Hitherto a Benedictine of the affectless, Tao Lin offers an appealingly unhinged take on The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40 List” at Canteen.
Another Under-40 on “20 Under 40”
Tolstoy’s Letter on Indian Independence
In 1908, Leo Tolstoy sent “A Letter to a Hindu” to Tarak Nath Das, a leader of the Indian freedom movement. In it, Tolstoy made the case for nonviolent resistance as the only way for India to gain independence from Britain. You can read the letter, along with Mohandas Gandhi’s introduction, over here.
Adobe Books and Arts Cooperative
Adobe Books may become Adobe Books and Arts Cooperative thanks to a collection of young, influential artists who do not want to see their favorite bookstore/community space close its doors. You know, the one that records its book sales in a composition notebook, not a computer system. (h/t Lydia Kiesling)
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Amazon responds to Hachette furor
Amazon, whose tense negotiations with Hachette in the past months have led them to slow ship-times for its books, offered last night “to fund 50% of an author pool—to be allocated by Hachette—to mitigate the impact of this dispute on author royalties, if Hachette funds the other 50%.” Of course, Hachette may find calculating and allocating damages awkward so soon after authors flexed their social-media muscle. Sidebar: Amazon claimed “989 of 1000” items sold would be unaffected by this continuing “business interruption,” which might mean a full 1.1 percent of their business comes from just one mid-sized traditional publisher—heartening news from an unlikely source.
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An Unusual Inheritance
“They were still dressed for the funeral when their inheritance showed up.” Granta magazine has a new short story by Amelia Gray, whose literary rise we considered back in 2012.
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The Cat in the Hat
“Ted has another peculiar hobby — that of collecting hats of every description.” Art imitated life for Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, hat collector extraordinaire.
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