Short stories will now be available in vending machines — i.e., the future of literature.
Express Reading
He Is the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy was one cold dude. Read some of these excerpts from his letters and find your day ruined. Highlights include a critique of a prime minister’s funeral and his excitement at the hanging of Elizabeth Martha Brown, accused of killing her husband. Here’s a Millions piece on the difficulties of teaching Hardy in 21st-century Florida.
For What It’s Worth
Oh, good! Here is a list of what everyone is reading instead of your 10-year peer-reviewed study on bee colony collapse and the near end of human existence.
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Visible Man
Want to reverse a book ban? Start giving away free copies of the novel at your bookstore. Earlier this week, we reported that Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man was taken out of the Randolph County, NC school curriculum. But less than week later, the ban has already been lifted due to intense community backlash and a local bookstore undermining the decision. Board member Matthew Lambeth said, “I felt like I came to a conclusion too quickly.”
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Gun Fight at the O.K. Bookstore
Stick ’em up, partner! In a confusing marriage of literature and implicit violence, a bookstore in Austin, Texas is offering a ten percent discount to any customers openly carrying a handgun in their establishment.
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Powerhouse
Big news in the publishing world: Penguin and Random House have announced their decision to merge.
FLOW
Year in Reading alum Michele Filgate interviews Dawn Finley, one of the people behind the Feminist Library on Wheels (F.L.O.W.) in Los Angeles.
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