“One night, in the spring of 2011, [Norm] Macdonald mentioned his love of literature, and someone suggested he start a Twitter book club. A new account was created (@NormsBookClub) and the club was born. … And then things get a little weird.”
Norm Macdonald’s Book Club
Who Wrote What?
Do you want to work at The Strand in New York City? Think you have what it takes? Take this famous quiz and match each work with its author to see if you have the literary chops to pick up a paycheck from one of the United States’s most beloved bookstores.
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What Katy Meant
Recommended Reading: Lindsay Palka’s essay on the children’s book What Katy Did.
Infinite Summer: Reading D.F.W. in Concert
The Infinite Summer online book club, brain child of Matthew Baldwin, has finally completed Infinite Jest. To celebrate, they are reading Dracula. Steven Lowman briefly interviews Baldwin at the Washington Post blog Short Stack.
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Conquest of Panic
Irving Howe asks how Hemingway commanded the attention of a generation. Howe writes, “His great subject, I think, was panic.” Our own Michael Bourne recently answered this question, recognizing Hemingway as a middlebrow revolutionary.
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Caw, Says the Crow
Max Porter’s Grief Is the Thing with Feathers is “the book of the moment,” according to the staff of Houston-based Brazos Bookstore. For other recommended reading, don’t miss our Great Second-Half Book Preview.
The Ice Heats Up
You Must Go and Win author Alina Simone‘s essay “Why Do Russians Hate Ice?” has caused quite an uproar in the comments section.
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Update on Timbuktu’s West African Relics
Many feared the permanent loss of thousands of precious manuscripts and relics after insurgents razed Timbuktu’s Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research. The Institute was home to over 30,000 manuscripts dating back to the 13th century. Or was it? In a fascinating report, Rukmini Callimachi details the extraordinary efforts of the some passionate locals that wound up saving much of the collection.
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