Everyone’s been there: the bookstore event at which the reader drones on and on. The Observer shares some reading horror stories (and a few successes). Sarah McNally of NYC’s McNally Jackson bookstore says, “The traditional reading format is broken.”
On the Reading That Drags On and On
Steal This Record
Elvis Costello is calling the hefty price tag on his new box set "either a misprint or a satire" and advising fans to buy a Louis Armstrong box set or to wait until the discs included in his own box set are availble at a cheaper price "assuming that you have not already obtained them by more unconventional means."
●
●
Take Off Your Shirt, Mr. Darcy
How do you celebrate Pride and Prejudice's 200th birthday? By building a 12-foot tall statue of Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy in his wet shirt. The fiberglass statue is temporarily installed in Hyde Park but will tour the U.K. before settling in Lyme Park, Cheshire, where the famous scene was filmed.
●
●
“Almost Like the Blues”
Recommended reading (and listening): "Almost Like the Blues" by Leonard Cohen.
Rounding Out Frost’s “Monster Myth”
Over at the New York Times, Jennifer Schuessler previews a forthcoming collection of Robert Frost’s correspondence. It’s a collection, she says, that will go a long way toward rounding out the flat “monster myth” that’s subsumed the poet’s afterlife.
●
●