Big Screen Brooklyn
Not a Good Influence
Why should a college student major in English? It’s a question with hundreds of answers, but one of the most common is that reading, more so than other activities, makes you a better person. It sharpens your mind and hones your sense of morality. But what if this comforting idea — as close as you can get to a conviction held by all writers — has little to no basis in reality?
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Ask George
Looking to trade memes with the editors of The Paris Review? Not fully convinced that Lorin Stein and Sadie Stein are not in fact related? Then log on to Reddit at 3 PM EST, when the editors will take your questions as part of a joint AMA session.
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Pirouettes
We’ve covered the Atlantic series By Heart a number of times before. It features notable authors writing about their favorite passages. In the latest edition, Mary-Beth Hughes picks out a paragraph from Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower, about a poet who’s trying to cope with grief. Sample quote: “Reading Fitzgerald, I felt it was possible to write as I’d experienced dancing.”
Hurricane Harvey Relief
The Texas Library Association has a disaster relief fund to support damaged libraries, and you can give to it here (via Book Riot).
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Computer of Horrors
If you’re on the East Coast and still have power, don’t let Sandy ruin your Halloween – feast your eyes on these vintage horror paperback covers, instead. Stay safe!
The Heat-Packing Poet
Why did Richard Brautigan’s friends eventually stop inviting him to parties? Was it because he got drunk? Was it because he brought too many friends? Or was it because, as Michael LaPointe suggests in his review of Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan, he liked to pack a revolver?
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You Choose It, It Chooses You
Recommended Reading: This essay by Melissa Febos which won the 2015 Center for Women Writers Prize in Creative Nonfiction. We’ve previously mentioned Febos’s work in a couple of essays about New York writers.
Swedish Covers
50 watts, a blog dedicated to book-related design and illustration, takes a look at Swedish book covers.
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