SF/F Links: The Last For June

Well, here are a few more for this month to keep things interesting. Enjoy!

• L. E. Modesitt, Jr. talks about the "golden age" of writing that everyone seems to refer to. Definitely eye-opening. Things weren't all that great back in the day...
• A little history about my ancient relatives from many hundreds of years ago that might be interesting to some of you out there. I found it fascinating the other day.
• Bibliophile Stalker offers a fantastic argument for why the ebook industry is not like the music industry.
• The Torch Online asks why it's called the "Science Fiction Section" when fantasy outsells SF. I don't agree with the way the article ends, but it's still interesting.
• Follow the Reader talks about the potential impact of Twitter and blogs on book sales. A bit inconclusive, but still interesting.
• An interesting prediction: reading and writing will peak in 2025 and then decline (like smoking did some time ago). Not sure I agree, but it's an interesting prediction nonetheless.
• Here's something interesting: a 35,000-year-old flute has been found and is the oldest musical instrument known to exist.
• How about some steampunk? Well here's an interesting discussion on the intersection of race and steampunk. And don't forget this history of steampunk. Seems like steampunk is the big things these day. Of course, that's quite obvious.
• J. A. Brock asks whether fantasy is speculative fiction. It is, but his reasoning is worth checking out.
• The Cedar Lounge Revolution talks about the Guardian List of 100 best SF/F novels and literary fiction. A good bit of criticism about top lists.
• Here's an informative article on dragons. Not sure if it was stolen from Wikipedia, but it's still interesting.
• Fantasy Book Reviewers asks whether fantasy is more re-readable than SF. Is it? I don't know. I've re-read 1984 a few times, but haven't re-read any fantasy books. But that's me.