October 3, 2012 On the Shelf Do-Gooders, Good Covers By Sadie Stein Check out Design Observer’s list of cover-design award winners. A California school library is saved by an anonymous sixty-thousand-dollar donation. An interactive Shakespeare app includes narration by Derek Jacobi, an Elizabethan-to-modern translation function, and video clips. Three protest songs by Nicholson Baker: the writer takes on military intervention, Bradley Manning, and civilian casualties. “I got my M.F.A. out on the streets. My thesis advisor was a garbage bag filled with overdue library books.” How to apply to an M.F.A. program. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
October 2, 2012 On the Shelf Handsome Crooks, Crooked Reviewers By Sadie Stein Meet “ridiculously photogenic 19th century NZ criminal” Daniel Tohill. “Wanted — literate, artful writers who can post five-star reviews of some books on amazon.com. Pay is fifteen dollars firm for fifty to a hundred words of high praise with some specifics about the book that will appeal to potential readers.” The most-challenged books of 2012: newcomer Fifty Shades of Grey joins old favorites like witchcraft-mongering Harry Potter and Slaughterhouse Five. Gary Shteyngart: “You, American Airlines, should no longer be flying across the Atlantic. You do not have the know-how. You do not have the equipment. And your employees have clearly lost interest in the endeavor.” Wes Anderson presents an animation of the fictional books from Moonrise Kingdom. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
October 1, 2012 On the Shelf Hobbit Mythology, Classics Reinvented By Sadie Stein Artists from all over the world reinterpret covers for The Observer’s list of the hundred greatest novels. The Ransom Center’s Pale King archive is now open to the public. Look through some of DFW’s extensive notes. Good news for Louie C.K.: the Puzo estate can’t prevent any future Godfather films. “The Hobbit, published seventy-five years ago, is not a fantasy-adventure as it is being described, but a myth, or part of a mythology.” On the novel’s scholarly underpinnings. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
September 28, 2012 On the Shelf Tiny Books, Wuthering Napa By Sadie Stein Behold! The world’s smallest book! Teeny Ted from Tunip Town was etched on a microchip with an ion beam and can only be read via scanning electron microscope. Presented without comment: “This time, we’ll be finding the dapper but doomed lovebirds, Heathcliff and Catherine (or will it be Heath and Kate?) in modern day Napa Valley. Greg Berlanti, the creator and writer of Everwood, Jack & Bobby, and Arrow, and Tom Donaghy of The Whole Truth are developing a pilot for the hour-long drama, currently titled Napa.” Barnes & Noble goes … paperless? The reviews for J. K. Rowling are in, and they’re … tepid. Except when they’re not. Except when the reviewer hasn’t actually read the book. “A Chicago high school guidance counselor and former girls’ basketball coach filed a lawsuit against his school district for firing him after the release of his graphic book on relationship advice. He claims that his First Amendment rights have been violated and is seeking $1 million from the district.” Enough said, really. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
September 27, 2012 On the Shelf Literary Stockings, Keats’s Addiction By Sadie Stein In honor of T. S. Eliot’s birthday, here is a manuscript page of “Virginia.” Beatrix Potter’s family recipes go on the auction block: no rabbit, but she does instruct the reader how to prepare turkey. Wearable words for the bookish dresser. A new biography claims that John Keats was an opium addict. The embattled Rebecca musical is finally starting rehearsals. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
September 26, 2012 On the Shelf Of Bloggers and Book Clubs By Sadie Stein Brilliant: book club in a box. Writers defend their favorite punctuation marks. Tao Lin is selling his stuff on Twitter. This gent has the largest collection of primary Hemingway works in existence. The head judge of the Man Booker Prize claims book bloggers are harming literature. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]