There are plenty of good reasons to read classic literature, but Mary Beard reminds us that there’s a different kind of classic that’s worth revisiting and questioning. “You do the ancient world much greater service if you keep arguing with them.”
“Keep Arguing”
An Existential Test
“It is a privilege and a gift and an honor to be a debut author, but it is, above all things, an existential test.” Courtney Maum writes about the darker side of publishing a first book.
A Little Late
“[T]he school has calculated that the overdue fine would have been £7,446.” Granddaughter returns her grandfather’s library book after 120 years, is forgiven all late fines, reports The Guardian.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Pochoda, Schine, Bolaño
New this week: Visitation Street by Ivy Pochoda, Fin & Lady by Cathleen Schine, and, available for the first time ever as ebooks, Roberto Bolaño’s masterpieces 2666 and The Savage Detectives. There are many, many more anticipated books on offer in our big second-half preview, published this week.
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The First Banned Book in America
Thomas Morton, an English businessman who had a knack for riling up Puritans, was the author of the first book explicitly banned in the United States.
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Sustainable Olympics
Year in Reading alumna Nell Zink writes on the future of global sport. As she puts it, “Under my plan for reform, the Olympics will no longer be assigned a fixed geographic location.”
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