April 8, 2013 On the Shelf These Quizzes Are Hard, and Other News By Sadie Stein Can you guess these classic books from their phantom covers? In a word: no. (Well, three of them.) Guess these famous novels from their second lines? We batted like .600. Also disspiritingly difficult: this John le Carré quiz. Buck up! “Without the advertising budgets of major houses, the smaller presses have more difficulty finding readers, Mr. Nelson said, and the idea behind the library was to form a community of people who could share books that were not easy to find elsewhere.” Meet Mellow Pages Library of Bushwick. Iain Banks, who announced last week that he is dying of cancer, married his long-term partner at Inverlochy Castle Hotel in the Scottish Highlands. As he put it, he asked if she would “do me the honour of becoming my widow.”
April 5, 2013 On the Shelf Moist, and Other News By Sadie Stein “Other books I can’t throw away because—well, they’re books, and you can’t throw away a book, can you?” In memory of the late Roger Ebert, an essay on libraries and love. Amazon is in the process of testing an automated cover generator. Well, of course they are, silly. Why do so many people hate the word moist, anyway? On word aversion. Lizzie Skurnick, the Boswell of the world of YA literature, is launching Lizzie Skurnick Books, an imprint that will “bring back the very best in young adult literature, from the classics of the 1930s and 1940s, to the thrillers and social novels of the 1970s and 1980s.” Short version: Scotland is giving back some of George Washington’s books.
April 4, 2013 On the Shelf Good Little Girls, and Other News By Sadie Stein “Good little girls ought not to make mouths at their teachers for every trifling offense. This retaliation should only be resorted to under peculiarly aggravated circumstances.” Mark Twain’s advice to little girls, illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky. Speaking of: the always fun Wodehouse Prize shortlist is posted. “British writing will be far less incisive and fun when he stops.” Tim Martin pays tribute to Iain Banks, who just revealed his terminal illness. “Banks manages to be both popular and profound,” says Stuart Kelly in The Scotsman.
April 3, 2013 On the Shelf Times-ian Haiku, and Other News By Sadie Stein Foxing and diapers: learn the anatomy of a book. A Tumblr blog displays incidental New York Times haiku (not all of which mention nature, but still). The AP has dropped illegal immigrant from its stylebook. The New York Times (haiku generators) are considering following suit. A Jane Austen guide to thrift. Retrench! “I am officially Very Poorly”: Iain Banks reveals that he has terminal cancer.
April 2, 2013 On the Shelf The Bookstore of the Year, and Other News By Sadie Stein Oxford, Mississippi’s amazing Square Books has been named the PW Bookstore of the Year. All the book industry April Fool’s Day pranks—from a 52 Shades imprint to the Big Six becoming a Big One—seem depressingly plausible. Buck up! Here are seven pranks and tricks from literature. You can take a cruise with Margaret Atwood. The novel she’s promoting, MaddAddam, is a dystopian tale described as “unpredictable, chilling and hilarious,” all words we like applied to our cruises, too. BuzzFeed is launching a long-form reads section, which the editor characterizes as “BuzzFeed for people who are afraid of BuzzFeed.” We imagine the fearless are also welcome.
April 1, 2013 On the Shelf This Is Your Life on Books, and Other News 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.