At Electric Literature, Aysegül Savas discusses her newest novel, White on White, which follows a young student observing the creativity and madness of a painter. “I do want the book overall to have a painterly quality, which is something that you can do with language.” Savas says. “I think this is how you transfer another medium on your writing. By paying attention to life. You know, the types of things that painters do, you can also do as a writer: you can pay attention to objects, you can pay attention to dimensions.”
Aysegül Savas Pays Attention to Life
A Bacon Bookmark
Bacon. Cheese slices. A saw blade. Buttered broccoli. Librarians around the world lament the strangest food (and non-food) items their patrons have used as bookmarks (via The Guardian). Pair with: an essay on librarians, sex, and stereotypes.
This Old House
It’s been another long week. Lighten the crush of news with The Guardian‘s literary quiz, in which you match the house to the writer/book it inspired. And once you’ve gotten your score, perhaps take a vicarious tour of the House of Brontë?
In Which Samuel Beckett Didn’t Intend To Be A Writer
“He was a great exploiter.” From This Recording, Samuel Beckett’s recollections of James Joyce, in his own words.
Only Connect
Freedom the program might not actually be so freeing: “It has been argued that a chronic fever of distraction and fascination arrives on waves of Wi-Fi to stunt our attention spans, encouraging writers to paddle about, tweeting and liking, instead of striking out for deeper waters…” But maybe writers need distraction, after all. (Then again: a detox might do you good.)
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Book Ninjas
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.
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