Recommended (Long) Reading: This lengthy excerpt from the latest book in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle series. In it, Knausgaard is introduced to the literary world and stresses a great deal over his own claims to artistic merit: “Deep down, I was decent and proper, a goody-goody, and, I thought, perhaps that was also why I couldn’t write. I wasn’t wild enough, not artistic enough, in short, much too normal for my writing to take off. What had made me believe anything else? Oh, but this was the life-lie.”
Book Five: Still Strugglin’
True Romance
“Dive bars are full of beautiful dreamers.” True or false? If you answered true, you might be a romantic. Take Daniel Handler’s quiz to determine whether you’re prone to romance or cynicism, and then plan your Valentine’s Day accordingly.
In Memory of Vic Chesnutt
NPR’s Terry Gross remembers Vic Chesnutt with Michael Stipe and Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto. Chesnutt, one of the musical gems to emerge from indie-rock mecca Athens, Georgia, in the past twenty years, died on Christmas day.
On Writing While Parenting
Having kids changes everything, of course, but for the writer, used to working in quiet solitude, it can feel like the end. Jessica Francis Kane writes about how she learned to write again, in a new way, after having children and offers some tips for new parents who write.
The Books They Gave Me
It’s voyeuristic, confessional, cathartic, and sometimes downright funny. It’s The Books They Gave Me, a Tumblr where people share the books their exes gave as gifts.
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It’s not such a Mad Mad world afterall.
Sure, the various TV recaps, screencaps, and Paris Review fan fiction will be a help, but let’s be honest, how long will those last? You could get through all of it today, in a binge. What you need, my friend, is a good book to sate that Mad Men craving you’ll be having now that it’s off the air again. Well, here’s a list of 10 great ones. That should do it. Oh, yes.
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