“To the pathless wastes, into thin air, with no reviews, no best-seller lists, no college curricula, no National Book Awards or Pulitzer Prizes, no ads, no publicity, not even word of mouth to guide me!” For her new book The Shelf: From LEQ to LES, Phyllis Rose undertook the ultimate stunt in writing-about-reading: an unsorted shelf with no logic at all.
Unrecommended Reading
The Hand that Feeds Them
Stephen Elliot explains why publishers are shooting themselves in the foot when they gouge authors trying to buy copies of their own books.
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Mad, Bad, and Healthy to Know
“It was spring. Byron was leaving England forever, a cloud of infamy hanging over him. (He is one of the few people you can write something like that about and have it be true; that is part of why he’s so satisfying.)” Via The Awl: the adventures of John Polidori, literary vampire and doctor to Lord Byron.
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Much Better Than Downton Abbey, I Promise.
When you woke up this morning, did you say to yourself, “I wish I could listen to a bunch of lectures from the University of Texas’ British Studies curriculum?” If so, you’re in luck.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom Is a Public Intellectual
For Guernica, Roxane Gay interviews Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom about her new essay collection, Thick.
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In Memoriam: Gordon Willis
Gordon Willis, the celebrated cinematographer who worked on The Godfather films and Annie Hall, passed away Sunday at the age of 82. The Paris Review has posted a short “In Memoriam,” which serves as both a wonderful introduction to the work of this artist and a knowing celebration of his work, complete with a video of Manhattan‘s bridge scene and an interview with Willis himself.
Tale of a Giraffe
Today in New Zealand: Granta published a Kiwi short story in partnership with Commonwealth Writers.
Christopher Beha On Pop Theology
Recommended listening: Christopher Beha, whose latest novel Arts & Entertainments we recently reviewed, talks with On Pop Theology about his new book, Catholicism, What Happened to Sophie Wilder? and The Bachelorette.
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