August 7, 2012 On the Shelf Loving Gorey, Trashing Ulysses By Sadie Stein Eve Bowen on the enduring cult of Edward Gorey. We love Bookdrum’s interactive maps of the real locations featured in famous novels. On his tumblr Newcover, graphic designer Matt Roeser gives books the covers he thinks they should have. At the Atlantic, a discussion of what grown-ups can learn from kids’ books. Paolo Coelho made waves when he told a Brazilian newspaper, “One of the books that caused great harm was James Joyce’s Ulysses, which is pure style. There is nothing there. Stripped down, Ulysses is a twit.” Should you happen to disagree, here is a free audiobook of the modernist classic. Joshua Cohen, a visiting scribe at the Jewish Book Council, talks the art and business of writing with Justin Taylor. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
August 6, 2012 On the Shelf Man Pulls Sword over Badly Treated Book: Happy Monday! By Sadie Stein “Christopher Meusburger, twenty-nine, of St. Paul, Minnesota, allegedly threatened his sixty-two-year-old neighbor with a sword on Monday night after she complained that he mistreated a book she lent him, the Pioneer Press reports.” A list of great lists. “The birth scene is now a staple of film and television, but strangely absent from fiction—sometimes alluded to in passing, but rarely dwelt on in closeup.” “The hardest and most frustrating books ever written.” Meet Bardowl: Spotify for audiobooks. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
August 3, 2012 On the Shelf Judging Books by Covers By Sadie Stein The book-spine poetry of Nina Katchadourian. An appreciation of the work of influential French book designer Pierre Faucheux. Philip K. Dick in film. In 1998, Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli made a trailer for a remake of Gore Vidal’s Caligula. Watch it here. Introducing the New York Review of Tweets. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
August 2, 2012 On the Shelf Wit, Wisdom, Financial Advice By Sadie Stein A list of some of Gore Vidal’s best bons mots. J. K. Rowling will have a cameo in the official new Harry Potter book club. The Beinecke has acquired a wealth of Ezra Pound manuscripts. The economics of freelancing. (It’s easier if you live in one of these writer-friendly cities!) [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
August 1, 2012 On the Shelf Wharton, Borges, and Grey: Fan-Fic Galore! By Sadie Stein The latest Dead Authors Podcast features Jorge Luis Borges. In all honesty, who isn’t interested in lists of famous literary feuds? A new generation takes over Doonesbury. A new generation discovers The Babysitters Club. Leigh Stein explains how to read in public. Marc New York’s Fifty Shades–inspired ad campaign. An excerpt from The Age of Desire, Jennie Fields’s Edith Wharton–themed romance. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
July 31, 2012 On the Shelf Infinite Bikini, New Fitzgerald By Sadie Stein Match your bikini to your beach read. A slide show of situationist artist Robert Montgomery’s London street poetry. The New Yorker runs unpublished fiction by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A visit to Deep Valley. A redditor posts every Harry Potter illustration in a single image. “To have undertaken the thankless task of listing all the books I can recall ever reading gives me extreme pleasure and satisfaction. I know of no author who has been mad enough to attempt this. Perhaps my list will give rise to more confusion—but its purpose is not that. Those who know how to read a man know how to read his books.” Henry Miller on his favorite books. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]