“What people call you shapes how you see yourself, and teaches you how to navigate the world. But the moment you name something, you limit the possibilities of what it can be.” Marie Elia, who was trained as a cataloguing librarian, argues that our biases affect the way we describe books at Queen Mob’s Teahouse. Pair with our essay on “A Library of the Mind.”
Bookcase Biases
The Art of Fielding: The Show
Chad Harbach‘s The Art of Fielding may get its own HBO series, reports Variety. Additionally, if you subscribe to n+1, they’ll include a copy of the book when it releases.
●
●
Give Rock and Roll Another Name
Chuck Klosterman wonders, which rock stars will historians of the future remember?
●
●
Sarah Gerard on Revisiting Unfinished Work
Sarah Gerard offers a suggestion for a small act of creation that can set your mind in order during moments of turmoil.
●
●
●
Red Scare
“Marx the anti-Communist is an unfamiliar figure; but there were undoubtedly times when he shared the view of the liberals of his day and later, in which communism (assuming anything like it could be achieved) would be detrimental to human progress.” Wait, what? The New York Review of Books reviews Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life.
●
●
Crowdfunding Publishing
There’s been a lot of discussion about self-publishing books, but what about crowdfunding? Online publisher Unbound is proving it could work and has already raised over £1 million and funded 54 books. The model itself couldn’t really be any simpler – “the author pitches an idea and if enough readers support it, the book goes ahead. Once it has been printed, the book’s net profits are then split 50/50.”
Like TED for books
The annual Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference wrapped up earlier this week, but, thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can relive the magic: Transcripts and videos of notable speeches are available on the conference’s website, including the concluding talk on the future of the novel by China Mieville.
●
●