October 5, 2011 Bulletin On the Shelf By Sadie Stein Hans Christian Andersen. A cultural news roundup. Odds on the Nobel? Harry Potter takes his show on the road. But not his e-book. The trouble with Amazon. Bad news for independent bookstores. And chain bookstores. In praise of the Farmers’ Almanac. Hans Christian Andersen to be buried, again. Volume 12 of Selected Works of Kim Jong-il hits the shelves. “That American culture could bring forth so relentless a critic is perhaps one of the reasons to still think well of it.” A visit to southeast London. Advice for students: “To get an education, you’re probably going to have to fight against the institution that you find yourself in—no matter how prestigious it may be. (In fact, the more prestigious the school, the more you’ll probably have to push.) You can get a terrific education in America now—there are astonishing opportunities at almost every college—but the education will not be presented to you wrapped and bowed. To get it, you’ll need to struggle and strive, to be strong, and occasionally even to piss off some admirable people.”
October 3, 2011 Bulletin Ask the Paris Review! (West Coast Edition) By Sadie Stein This week, The Paris Review heads west: specifically, to the Standard, Hollywood, in L.A., where we’ll be joined by West Coast friends including Ann Louise Bardach, David Kipen, Jonathan Lethem, Tom Lutz, Mona Simpson, and Michael Tolkin. Got a question on books, life, love, or anything else? Pose them below, and our panel will tackle them! We’ll reproduce the best answers on the Daily. And if you’re in Los Angeles, do stop by! When: Thursday, October 6 7:30–10 P.M. Where: Cactus LoungeThe Standard, Hollywood8300 Sunset BoulevardWest Hollywood, CA 90069 And thanks to our friends at PEN USA, our partners for the event.
September 28, 2011 Bulletin Subscribe Now to Get a Digital Discount! By Sadie Stein Just a friendly reminder: through Friday, September 30, when you buy or renew a print subscription to The Paris Review, you can get a digital subscription for only $10. That’s right: a full year of fiction, poetry, and interviews on iPad, iPhone, Android, or online, as well as the hard copy you know and love. (When you buy a subscription through our store, we’ll send you the discount code.)
September 28, 2011 Bulletin On the Shelf By Sadie Stein H.G. Wells A cultural news roundup. Jewish poet and novelist Emanuel Litvinoff has died at the age of ninety-six. Here, he reads his poem “T. S. Eliot.” A new Bloomsbury imprint will digitally revive out-of-print titles by Edith Sitwell, Cecil Day-Lewis, and Monica Dickens, among others. Julian Assange’s memoir, due to lackluster sales, may soon be out of print. It’s sold fewer than 700 copies. Michael Moore tries to pull his memoir from “murderous Georgia” following the execution of Troy Davis. Reviewers vs. Bloggers. Stephen King gives fans a taste of The Shining sequel. Le fin d’Asterix. The return of The BFG. The sex life of H. G. Wells. Between a rock and a hard place. A visual history of book references in The Simpsons. “Bentley was, however, no ass.”
September 21, 2011 Bulletin On the Shelf By Sadie Stein Gustave Flaubert. Photograph by Nadar.A cultural news roundup. Michel Houellebecq has been found. So has a James M. Cain manuscript. Neil Young is writing an autobiography. So is Jermaine Jackson. So is Julian Assange. But without his consent. “If I say ‘David Bellos has to be one of the smartest people now on the planet,’ what language am I using? English of a kind; but scarcely the Queen’s, which—to judge from her public utterances—retains a careful insularity; mid-Atlantic schtick is not Her Majesty’s bag.” Nor Shakespeare’s. The Sondheim-crossword mother lode. Shakeups at DC Comics … But peace at the Poetry Society. “The general editorial posture of the magazine leaned away from the conventions of the establishment and toward the eccentricities of bohemians everywhere.” Salman Rushdie joins Twitter. “Flaubert once bet some friends that he could make love to a woman, smoke a cigar, and write a letter at the same time. He won, as they looked on in admiration.” These are beautiful, if we do say so ourselves.
September 19, 2011 Bulletin Our Café au Lait Cup—Now for Sale! By Sadie Stein Yes, now our brand-new, limited-edition Paris Review café au lait cup is for sale in our store! We have been drinking from them since they arrived here in the office, and our coffee and tea taste extra scintillating. They also have a satisfying heft. But wait! For just a few dollars more, you can get the cup, plus a full year of fiction, poetry, and interviews. That’s right: four issues of The Paris Review plus the smartest cup in your kitchen. Now, that’s what we call a delicious offer.