Lin-Manuel Miranda, the mind behind Hamilton, joins The New York Times to talk about the literature that has inspired him. Check out Janet and Mike’s thoughts on Hamilton in our Book Report.
By the Book
The Graphic Novel Warhorses
Alexander Chee posts the list of texts he used to teach his seminar on the graphic novel at Amherst – the graphic novel “warhorses,” as he calls them – and explains why they are the essential books for those interested in getting to know the form. (via The Rumpus)
Last Orders
For better or worse, the publication date of Umberto Eco’s final book has been bumped up — originally set for a summertime release, Pepe Satàn Aleppe: Chronicles of a Liquid Society is now due out in Italian this weekend. Check out this Eco essay on how to travel with a salmon.
Happy Halloween
Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman have written a comic zombie novel entitled The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home, which can be read for free on the website Wattpad. So far, three chapters have been posted, with a total of thirteen to be published in the ensuing weeks.
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The Death of the Camera
“Camera-equipped smartphones are now in spitting distance of outnumbering traditional cameras in the percentage of photos and videos taken with them,” according to analyst NPD Group.
Yes, Professor Orwell?
It’s a student’s worst nightmare: after plowing through a paper you should have completed that morning, you decide to skip the reading you’re supposed to have done the next day. At which point your textbook tells on you.
“There are myriad roles for poets”
The Academy of American Poets is conducting six-question interviews with six different poets in anticipation of the 2012 Poets Forum (October 18-20). Over at BOMB, you can read the first installment, which features Mary Jo Bang.
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Great American Label
“Almost as soon as the concept of the Great American Novel was invented, in the nation-building years after the Civil War, Buell finds it being mocked, noting that one observer dryly put it into the same category as ‘other great American things such as the great American sewing-machine, the great American public school, and the great American sleeping-car.’ It was enough of a cliché by 1880 for Henry James to refer to it with the acronym ‘GAN,’ which Buell employs throughout his book.” On the reigning gold standard for quality in American fiction. (Related: we asked nine experts their picks for the best American novel.)
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