Don’t Suck, Don’t Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt by Kristin Hersh is a downright mesmerizing elegy to the eclectic singer-songwriter. Part idiot-savant, part deliberate curmudgeon , Vic Chesnutt (who Rolling Stone has called one of the greatest songwriters of all time) was notoriously difficult to spend a lot of time around. Hersh stopped by Electric Literature for an interview about the book and about losing her dear friend Vic. Bonus: for anyone unfamiliar with Chesnutt’s work, this video will get you close.
Everything I Say
Tuesday New Release Day: Walker, Somerville, Towles
Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles is out today, as is This Bright River by Patrick Somerville. And The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (reviewed here) is out in paperback.
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Pickwick Posts
Joshua Cohen, author of the recently published Book of Numbers, will begin writing a serialized, twentieth-century version of Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers live and online next week. Beginning October 12 at 1pm, viewers can watch Cohen spend five days reimagining the book and will be able to offer criticism that may affect the ending.
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“One story shook the Soviet Union.”
Writing for the BBC, Steve Rosenberg looks at the lasting impact and significance of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which was published fifty years ago this month.
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Go Get A Refund
Unhappy with Go Set A Watchman? You may be able to get your money back. Traverse City’s Brilliant Books is offering a refund to customers, as well as an apology for what they feel was a misleading marketing campaign.
Beginner’s Luck
“Our great poet forever has one foot on Mount Parnassus and the other in the rue Quincampoix,” the Wall Street of eighteenth-century Paris. On how Voltaire outsmarted one of the earliest lotteries and made a fortune. Also check out how Goethe became an amateur auction theorist.
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Curated Book Lists
New York City’s iconic Strand bookstore features prominent authors’ curated book collections on their website. Here’s Jennifer Egan‘s. Here’s Art Spiegelman‘s.
The NYRB Classics Spring 2014 Preview
NYRB Classics just released the first installment of their Spring 2014 Preview, and it features the likes of William H. Gass, Jean-Patrick Manchette, and Qiu Miaojin. Stay tuned for the second installment, which they say will come soon.
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Publishing Industry Rebounds
Time to quit moaning and groaning, publishing industry insiders: a survey released today by Bookstats shows publishers brought in 5.6% more revenue and sold 4.1% more books in 2010 than in 2008, according to the New York Times.
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