“The media of my childhood, mostly weekly television shows and overused VHS tapes, was like a good pet. Sure, it was a little costly to keep around, but it was lovable, and I could always shut it out in the yard for a while. Now, though, media is always with me, always trying to snag my attention and siphon away as much as possible to sell to advertisers. It feels like it’s evolved from a cute little pet into a frighteningly efficient parasite.”
A Parasite Called Media
Adam Novy Interview
Adam Novy, author of The Avian Gospels, is interviewed by Brad Listi for Other People. Their conversation topics include Chicago, Jewishness, Medusa, and “the fear of getting squashed by the universe.”
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The Real 24-Hour Bookstore
At one point, the only 24-hour bookstore was in Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, but Beijing has the first real 24-hour bookstore. The Sanlian Bookstore will be open around the clock for book lovers and insomniacs alike.
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Weird and Wonderful
It’s no secret we love bookstores (we’ve written about them here and here and here, for starters) and so this gallery of “weird and wonderful bookshops worldwide” is pure joy.
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Appearing Elsewhere
Our own Bill Morris has a piece in Artes Magazine about a landscape painter, Rackstraw Downes, who is finally “having a long-overdue moment.”
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Contested Accounts
After reading through two new biographies of Sylvia Plath — American Isis and Mad Girl’s Love Song — Terry Castle concludes that “nothing about her life or legacy seems wholesome or resolved.” (Related: our own Hannah Gersen talking with Pain, Parties, Work author Elizabeth Winder.)
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An Irish Books Mule
Anne Enright remarks on Irish censorship, and she recalls the time her own mother was used “as a books mule.”