Recommended Reading: Rene Denfeld and Stephanie Feldman on the line between realism and fantasy in their debut novels.
What to Believe In
On the New New Orleanians
Why, yes, I will link to anything Nathaniel Rich writes about New Orleans. You should appreciate the consistency.
Meant to Look Pretty
Are books on the way to becoming luxury objects? At Salon, Daniel D’Addario makes a case that they are, explaining how a new aestheticism in book design points to a future in which books function mainly as art objects. (While we’re on the subject of book design, it’s a good time to look back on our U.S.-U.K. book cover battle.)
NYRB Winter Sale
From now until February 28th, you can grab New York Review of Books Classics titles at a steep discount.
Big Kindle On Sale
Normally $379, the Kindle DX, Amazon’s oversized version of the regular Kindle, is today going for $299 thanks to a one-day sale.
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The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard
“I am so grateful for this tool in my writer’s toolkit. It has liberated both me and my texts from an overbearing approach to ‘getting it right.’” Cara Benson for the Amazon Author Insights blog (full disclosure: Amazon helps us pay the bills over here!) on the benefits of writing and revising by hand. And she’s not the only one who likes to go manual.
The Best Book for Every State
This week in book-related internet graphics: “A Map of the Best Book for Every State,” complete with the promise that “every last one will let you understand a time and place in a more profound way than you maybe thought possible.”