As promised, Amazon has removed the free ebooks from its Kindle bestseller list and now shows two lists: freebies and books you actually have to pay for.
A Cleaner List
Reel Results
Hanah Anderson and Matt Daniels analyzed two thousand screenplays for their representation of gender and age. Check out their data here. Pair with a recent piece from our own Bill Morris on the Hollywood biopic.
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Amazon Books Expands?
I directed your attention to the opening of the first Amazon Books in Seattle. Now, reports are coming in that Amazon could have plans to open 300-400 more stores across the country. Other sources say the expansion could be more modest.
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Selling Marxism
An extremely rare copy of Karl Marx‘s Das Kapital sold at auction for $51,739 this past month. That’s more than five times as much as this extremely rare copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
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The Signature Smirk of the Absurd
This essay in the Times Literary Supplement on Kurt Vonnegut‘s “strangely central place in American fiction despite his occasional insistence on his own marginality” is certainly worth a read.
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From the Mixed Up Files of DFW
Newsweek takes an “infinitely fascinating quest” through David Foster Wallace’s just-released archive at University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center.
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Wendell Pierce Secures A Book Deal for His Look at Hurricane Katrina
Somewhat overshadowed by David Simon’s recent op-ed on the state of modern America (if not capitalism itself) was the news that Wendell Pierce – featured prominently in both The Wire and Treme – secured a book deal for his meditation on Hurricane Katrina and “the effect it had on his family, his life, his memory, and his hometown.”
Happy Halloween
Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman have written a comic zombie novel entitled The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home, which can be read for free on the website Wattpad. So far, three chapters have been posted, with a total of thirteen to be published in the ensuing weeks.
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Time Magazine Goes Soft
Last week, a lot of people were disappointed by Time‘s decision to “water down” the latest issue’s cover for its American audience. As a follow-up, ShortFormBlog takes a look at the publication’s history of doing this, and also their reasoning.
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