November 15, 2012 On the Shelf When Poets Cook, and Other News By Sadie Stein “Few poets, it would seem, are willing to claim as favorite any old run of the mill standard recipe.” When poets cook. Dream homes built for books and the nerds who love them. The Institute of Egypt in Cairo, which suffered damage and losses last December, has been given four thousand rare books. “The reason we decided to do handmade books, sewing them instead of having them stapled, is because we wanted to make durable books that would be precious. When you get a Crumpled Press book, you can feel that it was handmade by somebody, you can feel slight irregularities in it. It’s a precious object that you’re not going to throw away. So if I make 250 or 1,000 copies, those books are going to carry on.”
November 14, 2012 On the Shelf The Word of the Year, and Other News By Sadie Stein Oxford American Dictionaries have chosen the word of the year: GIF. The rationale? “The GIF, a compressed file format for images that can be used to create simple, looping animations, turned twenty-five this year, but like so many other relics of the 80s, it has never been trendier.” The NYPL celebrates the pick thusly. Biographers falling for their subjects: an occupational hazard? “Any biography of a living, breathing and active figure who’s still at the height of his powers is going to have to strike a delicate balance between access and objectivity … It can be very tricky, and it requires real finesse.” Speaking of: the ten grumpiest authors in literary history.
November 13, 2012 On the Shelf A Man Finds Twenty Grand in a Book, and Other News By Sadie Stein A Massachusetts Good Samaritan found twenty thousand dollars hidden in the pages of a used book and is now trying to find the rightful owner. The real question: Why would an artist reinterpret Smiths titles as the covers of Penguin paperbacks? Reactions from around the world to Philip Roth’s retirement. A list of other notable literary retirements. And speaking of retirements, Salman Rushdie and John le Carré have ended their long-running feud.
November 12, 2012 On the Shelf David Foster Wallace for Congress, and Other News By Sadie Stein Such literary luminaries as David Foster Wallace, Charles Darwin, and Voldemort were just a few of the write-in candidates found on the ballot for Georgia’s Tenth Congressional District following controversial anti-science comments by candidate Paul Broun. The literature of hockey. “Writers’ graves can be surprising places to visit. Unlike the luminaries housed at more elegant cemeteries, like Pere Lachaise in Paris (Victor Hugo, Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Richard Wright), many literary stars lie for eternity in simpler, plainer spots around this country, with traditions around how to commemorate them as widely varied as the genres they comprise.” Next for the embattled Oxford American: fine dining? “He hated the idea of talking about things. We could sometimes, if you got the right moment, but even then it was almost cruel to do that to him—to do that to anyone of that generation.” Nanette Vonnegut talks about her dad to The Rumpus.
November 9, 2012 On the Shelf A Crime Writer Turns to Crime, and Other News By Sadie Stein A Texas crime writer has been sentenced to thirty years for paying to have her husband murdered. Ten things you may not have known about the Brothers Grimm. Is horror a genre beyond redemption? Or, as The Guardian puts it, damned to literary hell? “Don’t worry about growing up,” and other advice from F. Scott Fitzgerald to his daughter. Behold: the bibliochaise. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
November 8, 2012 On the Shelf San Francisco vs. New York, and Other News By Sadie Stein The bestseller lists from two beloved bookstores show what San Franciscans and New Yorkers, respectively, are reading. (Spoiler: everyone loves Junot Díaz.) But which book about Lincoln? Experts help you narrow it down. Print is dead, and nine other conversations the folks at Book Riot would just as soon, in a perfect world, never have again. Tats inspired by children’s books. Yes, The Giving Tree and Le Petit Prince are represented, but so are Ramona and Harriet Welsh! And you have to love the simplicity of this Narnia ink. The New York Public Library donated the food that would have been served at their annual fundraising gala to people affected by Hurricane Sandy. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]