We know you’re eagerly following our Year in Reading series, but we want you to participate, too! Our own Nick Moran has got the details up in a gif-filled Tumblr post.
D-I-Y #YiR12
Biblio-klepto-mania
"Symptoms included a frenzy for culling and hunting down first editions, rare copies, books of certain sizes or printed on specific paper." Lauren Young writes in Atlas Obscura about the phenomenon of bibliomania, "a dark pseudo-psychological illness" that afflicted upper-class victims in Europe and England during the 1800s. And for a first-hand account of more contemporary book theft, read John Brandon on his high school pastime: "The first time was nerve-racking, a rush, but by the third book I was already settling in."
Up to Scratch
What's better than being a writer? A writer who gets paid. Manjula Martin and Jane Friedman have launched the new digital magazine Scratch, which gives writers information on how to advocate for their work. The preview issue is free and contains essays on what freelancers can learn from street vendors, Cord Jefferson on outgrowing his materialism, and an interview with Jonathan Franzen. You can subscribe here.
The E-Reader and Tablet Tidal Wave
Pew Internet finds that tablet and e-reader ownership nearly doubled over the holiday gift-giving period 29% of Americans now own at least one of these digital reading devices. Meanwhile, the content producers keep rushing in, with NBC Universal launching an e-book arm and Apple's textbook scheme netting 350,000 downloads in three days.
Life and Fate and Life and Fate
Stephen Dodson wasn't the only one inspired to write about Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate this month. Over at The New Republic, Adam Kirsch calls Grossman's masterpiece one of the world's "very greatest Holocaust novels."
In China, my name is Mud.
Chinese citizens are increasingly adopting English nicknames. But, why would anyone choose a name like "Rainman" or "Mud"? The new book In China, My Name is... explores this puzzling phenomena. (Awesome t-shirt, Ben)
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Master of Happy Scenes
Norman Rockwell was an unhappy and enervated man who became iconic by painting scenes of happy, energetic people. He developed a style that became synonymous with idyllic visions of America. At Page-Turner, Lee Siegel reads Deborah Solmon's American Mirror, a new biography of Rockwell that acknowledges the painter’s contradictions without “mocking or scolding” him for the gulf between his life and his art.
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