Unexpected finds in hollowed-out books
A dealer bought 100 books from a widow and discovered they were hollowed out to hide pornographic shots of her husband with many women.
O’Connor’s “Good Country People” on film
I didn’t know anyone had adapted Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” but somebody has posted ’60s-era short, attributed to Gary Graver, at YouTube.
Richard Grayson writes: “Wow, I can just imagine how O’Connor would have hated this. As she said about the Schlitz Playhouse version of ‘The Life You Save May Be Your Own,’ with [...]
The musical Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem is in a band with the Silos’ Walter Salas-Humara. First album is out on Bloodshot Records in September. (Via.)
From Gilead to Home
PW enters a rave for Marilynne Robinson’s Home, an homage to the parable of the prodigal son, and a companion to Gilead.
Byatt on Euro 2008
A.S. Byatt watches sports partly because a game is a story where you don’t know the end until it comes.
Vocabulary lessons and the neighborhood flyer
Speaking of potential libel, I happened upon this clump of flyers in the gutter over the weekend. Instantly I felt sorry for Yisroel [Redacted], alleged “‘noted’ moser!!!” of my neighborhood’s Orthodox community, whose name has now literally been dragged through the mud.
Back at home, I discovered that a moser is “a Jew [...]
Defamation immunity for website operators narrows
Website operators traditionally have relied on the Communications Decency Act to shield them from liability for user-generated content.
The April decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com significantly narrows this immunity. Over the weekend my friend and former law professor Lyrissa Lidsky [...]
Think twice before taking your laptop abroad
Customs officials routinely seize laptops brought back into the country by U.S. citizens returning from international travel.
We have the technology
Junot Díaz admits Grand Theft Auto IV is no Moby-Dick, Beloved, or even Battlestar Galactica, but argues it’s a matter of time.
Day job fiction
Mark Sarvas admires Ed Park’s Personal Days. He asks not why we’ve seen two recent novels about cubicle life but why we haven’t seen more.
John Waters: Groundbreaking director, delightful misanthrope
Years and years ago, I read an interview in which the director John Waters divulged his strategy for avoiding conversations with fellow passengers on airplanes.
He hides whatever book he’s reading behind the cover for Flying Lesbian Nuns.*
Last night New York’s Blythe Sheldon saw Waters performing This Filthy World at the Society for Ethical [...]
Jefferson’s library
The Library of Congress is attempting to reassemble Thomas Jefferson’s library as it was sold to Congress. (Via.)
Stet
Post it now, fix it later: Are we in the last days of the newsroom copy editor?
The classics according to Parker Brothers
In the current EW, Alison Bechdel recalls how she developed an aversion to reading anything she was told to.
New e-book developments
Researchers are working with a two-leaf e-book that allows the reader to simulate turning pages.
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