“Usually, with a novel, you start with no idea what to do because your job is to create convincing characters and then they just run around getting crazy. The problem with writing a memoir, obviously, is you can’t do that because you sort of know what’s going to happen. Because you’re the character.” – Gary Shteyngart
“You may better yourself by reading this, but who cares?”
Stay Away from the Semicolon
“The Crested Asterisk camouflages itself in poor syntax, relying on this tactic to confuse its predators and prey. It is the only specimen known to cause injury by way of over-emphasis.” Introducing a field guide to rare punctuation.
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Braving the Bestsellers
Canonical literature isn’t the only way to learn about America. The bestseller list can be equally as telling. Matthew Kahn is reading 100 years of No. 1 bestsellers from 1913 to 2013. He blogs about the books and discusses the project in an interview with Salon’s Laura Miller. When Miller asks what makes a bestseller, he claims, “A lot of it is just a matter of accessibility. A focus on plot and character rather than structure and the prose itself.”
History of Color
Over at Hyperallergic, Chris Cobb explores color photographs of racial segregation from a recently rediscovered collection by Gordon Parks.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Poeppel; Schwalbe; Scalzi
Out this week: Small Admissions by Amy Poeppel; Books for Living by Will Schwalbe; and Miniatures by John Scalzi. For more on these and other new titles, go read our latest fiction and nonfiction book previews.
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Brutalised Africans Made Glasgow
Amidst increasing calls to “memorialize slavery’s ties with Glasgow in a more sensitive way,” Scottish poet Kate Tough recently published a tribute poem, “People Made Glasgow.” Tough calls on the city to install a permanent slavery exhibit, a memorial garden, or new street names as well.
Shakespeare’s NYC
Coming soon: short films for each of Shakespeare‘s 154 sonnets, all set in New York City.
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