three Questions Executives Should Ask for the New Year – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review
  # If there was only one thing I could do to improve my business, what would it be and how would I make it happen?
  # If there was only one thing I could focus on to improve my personal performance, what would that be and how would I make it happen?
  # What messages am I not listening to or refusing to confront in my business and personal performance and how am I going to overcome that this year?
  (tags: effectiveness work questions)
• 2010 in Preview » Givvup Only Are There
  A year on, confusion over the Unique ID project remains supreme, due to all the conflicting statements over whether it will be a number linking different IDs, a card by itself, or a biometric identifier. When asked what the hell he has been doing all year, Nandan Nilekani explains that he has been busy trying to revert edits to his Wikipedia entry that identify him as the inspiration behind The World is Flat.
  The BJP suffers yet another blow when in Karnataka the Reddy brothers threaten to withdraw support to Yeddiyurappa again. Their demands include separate statehood for Bellary, transfer of all land in Chikmaglur to themselves, and reinstatement of the traffic light on the Richmond Circle flyover. The RSS says that this is because the BJP has lost touch with the core ideology of Hindutva.
  (tags: humor humour satire aadisht 2010)
• The 90 Best Lifehacks of 2009: The Year in Review – Stepcase Lifehack
  What follows is a list of the 90 most popular, most commented on, and most talked-about posts from 2009, and as you can see, in addition to our usual mix of posts about personal productivity, organization, webware, and creativity, a large number of posts about personal finance and self-employment made the top of the list. It’s not surprising that Lifehack’s staff and contributors would write posts that reflect the tenor of the times, nor that such posts would resonate most with our audience.
  (tags: lifehacks life lifehacker hacks lifehack productivity success)