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The Arches of New York, and Other News

By

On the Shelf

arch

Photo: Michael Freeman, courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York, via Gizmodo

  • Because completion is for rubes—twelve books that end in the middle of a
  • A new app promises to help you speed-read. The technology is compelling, even if its name, Spritz, reminds one of cheap perfume and poolside wine cocktails.
  • Remembering, or simply remembering to notice, the arches of New York: “These structures were also marvels of artistic engineering, combining intricate brickwork with functional arrays of vaults and pillars, all leading to a kind of Mediterranean dreamworld of colonnades.”
  • “Britain’s best loved writers and storytellers have transformed themselves into the characters they most loved as children.” There’s Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, and, perhaps best of all, there’s Malorie Blackman as the Wicked Witch of the West.
  • “Everything about the Vikings was designed to stress their individuality … They were a bit like today’s punks or Hell’s Angels.”