December 13, 2012 On the Shelf Leo Tolstoy, Emerging Author, and Other News By Sadie Stein Target inexplicably shelves Tolstoy under “Emerging Authors.” “My feeling was, if you’re going to propose to your girlfriend this way, you’ve got to do it right … You do it in the finished book.” An illustrator pops the question in print. The unlikely friendship between Walt Whitman and Bram Stoker. The fiscal cliff for English majors. Why we reread.
December 12, 2012 On the Shelf Zeus, and Other News By Sadie Stein On protectionism, e-books, and candlemakers. Biologist Edward O. Wilson and U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass on science and poetry. All the best books of 2012 lists that are fit to print, in one place. Zeus’s affairs, graphically. The worst word of 2012?
December 11, 2012 On the Shelf Papa’s Cats, and Other News By Sadie Stein A judge has ruled that the (often) six-toed cats who roam the Key West Hemingway House (many direct descendants of Papa’s animals) must be regulated. “The Snowman is not really about Christmas, it’s about death.” Oh. Eloise Klein Healy is the first Los Angeles Poet Laureate. “You have to be lonely to be a writer.” An interview with Edna O’Brien. “Crafted by local artisans in their fair trade workshop in Chennai, the books are hand-bound and each page is painstakingly screen-printed by hand using traditional Indian dyes, whose fresh earthy scent gently oozes from the gorgeous pages of the finished book.” Watch the making of something beautiful.
December 10, 2012 On the Shelf Kafka’s Mice, and Other News By Sadie Stein In a match made in fun, fearless, female heaven, Harlequin and Cosmo are producing a line of e-books. Feel like writing your own erotica? The intersection of Fifth and Flower Streets in downtown Los Angeles is now Ray Bradbury Square. An interactive art installation encourages participants to fill empty books. We can add nothing to this description: “A letter from Franz Kafka in which the sick writer describes his ‘naked fear’ of mice invading his bedroom and complains about his cat soiling his slippers could be saved from disappearing into a private collection in a last-minute rescue attempt by German fans.”
December 7, 2012 On the Shelf The Dickens Museum, and Other News By Sadie Stein “The Dickens Museum felt for many years a bit like Miss Havisham, covered in dust.” After an extensive renovation, the London home where Charles Dickens lived as a newlywed has reopened to the public. “Maintain low financial expectations.” One author reveals his earnings. Capitalism and socialism were Merriam-Webster’s most looked-up words of the year. But malarkey had a strong showing, too! Authors choose their favorite illustrations. Oh dear: Are we in the midst of a reading crisis?
December 6, 2012 On the Shelf Scary Children Reading, and Other News By Sadie Stein Even terrifying people love books. “A bedbug had crawled out of a copy of True Blood while she was reading it.” When library books get bedbugs. “It is awful to think I’ll probably be regarded as some sort of authority on Brazil the rest of my life.” Benjamin Moser on Elizabeth Bishop and her adopted homeland. Might selling used books become illegal? “Al and the TAs are like reality-show TV contestants: regular people who suddenly have a huge audience.” Elliott Holt takes an online literature course.