Google will launch the iriver Story HD this weekend. It will be the first e-reader built to be fully integrated with Google Books.
Google to launch e-reader
The Book Club to End All Book Clubs
A long discussion of Tenth of December that includes George Saunders himself? Why, Rumpus Book Club, you’re too kind.
The Science of Poetry
Recommended Listening: David Naimon interviews Ursula K. Le Guin about her latest poetry collection, Late in the Day. Pair with Paul Morton’s Millions interview with the author.
Wetlands
Recommended Reading: Blake Morrison on the literature of England’s flood-prone east coast.
Reading Dickens in Lagos
George Packer at Lapham’s Quarterly writes of meeting a young Burmese reader of Charles Dickens: “‘All of those characters are me,’ [he] explained. ‘Neither a British nor American young man living in the twenty-first century can understand a Dickens as well as I can…I am more equipped to understand Dickens than modern novels. I don’t know what is air conditioning, what is subway, what is fingerprint exam.’” (via Book Bench)