March 5, 2013 On the Shelf The Fortress of Solitude: The Musical, and Other News By Sadie Stein “If authors are hesitant to work with artists, artists have no reservations about working with authors’ words.” A tribute to some glorious, recent illustrations. Speaking of lovely books: nominate a cover for the 50 Books, 50 Covers book design awards. Great, bite-size cell phone reads. Speaking of short fiction, a tribute to a master of the form, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. The Fortress of Solitude: the musical.
March 4, 2013 On the Shelf Bookish Cakes, and Other News By Sadie Stein Happy Monday. Here are some cakes inspired by books! Nineteen Charles Bukowski drawings have come to light; most of them illustrated his column for the Los Angeles Free Press. A poem written by a thirteen-year-old Charlotte Brontë is expected to fetch at least £40,000 at auction. “If there has ever been a golden age for the unconventionally named author, it is now.” Bylines in the age of Google. The 2013 Tournament of Books is on.
March 1, 2013 On the Shelf Dating the Iliad, and Other News By Sadie Stein Geneticists estimate that the Iliad was written in 762 B.C., “give or take fifty years.” This squares with what classicists believe, too. Barnes & Noble says that rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated. Today in fearless luxury, these bespoke bindings are very beautiful. And speaking of books as status symbols: the book in medieval portraiture. The critics have spoken! The winners of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle awards are: Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (fiction); Andrew Solomon, Far from the Tree (nonfiction); Leanne Shapton, Swimming Studies (autobiography); Marina Warner, Stranger Magic (criticism); Robert Caro, The Passage of Power (biography); and D. A. Powell, Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys (poetry).
February 27, 2013 On the Shelf Digital Book Signings, and Other News 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.”
February 26, 2013 On the Shelf Reading Rooms of Your Dreams, and Other News By Sadie Stein From abandoned Wal-Marts to Venetian warrens, thirty places for book lovers. (N.b.: gaining access to number thirteen could be problematic.) A Colorado library is experimenting with loaning out seeds as well as books. Thomas Pynchon’s new novel, set in the pre-9/11 Manhattan tech sector, drops in September. “Writing by hand is laborious, and that is why typewriters were invented. But I believe that the labor has virtue, because of its very physicality.” Mary Gordon extols the virtues of longhand. Speaking of! Proust’s handwriting, while bad, offers moments of clarity, says Colm Tóibín: “The word homosexual, as it is written in his hand here, stands alone; it is very clearly written, each letter perfectly made and totally legible. There is a feeling as you look at it that it was a word Proust did not often write, or that perhaps he enjoyed writing, or that it was a term he now wanted to take his time over, and he needed Vallette to be able to see it clearly.”
February 25, 2013 On the Shelf James Bond’s Breakfast, and Other News By Sadie Stein Well, this is depressing: for fiscal reasons, a Tennessee post office has taken to tossing books that get returned to sender. Hopefully Dolly Parton, whose charity is involved, will intervene and make everything right. Ten “unfilmable” books, made into films of varying quality. Meanwhile, Penguin has been toting up the Oscar wins on adaptations of their titles, all of which are discounted. (The Shakespeares seem like cheating.) If all that was old news to you, perhaps we can interest you in a literary Oscars quiz? “Meticulous breakfast prep often signals violent tendencies.” On James Bond’s prandial fussiness and breakfast as character indicator in fiction.