Pulphead author John Jeremiah Sullivan writes his second New York Times Magazine cover story in five weeks. This is turning into an embarrassment of riches.
John Jeremiah Sullivan Visits Cuba
Abstract
Up until 1999, Italian college students were required to write longform theses, which explains why Umberto Eco felt the need to write a guide to completing one. Eco being Eco, however, the guide went on to become a classic with many applications. At Page-Turner, Hua Hsu explains why the author’s writing manual is also a guide to life. You could also read Hillary Kelly on Eco’s Confessions of a Young Novelist.
The British Library Goes Digital
The British Library is launching a new iPad app that will eventually feature over 60,000 19th century books.
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Smartphone Stories
Despite what we might think, smartphones aren't destroying good reading habits. Rather, smartphones are enabling access to books in developing countries, according to a new study. They allow readers to find books in remote parts of the world without libraries and at a cheaper price.
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Library in the Cloud
Amazon has unveiled its Kindle Lending Library. Prime subscribers can now "choose from thousands of books to borrow for free including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers – as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates."
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Theories of Theories of the Novel
In the Boston Review, Jess Row wades - slowly, interestingly, not always coherently - into the perpetually roiling waters of Theory of the Novel, taking on the canon wars, realism vs. the avant-garde, etc. Is it really "a safe bet that your average well-informed critic today has never read a single work of criticism by a writer of color?" Probably not, even granting Row's exception. But possibly worth arguing about. If you like that sort of thing.
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Even the Editors Get Rejected
Perhaps someone should compile a Salon des Refusés of Poetry Magazine's rejected poets.
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