According to The Secret Literary Life of Augusto Pinochet author Cristóbal Peña, the Chilean dictator “was tormented by an intense inferiority complex, which he tried to deal with by collecting books.” A recent article in The New York Times provides a look at that book collection, which totaled around 50,000 books and has been valued at around $3 million.
Pinochet’s Library
It Isn’t Even Past
“People used to wish that life could be as it is in books—that it could have the beauty, drama, and shapeliness that writers gave it. Today, by contrast, we hope desperately that life is not really like our writers portray it; in other words, we hope that writers are not representative men and women, but unfit beings whose perceptions are filtered through their unhealth. It is necessary to hope this, because if life were as it appears in our literature it would be unlivable.” Adam Kirsch explores the downside of literary nostalgia.
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Neil Gaiman Gives Advice
Recommended viewing: a mashup of Neil Gaiman‘s advice on writing and clips from movies about, what else?, writing. And for more about Gaiman and writing, be sure to check out our own review of his book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
Passé Profanity
“Certain words have gone from being shocking to being neutered,” says Glamour editor in chief Cindi Leive, who has embraced the printing of “vulgar words” on her magazine’s cover since November of 2011. Ms. Leive is one of several women’s magazine editors who believe “magazines are catching up with other media, where women have been using explicit language for years.”
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Someone Should Try This on Jeopardy
No wonder trivia night at the local bar is such a hit. A new study finds that “drinkers got more test questions right and were quicker in delivering the right answers” after they’d had a few beforehand.
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