Lots of publications — The Millions included — have tackled the differences between reading e-books and physical books. It’s hard to know just what these differences mean for the future of literature. In the Chicago Tribune, John Warner proposes a novel argument (registration required) for why physical books will live on.
The Book in 2100
“We wept. / We filled / each other’s cups.”
Recommended Reading (and Listening): “Claim – For the Ocean” by poet Roger Bonair-Agard, whose latest book, Bury My Clothes, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
●
●
Tuesday New Release Day: Messud, Ausubel, Hill, Sjón, Powers
New this week: The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud, A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel, NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, and three newly translated books from by Icelandic author Sjón: The Blue Fox, The Whispering Muse, and From the Mouth of the Whale. New in paperback is The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers.
Across the Screen
“His books are not only obviously produced by an obsessive film buff (as evidenced by one wry recurring trick, the dates in brackets that follow even citations of celluloid ephemera), they often seem to want to be movies, as shown by another signature device, the way his protagonists – from the 1890s European spies and 1950s New Yorkers in the interwoven narratives of his debut, V. in 1963, all the way to Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge in 2013 – break anti-naturalistically into song like characters in musicals.” An argument that Thomas Pynchon writes fiction tailor-made for the cinema.
He Said, He Said (Tom Wolfe Edition)
Thomas Mallon seemed to enjoy Tom Wolfe’s new novel. Our own Nick Moran? Not so much.
●
●
5-Star Pepper Spray
“Accept no substitutes when casually repressing students” “Perfect for Starting Your Own Little Police State!” and other 5-star reviews of pepper spray on Amazon.
●
●
Celebrity Book Reviews: On the Rise?
As if it wasn’t tough enough for a book reviewer to get page space, now they’ve got to compete with Rob Lowe, Al Gore, and the silent half of Penn & Teller. Thanks, Grey Lady.
●
●
The End of Something
Maybe we can’t have it all, says Rachel Shteir at the Chronicle of Higher Education, but can’t women at least have another Feminine Mystique?