Martin Amis is interviewed in The Globe and Mail: “All my novels are feminist from about 1980 on.”
Martin Amis in The Globe and Mail
Book World
“These days…the brick-and-mortar bookstores that are still standing have a loyal following.”
●
●
Canonical Comics
The world’s great literature as comics and visuals. Though, as Steven Heller points out in The Atlantic, defining the canon is a contentious task, comics or no.
●
●
A Look at the Guantánamo Prison Library
New York Times reporter Charlie Savage set up a Tumblr dedicated to cataloging some of the books available in the Guantánamo prison library for detainees.
A Heartbreaking Playlist of Staggering Sadness
Emma Straub’s super sad true Year In Reading entry had our eyes welling up just from its synopses, but now Ms. Straub’s put together an extremely sad playlist to keep you depressed through all of February.
●
●
The British Library Goes Digital
The British Library is launching a new iPad app that will eventually feature over 60,000 19th century books.
●
●
Yea or Nay
In the mid-90s, David Foster Wallace published a scathing review of a John Updike novel, Toward the End of Time, that became a key text for critics of the celebrated author. Now, at The New Republic, David Baddiel argues that Updike gets a bad rap, while Jeffrey Meyers backs up DFW’s position. It might also be a good time to read James Santel’s review of Updike’s Collected Stories.
“Let a hundred languages contend and a hundred flowers will bloom.”
Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s moving speech at The Sunday Times Literary Awards in which he speaks about the resilience of literature and the necessity of keeping less-popular languages alive is now available online. (Here’s our handy guide to pronouncing the author’s name, in case you were too embarrassed to ask.)
●
●