New this week is David Bezmozgis’s The Free World, the new Geoff Dyer collection of criticism Otherwise Known as the Human Condition (reviewed here today), “Professor X’s” higher ed expose In the Basement of the Ivory Tower, Funeral for a Dog, a German novel in translation by young author Thomas Pletzinger, which John Wray has blurbed as “ballsy,” and Chinaberry, a posthumously published novel by the Appalachian author James Still.
Tuesday New Release Day: Bezmozgis, Dyer, Professor X, Pletzinger, Still
Borrowing Made Easy
A fledgling New York tech firm has invented a new service, Oyster, that the company claims is a lot like Spotify in its workings. Their innovation? The products they’re sharing are books.
Greatly Exaggerated
At 74, Clive James is a remarkably prolific poet, one who’s working hard to finish or publish three books in the next year alone. He spoke with Douglas Murray of The Spectator about his unflagging energy. “At the moment, I am in the slightly embarrassing position where I write poems saying I am about to die and I don’t,” he says. You could also read our own Garth Risk Hallberg on James’s book Cultural Amnesia.
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Fully Secure
Recommended Viewing: Atlas Obscura’s gallery of libraries in which books are chained to the shelves. (h/t The Hairpin)
Big Brother
"'Moby Dick is one of my favorite books, but let's face it — it's a hot mess,' says Evison. 'If I had software that said, 'Look, maybe this four-page essay on scrimshaw isn't gonna fly with your 28 to 40 male [demographic],' what would we have lost with that? Sometimes, you know, it's just got to be a little bit of a dictatorship.'" When e-readers and marketing tactics collide.
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A Bookish Jurassic Park
Recommended reading: before you head to the theaters for the latest Jurassic Park film, make sure you know the series's bookish roots.
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No love for Michael Crummey’s GALORE, Max? Yes, I realize it only just came out in the States today after two years in Canada. But given its ambition (which is very much up your alley), I figured I’d bring it to your attention. The Dyer volume, however, is very good.
Ed, The book probably should have been included here. An oversight, though there is no real rhyme or reason to how these new release updates are compiled. Anyway, it’s not as though we’ve been ignoring Galore. Michael wrote a nice essay about his book, whales, and Moby Dick for us last week.