- E-book pricing wars continue. Sony tries to hit the Kindle where it hurts by offering cheaper e-books. Meanwhile, $0 is becoming an important price point at the Kindle store.
- Sam Anderson hates Thomas Pynchon.
- An indie bookstore fan uses our bookstore tour as a jumping-off point for a literary day in Manhattan. You can too.
Curiosities: Smoldering Eyebrows
Just Another Award
“Four years after first announcing the decision to open the prize to Americans, the Booker is virtually indistinguishable from its competitors. It is exactly what many feared it would become: corporate and daft.” Alex Shephard writing for The New Republic about why the Man Booker Prize isn’t interesting anymore. Still, should you want to know who’s shortlisted this year, here’s our roundup.
The Rebellious English Major
In last week’s Brandeis commencement speech, Leon Wieseltier argued that never has there been a moment in American life when the humanities were respected less but needed more. “In recent years I have come to regard a commitment to the humanities as nothing less than an act of intellectual defiance, of cultural dissidence,” he said.
Barnes and Noble’s Black Friday Plan
Today is the much-discussed Black Friday, and Barnes and Noble has recruited prominent authors including Donna Tartt and David Mitchell to help raise holiday sales. The plan? To sell roughly 500,000 signed books.
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Truly the Best Contest Ever
The New Yorker Book Bench is having a contest. Submit a photo of your pet dressed as a character from literature. My kittens are in for the worst two weeks of their young lives. Dante and Fur-gil? Tess of the O’Paw-bervilles? Jay Catsby?
Oh my god. So many possibilities.
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