J.D. Salinger‘s house is on the market and generating plenty of buzz, but before you make an offer consider “what does it mean to want to live in a dead writer’s house? When does fandom devolve into idolatry?”
The Dead Author’s Home
Fuck Yeah, NYRB
Who says publishers have weak brands? Someone loves the NYRB Classics so much they started a Tumblr blog about them. It is called, appropriately, Fuck Yeah NYRB Classics!
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Illustrated Goethe
At The Rumpus: illustrations by Harry Clarke for a 1925 edition of Goethe's Faust.
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YA Origins
There's been a lot of talk about Young Adult writing lately - we've covered it here and here and here - but where did YA come from, anyway? The New Yorker profiles writer S.E. Hinton, whose debut novel The Outsiders launched the genre, by way of answer.
Tuesday New Release Day: Saunders, Self, Mansbach, Zambra, Hensher, Harrison, Celona, Maltman, Schrank, Ginder, McPherson, Kunzru, Rogan
One of the most exciting new books of 2013 hits shelves today: Tenth of December by George Saunders. Also out are Will Self's Booker shortlisted Umbrella, Rage Is Back by Adam Mansbach, Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra, Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher, The River Swimmer: Novellas by Jim Harrison, Y by Marjorie Celona, Little Wolves by Thomas Maltman Love is a Canoe by Ben Schrank, Driver's Education by Grant Ginder, and new from NYRB Classics is Testing the Current by William McPherson, with an introduction by D.T. Max. New in paperback are Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru and The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan. There are many more new books to explore, of course, in our huge 2013 books preview, published this week.
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Too Many Nevers
A new study out of Stony Brook University employs a complex statistical model to figure out what makes a book successful. Judging books on the basis of Amazon sales, awards won and Project Gutenberg downloads, the scientists determined that successful books have a higher-than-average ratio of self-references, prepositions and coordinating conjunctions. Unsuccessful books, on the other hand? A high ratio of adverbs and location markers.
“I think we could create a run on a bank.”
The Occupy Wall Street movement has been going on for seven months now, and it's the subject of a new book entitled The Occupy Handbook. Over at The Daily Beast, you can check out an excerpt in which The Big Short author Michael Lewis interviews himself about his thoughts on the occupation.
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Hardcore Book Lovers
Recommended Reading: Ben Parker constructs a short history of hardcore music in his review of Tony Rettman’s NYHC: New York Hardcore 1980-1990 in n+1. Also, music for book lovers.