During its ongoing contract talks with the publisher, Amazon has been displaying that Hachette’s books ship in “up to 3-5 weeks.” James Patterson, one of their biggest authors, has declared on Facebook that “there is a war going on between Amazon and book publishers.” The Washington Post has more on the backstory of Amazon’s strategy, while the New York Times blog details how Patterson and other authors are fighting back.
Dispatch from the Online Retail War
Borges’ Self-Portrait
Maud Newton posts a self-portrait by Jorge Luis Borges: “When he drew this, because Burt Britton asked him to, Borges was blind.”
Down the Rabbit Hole
Recommended Reading: In her new memoir, Joyce Carol Oates praises Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass as “the singular book that changed my life – that made me yearn to be a writer.”
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Cracking the Code
The world’s oldest undeciphered writing is currently in the process of being deciphered.
New York Magazine Previews the Fall
In New York Magazine, critic Sam Anderson offers a list of this fall’s Most Anticipated Books. (We posted our own in July.)
Mislabeled
Can writers transcend race? LaTanya McQueen argues that labeling fiction as minority gets in the way of the story at The Missouri Review blog. Also, see our essay on the racial and gender barriers in the publishing industry.
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Thomas M. Disch Appendix
At Waggish, David Auerbach has published an appendix to his recent piece for The Millions on Thomas M. Disch.
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