“Megan Gething jumped in to action and tied a pair of shorts around her friend’s leg to slow blood loss, using a tip she learned from the young adult science fiction novels.” A 12-year-old Massachusetts girl used what she read about creating a tourniquet from The Hunger Games to rescue her friend, reports the AP (via Book Riot). Guess the best YA books really do stick with you.
From Text to Triage
Amazon Locks Down Classics with its eBooks Odyssey
Amazon has partnered with the Wylie Agency to acquire exclusive ebook rights to 20th century classics by the likes of Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Louise Erdrich, John Cheever, Hunter S. Thompson, William S. Burroughs, Orhan Pamuk, V.S. Naipaul, Martin Amis, and Jorge Luis Borges. The venture is called Odyssey Editions. These books will be available in ebook form exclusively on the Kindle for the next two years.
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BTBA long list announced
The 2012 Best Translated Book Award long list has been announced. Among the contenders in the fiction category are Edouard Levé for Suicide, reviewed on The Millions here; Mathias Énard's Zone, which our own Garth Risk Hallberg described as "the kind of book that can tie a critic in absolute knots"; and Jean-Philippe Toussaint's The Truth About Marie, which The Millions Staffer Mark O' Connell called "a strange and unsettling novel that upholds its author’s status as one of the most exciting figures in contemporary fiction." One of Chad Harbach's year in reading selections, Dezso Kosztolányi's Kornél Esti, also made the list.
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Elena Ferrante Writing for Kids
Elena Ferrante will be publishing a children’s book, The Beach at Night, this December. Revisit our own Jacob Lambert’s series on whether or not picture books are leading our children astray to prepare for the release.
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Recommended Reading: New Ashbery
Recommended Reading: The American Reader has some new John Ashbery poems. We love "Listening Tour."
“In the distance, a low rumble. A train?”
Barrelhouse editor Dave Housley wrote a “Commercial Fiction” piece for Hobart’s website about the “trippy magical realism” in Coors Light advertisements. You know what that means, right? People all over the world! Join hands. Start a love train. (Love train.)
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The Kindle World
Apropos of Mark O'Connell's contemplation of the Kindle is this piece by The Guardian's Sam Leith on what to expect if the Kindle truly does supplant the printed book.
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The Old Media Green
In case you were wondering why "old media" companies continue to cling to print: Based on ad revenue, a print reader is worth $709, while an online reader is worth just $46. (via)