On Monday we mentioned that the MTA has started offering free e-books underground as part of its Subway Reads program, but they weren’t the first to make books an integral part of the public transit experience. London’s Books on the Underground was first, but then came a more interesting development in Australia: book ninjas. Books on the Rails is a gonzo experiment started by two Melbourne residents who began releasing free books – actual, paper books – into the wilds of the city’s tram system. About 300 books are currently in circulation in what’s possibly the world’s most open lending library.
Book Ninjas
Get Your First Edition Fix
Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore just launched a First Editions Club where members get a signed first edition of a new book each month. Some recent selections include: George Saunders’s Tenth of December (our review), Jonathan Dee’s A Thousand Pardons (our review), and Philipp Meyer’s The Son.
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Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow
Women writers of color can apply for the two-week Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow, which is being organized by Jack Jones Literary Arts, and will take place between October 16-30, 2017. The retreat will feature daily master classes with agents, editors, and publishing professionals, and comes with a $1,050 stipend. Applications are open until May 1, 2017.
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Books for the Trump Era
“[T]hat might be what liberal readers needs right now: Not just portraits of the Brexit and Trump-voting domestic Other, but a clearer sense of their own worldview’s limits, blind spots, blunders and internal contradictions.” The New York Times‘s Ross Douthat assembles a “Books for the Trump Era” reading list, including Michel Houellebecq’s Submission, Christopher Lasch‘s The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, and Samuel P. Huntington‘s Who Are We? The Challenges to American National Identity. You can also read our own review of Houellebecq’s latest here.
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Single-Serving Atwood
Ebook purveyor Byliner continues its foray into fiction with a new story by Margaret Atwood: “I’m Starved for You” (Here’s an excerpt)
Kill Your Crutches
“Other favorites I’ve found myself overusing include ‘she nodded,’ ‘she raised her eyebrows,’ and ‘she walked home slowly / she slowly walked home.’” Maria Murnane writes for the Amazon Author Insights blog (full disclosure: Amazon helps us keep the lights on around here!) about how to watch out for crutch words.
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A Community of Writers
The Memory Artist
British artist Stephen Wiltshire is sketching and drawing a 19-foot long panorama of the New York City skyline. The kicker: the drawing is being produced entirely from memory following a 20-minute helicopter flight.