October 9, 2013 On the Shelf Librarians’ Darkest Secrets, and Other News By Sadie Stein Shame! Librarians tell all. “I think that Napoleon was a terrific guy before he started crossing national borders. Over the course of time, his temperament changed, and his behavior was insensitive to the nations he occupied. Through greed—which it sees differently, as technological development and efficiency for the customer and low price, all that—[Amazon] has walked itself into the position of thinking that it can thrive without the assistance of anyone else. That is megalomania.” Andrew Wylie on Amazon. For those inured to leaf-peeping, an October guide to Northeastern horror-writer tourism. Wamblecropt, groke, and other wonderful, forgotten words.
October 8, 2013 On the Shelf J. D. Salinger on a Cruise, and Other News By Sadie Stein J. D. Salinger worked as an entertainment director on a luxury liner. And other odd jobs of literary greats. “Few readers know that Edgar had an older brother. Typically going by the name Henry, he was a poet, like his famous sibling, and a hard-drinking sailor.” At Page Turner, an investigation of early Poe. Vogue UK has launched the Vogue On … Designers book series. “Rather like a modern foreign correspondent, he had his area of expertise that he was keen to emphasize.” On the “shaggy-dog stories” of Herodotus.
October 7, 2013 On the Shelf Stevie Nicks Writes GoT Fan Poetry, and Other News By Sadie Stein “I would love to write some music for Game of Thrones … I’ve written a bunch of poetry about it—one for each other characters. On Jon Snow … On Arya … On Cersei and Jaime.” Stevie Nicks in Westeros. “I never really expected that this would go on this long and become such a focus, but I’m happy it has.” Walter Skold, the founder of the Dead Poets Society of America, has visited the graves of three hundred, well, dead poets. Happy birthday, Book Riot. “In my mid-adolescence, my friend Terry Martin and I became obsessed with William F. Buckley. This makes more sense when you realize that we were living in Bible Belt farming country miles from civilization. Buckley seemed impossibly exotic. We used to go into Toronto and prowl the used-book stores on Queen Street looking for rare first editions of The Unmaking of a Mayor and God and Man at Yale. To this day I know all the great Buckley lines.” Malcolm Gladwell, by the book.
October 3, 2013 On the Shelf Come Play with Us, and Other News By Sadie Stein “It’s not like Klingon or anything. It is reasonable to believe it once existed. But nobody every wrote it down so we don’t know exactly what ‘it’ really was. Instead, what we know is that there are hundreds of languages that share similarities in syntax and vocabulary, suggesting that they all evolved from a common ancestor.” Here is a story in Proto-Indo-European, a speculative attempt by linguists to re-create the ancient root language. The Stanley Hotel of Estes Park, Colorado—aka, the inspiration for The Shining—is digging up its pet cemetery to make way for a “wedding and corporate retreat pavilion.” Which, we must say, sounds more lucrative, even if a psychic declares it a bad idea. Tom Clancy has died, at the age of sixty-six. Dave Eggers says he’s never heard of the book he allegedly plagiarized. A new edition of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book is being officially rereleased in China.
October 2, 2013 On the Shelf Dickensian Peg Legs, and Other News By Sadie Stein There are so many wooden legs in the works of Dickens. David Bowie’s one hundred favorite books include The Trial of Henry Kissinger, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. “You’ve published a novel, and half a dozen short stories, and you’ve found clever ways to fluff up your bio. You think of your writing resume as one of the most creative pieces of fiction you’ve written.” Justin Kramon on being a fiction-writing professor. “Fleming was essentially a bureaucrat during the war. But, being an imaginative man, he could not help thinking about a more active role as a secret agent.” The real story behind the birth of James Bond. Yup: the Library of Congress is closed, too.
October 1, 2013 On the Shelf The Font of Least Resistance, and Other News By Sadie Stein Fave: yet another word with a surprisingly venerable history. A bookie’s take on the Nobel Prize in Literature. “Fame has a dark side. When Times New Roman appears in a book, document, or advertisement, it connotes apathy. It says, ‘I submitted to the font of least resistance.’” The strange mystery of editor Ronald Lane Latimer.