March 21, 2013 On the Shelf Our Books Lack Feelings, and Other News By Sadie Stein Over at Ploughshares, an interview with book artist Melissa Jay Craig. Putting his money where his mouth is, so to speak, writer Tom Bissell has written a video game, Gears of War: Judgment, the fourth in a military sci-fi series. This trend has endless possibilities. (Cue Joyce Carol Oates for Xbox 360.) An algorithm finds that the emotional content of books is on the decline. (Although there’s probably more sex.) Conversely! “Morn shows that he was not immune to the forces that had so dramatically acted upon his father, though his own political convictions would thrive within the rococo folds of his language.” Two new books allow us to see a new, less detached side of Nabokov. Horror writer James Herbert has died, at sixty-nine.
March 20, 2013 On the Shelf Persepolis Ascendant, and Other News By Sadie Stein The banning of Persepolis in Chicagoland schools has, in the grand tradition, boosted the graphic novel’s (already robust) sales. “I have only one humble criticism. I wonder if you realize how good you are.” Mutual admiration letters betwixt authors (and yes, the unsolicited humble criticism is Mailer to Styron). “Philip Roth celebrated his eightieth birthday in the Billy Johnson Auditorium of the Newark Museum last night with the most astonishing literary performance I’ve ever witnessed.” David Remnick was there. “There is no modernist stream-of-consciousness novel harder to get through than a publisher-author agreement.” And other things every writer should know. Edinburgh’s Looking Glass Books: we want to go to there.
March 19, 2013 On the Shelf Albums-as-Books, and Other News By Sadie Stein Can there ever be too many albums-as-books? In a word: no. As long as we’re grappling with the Big Questions: Is this the worst book cover in the world? (No.) Not one but two bookstores saved by loyal communities! (Via Shelf Awareness.) Books about libraries: the perfect storm for bibliophiles. This guy, in particular, might enjoy them, since he’s banned from “all the libraries on the face of the Earth.”
March 18, 2013 On the Shelf Eliot’s Pen, Fabio’s Mane, and Other News By Sadie Stein With Charles Dickens’s quill a bit the worse for wear, the Royal Society of Literature begins signing its roll book with T. S. Eliot’s fountain pen. James Wood inaugurates. In the New York Post, poet Bob Holman shares a guide to his poetic New York, which includes the White Horse Tavern, the Hare Krishna tree, and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Will independent bookstores fill the gaps left by Borders? In Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, at least, this might be happening! Speaking of: Did you catch this list of über-indie bookstores in private homes? Happy birthday, Fabio: here are his best book covers.
March 15, 2013 On the Shelf Chicken Poetry, and Other News By Sadie Stein Sheryl Sandberg: “I probably shouldn’t admit this since I work in the tech industry, but I still prefer reading paper books.” Perhaps this explains why January bookstore sales were up 5.5 percent ($2.1 billion)! KFC is recovering from a Chinese chicken scandal with a Twitter poetry contest. “KFC kicked off a poetry contest on social media. The company asked fans to pen poems that include the phrase, ‘The chickens are innocent,’ laying the blame on illicit drug use at the farms. Best poem wins an iPad mini.” Yes, you just read that correctly. We can’t get enough of Nina Katchadourian and her “Sorted Books” project.
March 14, 2013 On the Shelf Elements of Style, and Other News By Sadie Stein Classics, Strunk and White style. “The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin.” And other surreal opening lines. Fans rally around San Francisco’s beloved (and endangered) Adobe Books. “How many other books had I been fooling myself about?” When you think you’ve read books … but you haven’t. Get the knives out: any discussion of the best food memoirs is sure to be contentious.