April 1, 2013 | by Sadie Stein
- The book lover’s dilemma, via Rena Maguire.
- Merriam-Webster’s is movin’ with the times, incorporating such newfangled phrases as the hideous bucket list, 2010-ish game changer, mysterious robocall, belated mashup, usefulcrowdsourcing, unfortunate cyberbullying, and inevitable viral.
- If Marx lived today, speculates one biographer, “he would be a compulsive blogger, and picking Twitter fights with Andrew Sullivan and Naomi Klein.”
- Speaking of! Celebrate Easter (belatedly) by testing your knowledge of resurrections in literature.
- Genius in literature: a handy-dandy chart.
TAGS book news, books, charts, Dictionary, Karl Marx, Merriam-Webster, news, roundup
February 12, 2013 | by Sadie Stein
“But new evidence undermines Mr. Capote’s claim that his best seller was an ‘immaculately factual’ recounting of the bloody slaughter of the Clutter family in their Kansas farmhouse.” Cold blood, indeed!
Douglas Coupland makes some very nice furniture.
E-readers: not big in Japan.
Readers have rallied around Maine’s Longfellow Books, badly damaged in the weekend’s blizzard. “I never realized what this store means to people until this weekend,” says the owner.
Bad hypothetical book proposals.
TAGS book news, Books I'll Never Write, Douglas Coupland, Longfellow Books, Michael Moran, news, roundup, truman capote
December 14, 2012 | by Sadie Stein
A piece believed to be Hans Christian Andersen juvenilia has been discovered.
An editorial assistant job listing at Dalkey Archive earns the title of worst job posting ever.
The poster gives his side of things.
The fracas prompts the obligatory Twitter account.
The best parties in literature.
TAGS book news, Dalkey Archive, Hans Christian Andersen, news, roundup
October 3, 2012 | by Sadie Stein
Check out Design Observer’s list of cover-design award winners.
A California school library is saved by an anonymous sixty-thousand-dollar donation.
An interactive Shakespeare app includes narration by Derek Jacobi, an Elizabethan-to-modern translation function, and video clips.
Three protest songs by Nicholson Baker: the writer takes on military intervention, Bradley Manning, and civilian casualties.
“I got my M.F.A. out on the streets. My thesis advisor was a garbage bag filled with overdue library books.” How to apply to an M.F.A. program.
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TAGS apps, book news, Bradley Manning, MFA, news, Nicholson Baker, roundup, Shakespeare
August 15, 2012 | by Sadie Stein
An original ad for The Great Gatsby, found in a 1925 issue of The Princetonian.
“My decade-long enamor with the poets and writers of the Beat Generation was about to pay off. As the only woman who adored Kerouac, I would be the vixen of the literary matchmaking board.” At the Millions, Stephanie Nikolopoulos on the Jack Kerouac gender divide.
In which Ayn Rand explains Objectivism on the Johnny Carson show. “I think you'll find her most unusual,” says he.
Poet Ron Silliman lost his library in a flood; help him reassemble it.
O tempora: new inductions into Merriam-Webster include f bomb, man cave, and sexting. A full list here.
On the other hand, the more things change, et cetera. This 1950 Library Journal asks if new media is rendering reading obsolete.
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TAGS Ayn Rand, book news, Jack Kerouac, Johnny Carson, news, On the Shelf, Ron Silliman, roundup, The Great Gatsby
