An election year is upon us, and at the Times, John Williams offers up some reading material for the months to come. Among the books mentioned is my favorite, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72.
Election Year Reading
Ben Greenman is on a roll
The New Yorker’s book blog continues to host “Questioningly,” a so-called Twitter game show. The most recent installment featured the imagined Facebook status updates of literary figures, and was hosted by Ben Greenman. Who, might I add, is on a roll these days over at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency too.
●
●
Roger Angell has worked at the New Yorker for 58 years.
In his profile of Roger Angell, Sridhar Paddu offers this astute observation from Charles McGrath: “Which is the greater—Roger the writer or Roger the editor? It’s kind of a toss-up.” Bonus: Angell’s piece about Don Zimmer, who just passed away this week, is well worth your time.
Boozing for Books
Want to support Estonian literature? Buy booze. Finns traveling to Estonia for cheap alcohol are helping to support Estonian cultural and literary activities because part of the liquor tax funds these programs. Maybe we could have that tax over here, too?
“More allegorical than real”
Recommended Reading: Deborah Friedell on Ian McEwan’s The Children Act.
●
●
Publishing’s Other Imbalance Problem
“The reality is, there are just not a lot of POC authors out there,” writes Ellen Oh in her essay on non-white authors. “We are not representing the 37% of our population when we only amount to 10% of publishing.”
●
●
Weekend (Very) Short Reading
With the help of the students in Oberlin’s Advanced Fiction Workshop, Dan Chaon whittled the 200-story longlist provided by Wigleaf’s editors into The Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions. Enjoy your reading, everybody.
Say It Loud
At Longform, you can find a nifty old essay, originally published in 1990 in The Missouri Review, in which Mark Costello and David Foster Wallace pay a visit to a pioneering rap studio.
●
●