Recommended Reading: This piece from The Atlantic on Marie Kondo and the “privilege of clutter.” While you’re at it, go and read our own Janet Potter’s experience with Kondo’s wildly popular The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
Useable Objects
What Do Essay Prompts Mean to You?
You may have heard that Tufts University’s latest application forms use the term YOLO in one of their essay prompts. Herewith, a few more essay prompts, courtesy of Stacy Brook at The Hairpin.
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But How Many Samples Does it Use?
One good way to spend your Sunday: reading a 7,834-word Atlantic profile of Kanye West. Heck, even Obama’s a fan.
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Jacqueline Woodson on the Joys of Reading Slowly
In a TED talk dedicated to taking the time to appreciate stories, Jacqueline Woodson extols the virtues of reading slowly.
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Famous in India
“His writings rarely make it to the US, and are resolutely for an Indian readership. They will win no prizes nor inspire dissertations. But for these reasons they represent the actuality of what many people in the world are reading today, outside of the newly sanctified category of the ‘global novel.’” Ulka Anjaria for Public Books on Chetan Bhagat, “possibly the most successful Indian English novelist ever” and largely unheard of in the west. For more fictional Desi perspectives, read Aditya Desai in our own pages on reading narratives of Indian women.
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Falling in Love with Language
“When I heard Afro-Brazilian people speak Portuguese, first in films like City of God and Bus 174, and then live and direct in Bahia, I fell hard for the ease, lyricism, and lilt in their voices which reminded me of the Anglophone Caribbean family and community I grew up in.” Over at Words Without Borders, Naomi Jackson reflects on blackness in Brazil.
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Ruin-Reading
Junot Díaz is at home discussing his native Hispaniola as he muses on the function of apocalypse – New Orleans, Haiti, and Japan – in our global media landscape.
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John Banville on Pen Names and Pretension
Irish novelist John Banville discusses his latest mystery, Snow, and his decision to do away with his longtime pseudonym.
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