Jeff Bezos married a novelist, “expressed a passionate devotion to books”, and may be the one person mild-mannered indie bookshop owners hate more than any other. How’d that happen? After perusing a short history from the New York Review of Books, see for yourself with our vintage news announcements on Amazon’s innovations in pay-per-page pricing, now-old products like the Kindle, and its industry-changing acquisitions of The Washington Post and the English language.
Citizen Bezos
Quick Notes
The Washington Post discusses the literary pedigree of the town where I was born, went to college, and got married.A good review of Jonathan Lethem’s new collection of essays, The Disappointment Artist in the New York Observer.Got a nice note from Ulrich Baer, editor and translator of a new book put out by the Modern Library called The Poet’s Guide to Life: The Wisdom of Rilke. Sound interesting. Have a look.Why we blog.
●
●
The Power of Social Media (And Sexts)
Poet Elisa Gabbert recaps the warm-your-heart generosity of poet (and “Poet Laureate of Twitter”) Patricia Lockwood’s Twitter followers.
Leigh Stein’s Other People Pod
The Fallback Plan (reviewed on our site) and Dispatch from the Future author Leigh Stein was interviewed for Brad Listi’s Other People Podcast, so that makes us all winners.
Murakami Meets Spotify
The popular European music site Spotify debuted in the US last week, and already the fine folks at GalleyCat have made a Haruki Murakami playlist.
Pictures Made of Words
Pictures made of words: Hang your favorite book on the wall with the complete text, arranged to depict a memorable scene from the book. (via @Harvard_Press)
●
●
Capturing Appalachia
“Of all the work produced from this region no one observer gets the place or the people completely right,” Rob Amberg writes about his 40 years spent photographing Appalachia. His photo essay “Up the Creek” is part of The Oxford American’s “Portraying Appalachia” Symposium.