Occasional literary links, amusements, culture, politics, and rants

Crossing my fingers that Boing Boing posts the step-by-step

Esquire announces that its anniversary issue will feature an e-paper cover; geeks wonder if they can hack in & jury-rig their own Kindles. (Via.)

Which novels do you fantasize about seeing on-screen?

Today I close out IFC.com’s List Month with ten works of fiction I’d like to see adapted for film.
The list leans toward the contemporary and is by no means comprehensive; among other things, I intended to mention James Hynes’ “Queen of the Jungle” (from Publish and Perish), but [...]

Next Hynes to be edited by Arthur

Great news from the great James Hynes: Little, Brown’s Reagan Arthur, who edited The Lecturer’s Tale, will edit Next, his… next. No other details yet.

Big Star footage, jailhouse cuisine, the Chattooga, and a Memphis cathouse: The Oxford American giveaway

Fellow Big Star fans, take note: Oxford American’s second Best of the South DVD includes snippets of Thank You Friends, a silent 16mm film shot by Chris Bell and Andy Hummel while the band was recording #1 Record. Interesting stuff. (The rest of the footage is due out in a Rhino box [...]

Blown the doors off Jesus Christ

The second installment of Denis Johnson’s Nobody Move is out now, and Jacket Copy is on the case.

Marilynne Robinson’s prodigal son

Harper’s excerpts Marilynne Robinson’s Home. (Subscribers can read online.) The novel appears Sept. 2.

Rural Sun

Two good, farm-related features at The Sun: Jeff Fearnside talks with Wendell Berry, and Doug Crandell remembers a foreclosure (and a girl).

A memorial at one of U.S. slavery’s gateways

In interviews after Beloved, Toni Morrison called for a bench by the side of the road to commemorate slavery. In SC last weekend, she dedicated one.

The Orwell diaries, online

Starting 8/9, Orwell’s diaries will be reproduced online, in blog form. (Via.)

An impoverished individual borrowed 25 florins, etc.

Sigmund Freud’s painfully formal jokes sound a little like letters from my dad.

Field-Tested Books reading, tonight at The Delancey

I’m excited to meet my fellow contributors at Coudal’s Field-Tested Books rooftop reading tonight. Things get underway at 7, at The Delancey.
Last I heard, this was the tentative schedule (below), so if you’re only coming out for Ben Greenman or Michael Bierut, or to see a friend, you’ll want to plan accordingly.
(Don’t [...]

Jackson on reactions to “The Lottery”

Shirley Jackson: “People at first were not so much concerned with what the story meant [as] where these lotteries were held.”

The absolute certainty of other people’s pronouncements

National Catholic Reporter talks with Chris Adrian, whose A Better Angel is out next month. (Sample it here and here.)

Since we got the Interweb, these hardly get used

My Morning Jacket’s mildly bookish new song, “Librarian,” is Dwight Garner’s summer of 2008 anthem.

While we are out: Fall of the House of Usher

In case it’s not self-evident, we’re keeping summer hours, when we’re keeping hours at all. The Smart Set is on vacation till Labor Day, and I’m trying to see visiting friends, stay on top of the day job, and meet a slew of freelance deadlines while in the midst of some incredibly banal and incredibly [...]

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