Recommended Reading: This review of Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir over at Slate. For a bit on Karr and some other Catholic writers with whom she is often associated, here’s an essay from The Millions.
The Heyday of Memoir
And a Not-So-Happy New Year
Is this the best Christmas card in history? Several members of the Paris Review staff received cards that bore the following William Gaddis quote: “‘Merry Christmas,’ the man threatened.” (h/t Justin Alvarez)
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Shakespeare Tour
The Folger Shakespeare Library is sending the First Folio around the country to honor the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
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Ethnoburb, For One Hundred
Prepare to lose a few hours on the glorified Wikipedia wormhole that is Daily Idioms, Annotated, then read this brief interview with the blog's creator, material scientist Debbie Chachra.
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Silence, Please
For everyone who believes that "being out and reading is better than staying home and planning to read,” The New Yorker's Andrea Denhoed may have found just the thing: silent reading parties.
The Pen Reveals
What does handwriting tell us about its author? The Atlantic investigates. Our own Kevin Hartnett explains why he writes by hand.
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Outkube
The Onion's tired of incendiary comments left by trolls reading their articles. (Who isn't?) So the publication has created Outkube, a "decoy website" rife with troll-bait. It's hysterical. Elsewhere, they've started curating a list of people who just don't get the joke.