James Joyce inspires a lot of English papers but not songs. Yet musician Casey Black based his song “Happiness” off of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. With lyrics like, “So I walk the Dublin streets like they were passageways through my soul,” we think Joyce would approve.
A Portrait of the Musician as a Young Man
Bloggers Sue Huffington Post
A group of bloggers led by Jonathan Tasini have filed a class-action lawsuit against Huffington Post for $105 million, claiming a lack of compensation for their contributions. Tasini hopes to set a precedent for content creators in the digital age.
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“Writers have always been whiners.”
With just a few more weeks to go until the end of the world, here's an argument for the golden age of writing - right now.
The Peculiar Art of Rare Books Catalogues
"Our catalogues cost £5,000 to print and distribute (in envelopes! with stamps!) to the 800 people on my mailing list, 790 of whom will not order from it." Rick Gekoski at Guardian looks at the peculiar art (and commerce) of rare books catalogues.
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Lit Mag Book Trailer
Electric Literature teamed up with animator Jonathan Ashley and musician Nick DeWitt to produce an animated trailer for Jim Shepard's "Your Fate Hurtles Down at You," a story which appeared in the literary magazine's first issue.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Wright, Santoro, Black
Lawrence Wright's exposé of Scientology, Going Clear, is out today. Also out are The Boy by Lara Santoro and debut novel The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black. Our recently published Most Anticipated books of 2013 has much more about what's still to come this year.
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Michael Chabon, Punk
Before he was Michael Chabon the novelist he was Michael Chabon the punk musician. Now recordings of his work with The Bats are available online as part of Mind Cure Records archival series.
Book Business Savvy
The bookstore business is supposed to be dying, but Ann Patchett begs to differ. She discussed her independent shop, Parnassus Books, and the future of bookstores for The Daily Beast's "How I Write" series. "I can’t remember the last time I was in a bad bookstore. The future of independent bookstores is strong. We need to be small. The day of the 30,000 square foot bookstore is over, but the day of the 3000 square foot bookstore has arrived." Patchett was also interviewed for The New York Times "By the Book" series, where she said Charlotte's Web had such an impact on her as a kid that she got a pet pig and became a vegetarian.
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