“Many times, I’ve found that a book I once held in my hands becomes another when assigned its position in my library.” In The Paris Review, an excerpt on the art of packing (and unpacking) a library from Alberto Manguel‘s upcoming book, Packing My Library: An Elegy and Ten Digressions. Pair with: an essay on reorganizing one’s personal library.
On Packing a Library
From Flesh to Wafer to Cash
Here’s everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the communion wafer’s place in free-market capitalism.
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I’m Tellin’ Y’all It’s Sabotage
You’ll never want to turn in a library book late again after seeing the spoof video of The Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” featuring crime-fighting librarians.
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Whither Chester A. Arthur?
It’s rare that Warren G. Harding gets much attention these days, which is why it’s all the more interesting that Sadie Stein’s father, when she was growing up, grew fascinated with the single-term president. At the Paris Review Daily, she recounts her family’s visit to Harding’s home.
Elections and All
Recommended Reading: John Williams suggests some reads as we prepare for the presidential primaries.
Little Libraries that Could
In exciting micro library news, Book Riot reports that the 50,000-th Little Free Library was “planted” on November 4th, doubling the number of Little Libraries in the U.S. a year and a half ago. We’re all in agreement that big libraries are more vital than ever, though, right?
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Overheard
At the LRB’s blog, J. Robert Lennon pays tribute to Russell Edson, the playwright, novelist and prose poet who passed away last week. Lennon recounts that Edson was that rare favorite author who he learned about thanks to a cassette tape. (If you like the blog post, you could also read Lennon’s most recent novel.)
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I Need to Return Some Redbox DVDs
Patrick Bateman as internet troll? I could see it. Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho, stopped by Town and Country to muse over how an early-twentieth century Patrick Bateman might behave a bit differently: “I check in with Patrick every now and then—as with this article you’re reading—but he has been living his own life for some time now, and I rarely feel as if I have guardianship over him, or any right to tell him where he would or would not be today, decades after his birth.”