“Storytelling is an indispensable human preoccupation, as important to us all—almost—as breathing. From the mythical campfire tale to its explosion in the post-television age, it dominates our lives. It behooves us then to try and understand it.” On the inherent sameness of stories with John Yorke from The Atlantic.
You Know the Story
Tuesday Links
The LBC has named its next pick. It's a fantastic, epic, funny book. Visit the blog for all the details.Forbes rounds up the most expensive books sold at auction in 2006. The top ten include five atlases, but according to the slide show that accompanies the story, a Shakespeare First Folio brought in the most: $5.1 million.Darby's blog turns two and he cleverly uses this fact as an excuse to link to some Swedish librarians."Which f**king road would you live on?"So sad. A spelling bee training book with typos.
Tuesday New Release Day: Sorokin, Perec, O’Nan
Out this week is Russian author Vladimir Sorokin's Day of the Oprichnik. Coinciding with that release, NYRB Classics is putting out Sorokin's Ice Trilogy. Georges Perec's The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise is now on shelves, as is Stewart O'Nan's Emily, Alone, in which he revisits the Maxwell family from his 2002 book Wish You Were Here.
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Bibliomania
Time to confess: what books have you stolen?
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Da Firenze
At Ploughshares, take a journey through Florence with Emily Smith (and Dante).
Antony Gormley, Suicide Artist
According to the New York Post, a new installation by British artist Antony Gormley--life-sized, cast iron sculptures of men placed on rooftops and building ledges around the city--has caused some New Yorkers and NYPD officers to take the sculptures for live jumpers. Oh, the price of art!
LA Review of Books Launches Standalone Site
The swanky new LA Review of Books website is live, and it's a multimedia experience worth checking out. Users can select content by genre or article type, and the site's author, contributor, and staff pages even come with fancy head shots to boot. Be sure to check out their upcoming events page as well.
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Chance Meetings
In 1817, the painter Robert Benjamin Haydon invited several guests over for what he called an “immortal dinner.” Why the bombastic name? The guests included Keats and Wordsworth, whom Haydon wished to introduce to each other. In the WaPo, Michael Dirda takes a look at The Immortal Evening, a new book about the event by Stanley Plumly.
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