“I wish I were jogging shirtless but / I need somewhere to clip the mic,” says Jon Cotner as he records his poem, “Long Meadow,” while jogging through Prospect Park.
Keeping Pace
What Do Vinyl, Heidegger, and E-Books Have in Common?
J-C G. Rauschenberg offers a loose phenomenological look at the persistence of vinyl LPs, and what they might portend for the future of the book.
Talking Translation
In an interview at The Brooklyn Rail, Susan Bernofsky talks about translating The Tanners, the last novel by the great Robert Walser to appear in English.
Dear Diary
Craig Brown recommends five published diaries for your reading pleasure.
This Week’s New Releases
A.S. Byatt's new novel The Children's Book has won a ton of praise overseas - it may take home the Booker tonight -- and now it's finally available in the States. Meanwhile, Michael Chabon is trying his hand at memoir with his new book, Manhood for Amateurs.
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Book Readin’
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that the share of Americans who have read a book in the last 12 months – 73% – has remained largely unchanged since 2012. And when people do reach for a book, it is much more likely to be a traditional print book than a digital product. See also our essay on the persistence of physical books and, of course, The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books, edited by our own C. Max Magee.
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Dictionary Panics
Recommended reading: on dictionary-related panics from The New Yorker. Pair with our own Bill Morris's Millions essay "Prescriptivists vs. Descriptivists: The Fifth Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary."
Rosenbaum on Nabokov’s Laura
Slate's Ron Rosenbaum talks with Brooke Gladstone of NPRs On the Media about posthumous publishing, specifically Nabokov, but also Kafka and in general.
Two Strangers
“Werner isn’t surprised to pass the entrance exams easily. He’s more nonplused to find his head measured with calipers and his hair whiter than any of the 60-odd shades of blond on the examiners’ charts. It goes without saying that his eyes are also rated for their shade of blue.” Janet Maslin reviews Anthony Doerr’s new novel.
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