June 11, 2012 On the Shelf Epic Battles, Boring Idiots, Paper Clips: Happy Monday! By The Paris Review The classics, condensed for babies. Archaeologists from the Museum of London are excavating the Curtain Theatre, which predates the Globe, and may have served as an interim home for Shakespeare’s troupe. In praise of the paper clip. Buzz Bissinger versus Dallas. Amazilla versus Barnes Kong: watch the epic trailer for Rebel Bookseller. Slavoj Žižek: “For me, the idea of hell is the American type of parties. Or, when they ask me to give a talk, and they say something like, ‘After the talk there will just be a small reception’—I know this is hell. This means all the frustrated idiots, who are not able to ask you a question at the end of the talk, come to you and, usually, they start: ‘Professor Žižek, I know you must be tired, but …’ Well, fuck you. If you know that I am tired, why are you asking me? I’m really more and more becoming Stalinist. Liberals always say about totalitarians that they like humanity, as such, but they have no empathy for concrete people, no? OK, that fits me perfectly. Humanity? Yes, it’s OK—some great talks, some great arts. Concrete people? No, ninety-nine percent are boring idiots.”
June 8, 2012 On the Shelf Selling, Banning, and Walking By Sadie Stein Novelist Barry Unsworth has died at eighty-one. The Catholic Church denounces a book; it becomes a best seller. (Almost as effective as Oprah.) Lev Grossman teaches us how to read and walk simultaneously. “The Comedy of Noir.” Where things stand: the Rumpus explores racial bias in the world of books.
June 7, 2012 On the Shelf Bradbury, Trethewey, and an Android By The Paris Review “I am not afraid of robots. I am afraid of people.” Ray Bradbury answers a fan letter, 1974. Natasha Trethewey is named Poet Laureate. Telling tales on the mid-century New Yorker. Just who was Janet Groth’s thinly disguised cad, the Great Deceiver? Protesting New York City library cuts. An Emily Dickinson garden party in Amherst. Controversial words in China and the USA. The android head of Philip K. Dick is terrifying.
June 6, 2012 On the Shelf Scary Kids’ Books, Annoying Writers By Sadie Stein Bookseller by day, brewer by night! Amazon.com has acquired sixty-two-year-old Avalon Books, family owned since its founding. The eternal question: What type of annoying writer are you? Great Gatsby fashion. Terrifying children’s books of the world.
June 5, 2012 On the Shelf Dr. Seuss, Tintin, and a Really Late Library Book By The Paris Review A 1932 original Tintin in America cover sells for a record-breaking 1.3 million euros at auction. American Pastoral, coming to a multiplex near you. (Okay, maybe an art house.) Definitely coming to the multiplex, Guy Richie’s Treasure Island. The name really says it all: Haruki Murakami Bingo. Dr. Seuss’s politically charged World War II cartoons. An honorable patron returns a book to an Irish library … eighty years past its due date.
June 4, 2012 On the Shelf Thefts, Maps, and the Return of Oprah By The Paris Review A rare, first-edition Book of Mormon has been stolen from an Arizona store. The Atlantic presents a slideshow of images from the “graphic canon,” in which artists take on the classics. Will 2012 be the biggest Book Expo ever? An interactive map of the UK’s literary destinations. The return of Oprah’s Book Club.