Recommended listening: Benjamin Percy, whose novel The Dead Lands was released just this week, sings “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Writers” for the debut episode of Poets & Writers‘s new podcast, Ampersand.
Don’t Let ‘Em
Back for More
Last week, I mentioned Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes, which caused a stir in Germany with its tale of a time-hopping Hitler. Now, Daniel Torday reviews the book for the Times, judging it both for its historical research and its merits as a work of fiction. Sample quote: “The German public’s acceptance of the artist they think they’re watching provides a critique of pop culture. But it feels like bringing the Luftwaffe to a knife fight.”
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Where Glowsticks Are Currency
In this month’s issue of GQ, exemplary road-tripper Gideon Lewis-Kraus (of A Sense of Direction fame) pays a visit to the Electric Daisy Carnival, where the raves of the ‘90s have yet to go out of fashion.
Freeplay
StoryBundle, a new service that lets you pay as much (or as little) as you want for preselected bundles of ebooks, announced on Wednesday that their latest bundle is a collection of writing about video games. Among other things, it includes two books by Jordan Mechner, the man behind Prince of Persia, as well as two issues of Kill Screen.
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Your Ancestors Would’ve Read Dan Brown
Don’t feel embarrassed about that trashy novel you’re reading at the beach because summer reading has existed since the 19th Century. Craig Fehrman breaks down the history of pleasure reading. Also, check out our list of alternative “beach” books.
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Boozing for Books
Want to support Estonian literature? Buy booze. Finns traveling to Estonia for cheap alcohol are helping to support Estonian cultural and literary activities because part of the liquor tax funds these programs. Maybe we could have that tax over here, too?
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