Advertisement

Literary Put-downs, Venetian Bookshops

By

On the Shelf

  • “It’s a bookshop right on the canal that floods every year, so the eccentric, stray-cat-adopting owner keeps his books in boats, bathtubs and a disused gondola to protect them.” A visit to Venice’s Libreria Acqua Alta.
  • The fifty best literary put-downs.
  • “The original Palatino was based on humanist typefaces from the Italian Renaissance, and was named after sixteenth-century Italian calligraphy master Giambattista Palatino.” A history of the most popular fonts used in design.
  • And Then His Hands Went Below the Table: cheating, lying, and disgrace at the National Scrabble Championships.
  • “Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You— / Not God but a swastika.” According to FBI Files, Sylvia Plath’s father, Otto, may indeed have had Nazi sympathies.
  • [tweetbutton]

    [facebook_ilike]