Librarians might frown on P.D.A. in the library, that is, Public Displays of Affection by canoodling college couples. But another kind of P.D.A. might bring a different, more welcome sort of disruption to the library: Patron-Driven Acquisition, a model of e-book licensing that aims to relieve library purchasing agents from spending thousands on books nobody will end up reading.
Patron-Driven Acquisition
Soccer: The Sublime & the Nonsensical
Recommended Reading: Michael J. Avogino's "Total Utter Madness: A Story of Soccer" from the Tin House archives. If you're going to watch soccer all day, might as well throw some good writing in there too, right? An example: "Life would go on, as would the sport of soccer and all that came with it: the brotherhood, the ethnocentricity, the sportsmanship, the nationalism, the love, the regionalism, the racism, class conflict, the sublime, the nonsensical, amongst white, black, brown, Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jew, everyone guilty and innocent."
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On Angelou’s Legacy
Over at The Takeaway, Nikki Giovanni and Kwame Dawes reflect upon Maya Angelou’s enduring legacy, and how she affected both of them personally.
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The Very Picture of Guilt
If the prospect of dealing with Frankenstorm is harshing your mellow this Halloween, you might want to look at The Paris Review Daily’s illustrated Telltale Heart.
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Always and Everywhere
"After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." You've seen the quote on Pinterest and Tumblr, so why not dig a little deeper into Aldous Huxley's ideas about the transcendent capabilities of music?
Dividing Lines
In spite of the title of her blog post, Lily Meyer doesn’t think Ann Patchett is really an enemy of Zadie Smith. Instead, she thinks the two authors play opposing roles in her life, thanks largely to the different effects their books have on her perceptions. At the Ploughshares blog, she contrasts their novels, using excerpts from White Teeth and Bel Canto. Related: Kevin Charles Redmon’s review of Patchett's novel State of Wonder.
Throwback Thursday: 1930s Cheever Edition
What better way to celebrate Throwback Thursday than by reading the first John Cheever short story ever published?
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