On the Road: To Read or Not to Read?
Good morning, people. We are here on Monday to address the more important literature news from around the Web. Granted, we have a bellyfull of Northwestern red wine. (It’s Sunday night as we type, this is not a Monday morning drunkery. And we want nothing more than to get in bed and complete Part II of Look Homeward, Angel — again.) But we are your daily servants and feel compelled to share with you what is ripe in the writing world. So here we slide, splinters grooving in our direction, down the banister. Second Pass — remember that name — wants scrutinizing readers to reconsider some of the world’s so-called great literature. The Guardian takes a look at how books are made, and why, in this day and age. Then we follow up with big change, or not really: The Stranger in Seattle shows us how book stores are kept alive, and the Brooklyn Rail announces that poetry is not dead. Moving on, is it best to think with one or two heads? A discussion is had in in the Scientific American. Lastly, a bit of Noir is reviewed in the Courier-Journal, which knows a tough story when it sees one. Happy reading, and don’t drip your shoelaces in discolored puddles. – Kevin Murphy
– Below is a list of ten books that will be pressed into your hands by ardent fans. Resist these people. Life may not be too short (I’m only in my mid-30s, and already pretty bored), but it’s not endless. — Misreading in Second Pass
– One of the great attractions of author events is the opportunity to find out how a book came into existence; how it began as an idea, how that vision was developed and nurtured, and eventually how it became pages glued between covers. — Book Making in the Guardian
– There is an old saying that two heads are better than one. This saying received empirical support in social psychology in the 1920s, when a series of studies showed that groups were more accurate than their individual members. — Thinking in the Scientific American
– Frederick Seidel is a master builder. Using metaphor and concrete imagery he erects majestic properties of opulent proportion. But what he builds he also destroys, making him a closed system: an architect who contracts with both the muse and the devil. — Poetry in the Brooklyn Rail
Forget it, Huckster. Poets Don
– Are bookstores an endangered species? On July 1, Epilogue Books, a wonderful general-interest bookstore in Ballard, announced that, due to problems finding a suitable lease agreement, it would be closing its doors forever. But there is an antidote to that depressing news: Pilot Books is a tiny, beautiful bookstore that opened one month ago upstairs in the pedestrian mall at 219 Broadway East. — Book Stores in the Stranger
– In the hard-boiled universe of Richard Lange’s debut novel, “This Wicked World,” trying to do the right thing can lead only to trouble. Ex-Marine and former bodyguard Jimmy Boone knows this all too well. Fresh out of Corcoran and on parole, he’s biding his time, tending bar for tourists on Hollywood Boulevard and managing a group of rental bungalows. — New Books in the Courier-Journal
Video: Royal Typewriter Demonstration
