Senior New York Times book critic Dwight Garner talked with Prospect Magazine about his career and the literary landscape. Of the new online critical publications, which ones did the interviewer single out for compliments? Answer: the LARB and The Millions. (Aw.)
Similes Like Bombs
E-reading with Jonathan Franzen
It was with "a sort of resigned sigh" that Jonathan Franzen signed some reddit user's kindle.
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Fresh Powder
Year in Reading alumnus (and co-founder of The Morning News) Rosecrans Baldwin talks shop with Thomas Stoeckli, a photographer from Switzerland who specializes in photos of snowboarders.
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Read Yourself Saintly
Though the world may never know whether reading the greats makes you a better person, according to a recent study, those who take an active interest in the arts are more likely to be altruistic.
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4chan in Literature
Cole Stryker's Epic Win for Anonymous: How 4chan's Army Conquered the Web looks into one of the internet's most infamous image boards. Housing Works Bookstore will be hosting a party in September to celebrate its launch. To tide you over, you can check out the author's interview at Betabeat.
Lydia’s Advice
“Be patient – even with chaos.” Advice for the upcoming writer from Lydia Davis.
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“You were a dream of ice.”
Recommended Reading: Delaney Nolan’s “Buoyed Nets or a Towered Light Spinning”
Novels on Novelists
What's the deal with all of the novels about famous writers? Perhaps it has to do with the fact that, according to Heller McAlpin at The Literary Hub, "there’s a special frisson of pleasure in reading about writers’ early struggles when you know what the future holds for them—which in the case of most of these authors is posthumous literary acclaim beyond their wildest dreams."
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