February 27, 2013 | by Sadie Stein
“Why do so many novels get adapted into screenplays at all, when their essential quality, the persuasive and enthralling power of prose, always must be stripped—and the final product is always left in some state of diminishment?” Ian Crouch on that modern institution, the miniseries.
At three P.M., Toni Morrison is conducting a “digital book signing.” (Really more of a Google hangout, but still.)
What are the ten best books you’ve never read? (I, for one, have never finished The Ginger Man.)
While we’re ranking stuff: your favorite film about a writer? (Barton Fink.)
“Rather than limiting discussion of a certain book to a digital room in e-readers such as the Kobo or Kindle, Socialbook lets all your friends in your personal digital network know what you’re reading and invites them into the conversation. Furthermore, Socialbook puts participants right into the text of the book, where they can scribble notes in the digital margin of the book, highlight portions, pull out quotes and even rearrange the content.” To coin a phrase, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”
TAGS adaptation, ereaders, film, Ian Crouch, Kindle, miniseries, news, readings, Toni MOrrison, TV
November 19, 2012 | by Sadie Stein
Stationer Mr. Boddington’s Studio does a series of whimsical Penguin Classics covers.
Raymond Carver’s OkCupid profile, as edited by Gordon Lish.
“On the Kindle, each screen shot floats in space, isolated from the previous or subsequent ones, an effect that left my memory of the book weirdly nebulous.” The challenges of reviewing on the Kindle.
Five books on anxiety.
“Mr. Roth hasn’t given up writing entirely. He is collaborating on a novella, via e-mail, with the 8-year-old daughter of a former girlfriend.”
TAGS anxiety, Gordon Lish, Kindle, McSweeney's, Mr. Boddington's Studio, Penguin Classics, Philip Roth, Raymond Carver
August 29, 2012 | by Sadie Stein
Seattle band Fleet Foxes is launching an arts and literary journal, The Unified Field. Quoth the L, “Round one features a journal entry penned by recently freed West Memphis 3 member Damien Echols on adjusting to life after eighteen years on death row, an excerpt from Gloria Steinem’s forthcoming book, a photo essay on adolescence by noted rock photographer Autumn de Wilde, a contribution from SPIN’s Charles Aaron, and another from Animal Collective sister/visual collaborator Abby Portner, among 30-plus other pieces.” Proceeds benefit nonprofit 826 National.
During the sixties, the FBI kept a file on suspected communist sympathizer Ray Bradbury. According to the bureau’s then-source, “some of Bradbury’s stories have been definitely slanted against the United States and its capitalistic form of governmental.”
Kindles don’t have a soporific effect according to one study: “a two-hour exposure to light from self-luminous electronic displays can suppress melatonin by about 22 percent … Stimulating the human circadian system to this level may affect sleep in those using the devices prior to bedtime.”
The Marriage Plot hits the small screen.
Across languages, “the fundamental colour hierarchy, at least in the early stages (black/white, red, yellow/green, blue) remains generally accepted. The problem is that no one could explain why this ordering of colour exists. Why, for example, does the blue of sky and sea, or the green of foliage, not occur as a word before the far less common red?”
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TAGS color, FBI, Fleet Foxes, Kindle, news, On the Shelf, Ray Bradbury, roundup, The Marriage Plot
May 3, 2012 | by Sadie Stein
The Tehran International Book Fair cracks down on “harmful” titles.
“Poets break all the rules. When other writers take their photos outdoors, poets stay inside. They’re the only ones who wear hats or leather jackets with nothing underneath.”
Target will no longer be in the Kindle business. (A sentence that would have mystified our forebears.)
“The passive voice remains an important arrow in the rhetorical quiver. After all, it exists for a reason.”
A gallery of beautiful bookshelves.
TAGS bookshelves, Kindle, Target, Tehran International Book Fair, The passive voice
February 22, 2012 | by Sadie Stein
P.G. Wodehouse.
A cultural news roundup.
R.I.P. Barney Rosset.
Judy Blume’s Oscar picks.
Paramount makes the Puzo Estate an offer it can refuse?
Surely you’re joking, Mr. McCarthy.
A site of one’s own.
A room for one’s books.
Wodehouse’s wartime legacy.
The Master Book of All Plots?
A truly beautiful library.
Forget Washington. Things to do for Wallace’s birthday.
“Fans trek across the country for the chance to see Wallace’s underlined paperbacks, his early drafts, his e-mails to tax experts. The staff has even received a request for a scan of Wallace’s handwriting, for use as a tattoo.”
He fought Wikipedia, and Wikipedia won.
Lin-ericks.
Lin-dles.
Lin(coln) Towers.
TAGS Anthony Shadid, Barney Rosset, basketball, Cormac McCarthy, David Foster Wallace, Jeremy Lin, Judy Blume, Kindle, Mario Puzo, New York Knicks, Oscars, P.G. Wodehouse, Paramount, Ransom Center, Richard Feynman, sports, The Godfather, Two Serious Ladies, Vennesla Library, Wikipedia
November 16, 2011 | by Sadie Stein
A cultural news roundup.
Winners of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards.
Stephen King helps heat Maine.
The real Tintin!
The X-Men archive goes to Columbia.
Penguin takes the self-publishing leap.
The LA Times pubs its first e-book.
Meanwhile, authors charge that the Kindle library is “boldly breaching its contracts.”
In brick-and-mortar news, Ann Patchett opens a bookstore.
Wordsworth House (#4) opens in the Lake District.
Salman Rushdie fights Facebook, and wins.
Writers restock the OWS Library.
Speaking of public libraries ...
RIP legendary publisher Morris Philipson.
“We’ve just lost the Norman Rockwell of comic strips.”
Jane Austen ... murdered?
TAGS Amazon, Ann Patchett, Bil Keane, Chris Claremont, Facebook, Hurston/Wright Legacy Lit Awards, Jane Austen, Kindle, Los Angeles Times, Morris Philipson, Penguin, Salman Rushdie, self-publishing, Stephen King, University of Chicago Press, Wordsworth, X-Men
