Book Reviewing as Blood Sport
RIP Joe Frazier
The sports world lost a legend this week in Joe Frazier. In honor of Smokin' Joe's indelible mark on the sport of boxing, Byliner has gathered thirteen great stories on the sweet science. Also worth reading is George Plimpton's classic Sports Illustrated story on the Frazier vs. George Foreman fight in Kingston.
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The Unbearable Finitude of Reading
Beginning with the same premise—one can only read so many books in a given lifetime—two authors write very different articles: Maria Bustillos lists the recommendations of George Orwell, Henry Miller, and John Waters that she's followed in an effort to maximize her short reading life. Marc Wortman wonders if authors are being paid by the page and, given our short lives, whether we should even bother with the behemoth volumes coming out recently.
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Writing Without Reading
Buzz Poole expands Macy Halford's riff on the consequences of writing without reading. In the process, he refers back to last month's popular piece here at The Millions by Steve Himmer.
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How to Get Rich or Write Trying
At The Awl, Noah Davis provides an honest overview of how difficult it can be to earn – or fail to earn – a living from freelance internet writing. Perhaps would-be freelancers should take a cue from Ian Hamilton’s 1998 London Review of Books essay in which he espoused the benefits – or perils – of accepting prizes and other literary subsidies.
I’m Good
In a way, this is the opposite of an interview: a series of conversations held exclusively between chatbots. At n+1, Nick Levine constructs dialogue straight out of Beckett. Pair with Houmon Barekat on Finn Brunton’s history of spam.
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