In his review of Mike Goldsmith’s Discord and Katherine Bouton’s Shouting Won’t Help, Roger Clark Miller (of Mission of Burma) wonders how our world got louder. His analysis? Our use of loud noise as a weapon had something to do with it.
I’m Sorry?
Mutually Exclusive
Diehard fans of Herzog, Dangling Man and other great books by Saul Bellow will be interested to learn that the author, as revealed in a new memoir by his son, once asked himself the following question: “Was I a man or a jerk?”
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Reading Under the Influence
In general, it’s not much fun to read a book you don’t feel like reading — especially if that book is Antigone, you’re on Dexedrine, and you are Marilyn Monroe.
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Zone One Excerpt
As stated on his website, you can now read the first section of Colson Whitehead‘s forthcoming Zone One. (Scribd). The book will release this October, and it was tapped in our “Great Second Half of 2011 Book Preview.”
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Elena Ferrante Revealed
Elena Ferrante has revealed her true identity. At McSweeney’s. You could also read this piece on Ferrante’s “encompassing vision of human experience.”
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Bourdain & Books
As we mourn the loss of Anthony Bourdain, the Los Angeles Times remembers his impact on the literary world and the ways in which the literary establishment wanted him to ‘shape up’. A well-read chef and writer, Bourdain’s most well-known book was Kitchen Confidential. Pair with this essay on food writing.
Fahrenheit 32
Say the books in your Encyclopedia Britannica are moldy, unread and obsolete. You know you could burn them or throw them away, but somehow, you can’t do either. Why not?