Hemingway's Grandson Publishes Revised Edition of A Moveable Feast

Sean Hemingway, Ernest's grandson from his second wife's line, is reissuing A Moveable Feast, which Ernest's fourth wife allowed to be reissued posthumously. This edition should include much more (and potentially be more favorable than the last publication toward his earlier wives).

Click here to read the full article in The Guardian.

Newsweek Does Something Interesting

Newsweek just came out with a list of the top 50 books you have to read now. Not the best books ever, but books that speak to readers at this particular time - don't agree with all the titles rankings, but it's a neat angle to an old list.

Bribe Kids, and They Will Do Anything

Including read. A New Zealand school is now experiencing what all of us who participated in the Pizza Hut "Book It!" program already knew: If you give a kid a prize, they will flip through a few books.

Only their prizes, in my humble opinion, are bigger motivators. I mean, 10 chapter books and I get a personal pan pizza? Really? Still hongry.

Read the article in The Guardian about the new prize program. The checkouts at their library have nearly doubled.

Happy Birthday, George Orwell

Yes, Mr. Orwell would be 106 today.

Even though he's most famous for his novels, 1984 and Animal Farm, I prefer his essays, especially "A Hanging" and "Politics and the English Language."

What are your favorite Orwellian pieces?

Judging You

People cannot raise their children. Who loses the blame game this week? Books.

Books are clearly the reason teenagers misbehave and learn about subjects too early in life. Why should a senior in high school learn about "homosexuality?" cry parents of Litchfield, NH. Well, chances are as 18 year-olds, they already know about it. But instead of thinking that this is perhaps the case, they banned David Sedaris from the short story reading class. Because an Ernest Hemingway short story discusses statutory rape and abortion, that is banned as well. The school board did not offer the teacher any support.

But perhaps the parents don't realize that reading about a gay man or abortion will not morph their children into gay, pro-choice liberals. Afterall, it is fiction. And if, against the odds, these kiddos didn't know anything about these topics in high school, then they are in for a few confusing few years when they enter the pearly gates of higher education.

Clicke here to read the article about the school board's decision.

In Utah and Louisiana, there are bills up for debate that allow parents to sue booksellers who let minors buy books with any form of nudity if the parent deems it "offensive." This can even be for books targeted at minors (think books about learning about puberty, or even Everybody Poops) that aren't "obscene" by the laws standards. We're not talking triple X here. This could make booksellers weary to sell any more adult books to minors, considering there is currently no rating system for books.

Parents, look at your children's video games and TV viewing patterns - or maybe even your own mirror - when you are worried about their moral fiber. Not their editions of Grey's Anatomy or "The Old Man and the Sea."

Sherman Alexie Haunts My Dreams

It's not normal for someone to wake up only remembering that in her dream, Sherman Alexie was judging her. I've never seen him except for the portraits that are on the backs of books, but I knew it was him.

The reason? I don't remember. But I know whatever Freudian desire masked what is was stood for The Kindle, which he called elitist nearly a month ago. He later explained that this was because children of poverty are the last to benefit from technology, and this would leave them behind.

But, as much as I want to be an awesome person, I wanted one. And apparently, booksellers are anticipating everyone else will, too.

Simon and Schuster signed a deal with ScribD, China Daily reported the money Chinese technological manufacturers lost with cell phones in 2009 was hoped to be made up for with knock-off Kindles, and booksellers worry that their "expensive" paperbacks will be returned for $1.99 replacements in the e-world.

And Kindle Deluxe was released, and the world continued to spin. Certainly, it will not be the downfall of the publishing industry as the internet was/is for the newspaper industry.

Sitting and typing now, after taking a breather for a bit, I realize, I do not really want a $400 Kindle. This is not only because I am a poor college student who really needs to purchase a business wardrobe and pay off loans before buying myself anything shiny; it is also because there is something about being with a book and not connected with everyone you know through the InterWebz or the newest pop-tech device. There is something about seceding from this fast-paced place and reading a book. I don't plan on reading a Kindle to my little cousins, nor do I plan on reading Gone with the Wind on it (would tear drops ruin the screen?).

And I can definitely see the benefit - instead of lugging around a gigantic bag that weighs down my right shoulder, I could palm a sleek library. Maybe if I had more money and more than a semester of classes, I would invest for the potential textbook savings.

But as a lover of literature, I just can't bring myself to cheat. (Cue "My Heart Would Know" by Hank Williams). Although maybe that would change if they were giving them away or they were less four college loan minimum payments.

Thanks, Sherman.

Poet Paul Muldoon on Stephen Colbert

Pulitzer-prize winning poet Paul Muldoon takes the hot seat on The Colbert Report.

Click here to watch the clip.

Post Mortem: Unloved Books as Art

On my daily troll of expensive interior design blogs, I ran across this little gem. Atlanta artist Brian Dettmer takes old books and carves into them, offering alternate interpretations of the text. He's rehabbing neglected medical textbooks and outdated dictionaries and turning them into gorgeous works of art. They're pricey, but if you're a major fan of the blog, you could send one my way (hint: I really love World Science).

A Win for Inde Book Publishers and People Who Like Pretty Books

For anyone who's read Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,* it's no surprise that he has chosen to publish in the future with a publisher that focuses more on "visual writing."

But what might be more surprising is that this big name is heading to an independent publisher -- a victory for great little publishers everywhere. He published both ELAIC and Everything is Illuminated with a Penguin imprint, which will still hold the rights to those two books. But British inde publisher Visual Editions will be producing his next two books - a novel and a collection of short stories - due out June 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Get the deets at theBookseller.com.

*For those of you who haven't, leave early, go to the nearest bookstore, pick it up and read. You won't be able to put it down. I promise.

The Big Lebowski Reader

I now feel like a complete loser failure. As a loser, I have seen "The Big Lebowski." But as a Louisvillian, I have not yet made it to Lebowski Fest, which was featured on my favorite food show, "Ace of Cakes." And now, just to add insult to injury, IU is more in tune with The Dude than I am as well.

This fall, IU Press will be debuting The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies. Because at state schools, graduate students can still study things that are almost worthless to the working class but way cool. And, for those of you from the best city Stateside (Louisville, of course), the book is coauthored by a U of L professor.

Aside from this movie being hilarious and inspiring many makeshift Halloween costumes, the book is going to explore how the cult classic has changed/shows changes in our culture, such as the Iraq War, college life and slacking off in general. I don't know if it talks about White Russians that much, but I feel like it should.

Holden Caulfield is Copyrighted: Stop the T-Shirt Presses and Emo Kids' Diary Entries

Rowling and Salinger have now both successfully thwarted un-influential wannabes and fans-turned-enemies. But, at least for the time being that's one less crappy book in the world.

Actually, it is unclear as to whether J.D. California will have to lose his book (although now if he doesn't he probably will be thankful for all the publicity), as the presiding judge has issued a temporary restraining order, keeping him from publishing but also not deciding if the character in his book is covered by fair use.

Click here to read the report of the decision in Publisher's Weekly.

Doing it

"Benjamin Zephaniah did it stuck in a lift with a drag queen."

Any news story that starts out this way is guaranteed to make me keep reading. Well played, Maev Kennedy of The Guardian. Well played.

While the story "Poets reveal the strangest places they've 'done it'" isn't, unfortunately, about torrid, steamy sex in elevators with drag queens, it is about something I find equally interesting: the process of writing. Participants in the upcoming Ledbury Poetry festival were asked to share some of the strangest places they've gotten inspiration for their work. They range from mountaintops to church pews.

Benjamin Zephaniah, who apparently tried to be gay once as a political statement but decided he liked the ladies a little too much, wins.

Mr. Salinger smells a phony

It's rare to see J.D. Salinger's name in the headlines these days -- unless there is a law suit involved, that is.

The famously reclusive author has tabbed the courts again to protect the sanctity of his much celebrated and scrutinized novel The Catcher in the Rye. The suit stems from the pending publication of an unauthorized sequel to Catcher written by a Swedish-American under the pen name J.D. California and entitled 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye.

According to the NY Times:

The new work centers on a 76-year-old “Mr. C,” the creation of a writer named Mr. Salinger. Although the name Holden Caulfield does not appear in the book, Mr. C is clearly Holden, one of the most enduring adolescent figures in American literature, as an old man. Both novels are set in New York, feature the same characters and use similar language. Mr. Salinger’s work opens with the 16-year-old Holden’s departure from a boarding school; the new book begins with “Mr. C” leaving a retirement home. Both end on a carousel in Central Park.

So the book is a blatant piggybacking of Salinger's genius, but the case brings up some interesting questions about First Amendment rights and copyright laws.

How much ownership does an author have over his characters -- even characters as unique and iconic as Holden Caulfield?

What is the proper ratio of borrowed material vs. unique material for a work to be considered new and independent?

And why does J.D. Salinger seem like Mr. Grumpypants all the time? His book is still hip.

A Book I Never Wanted to Read

OK. I'm going to be perfectly honest and say that typically I don't read classics unless they're forced upon me. However, I have found one that I chose to read (without anyone twisting my arm) that is pretty daggon awesome. I'm currently working at a theatre in the-middle-of-nowhere, KY and the next show I have a role in is Dracula. I felt that, for research purposes, I should probably read it. And why not? There's nothing to do in this town anyway except go to the local Subway. And although I do like me some sandwiches, they curb your appetite and not your boredom. So I started Dracula. And I have to say I'm awful surprised. It's a really great book. It's extremely interesting and actually really creepy. Not very many books have made me go to sleep with lights on. And yes, it is about 500 pages of small print, and I'm not saying it's the most fast-paced book I've ever read. But what's interesting to me is that it's not your typical narrative, but is told in the form of documents from the perspective of 5 or 6 different characters. You know, like diary entries, letters, telegrams, newspaper articles, etc., etc. Which totally makes it feel voyeuristic and creep-tastic.

Not my favorite book in the whole wide world. But I'm definitely glad I'm reading it.

Awaiting Summer Read

This Klostermanesque (probably with less self-deprecating humor and more... outwardly?-deprecating humor) novel is the one I'll be looking for to get a break from chunkier books this summer. While it technically won't be a beach read, since I will be reading it from the apartment where I refuse to turn the A/C on in southern Indiana, I plan on pretending it is.

Read the NYTimes Review, including a satirical NYT Bestseller List, and look out for ours. Nice.

Are you there, Vodka? It's me, Chelsea

Heading into my junior year at IU, I already had about 9 random English credits under my belt. I decided that because I had these credits and I had a genuine interest in writing, I would minor in English. The program itself was only 30 credits, and I was enrolled in six credits that fall. It was easy.

I thought wrong. I couldn't pass Literary Interpretation. Maybe it was me, maybe it was my professor. I'm more likely to blame someone else because in all honesty I'm perfect. I had to settle for an English concentration with my journalism minor. So basically, I had to take 24 random English credits.

But last night I realized that it's not the professor's fault I couldn't interpret poems by Emily Dickinson. It's the fact that I can get through Chelsea Handler's "Are You There Vodka? It's me Chelsea" before I can get through Candide by Voltaire or any normal book. Here's a little excerpt from her book:

"I was too young to work legally so I only had two realistic options: I could either start my own underground babysitting ring or become a prostitute.

Although I had developed a serious crush on our plumber that year, I wasn't sure that I was ready for penetration. I had seen my very first penis on a porno tape I stole from my brother, and was completely flabbergasted. While I had heard a lot about the size and shape of the penis, no one had ever mentioned there were going to be balls attached to it."

I probably have read that chapter four times already, just because it's hysterical. But for the sake of being serious right now, the book is incredible. It's easy to read and it's hysterical. I'm not sure why my literary tastes are so terrible, but I think this is a clear indicator that I should never have been accepted into the IU English program. But it's probably clear why I didn't finish it.

If you like Chelsea Handler's book, you should probably also check out Wanda Sykes' "Yeah, I said it." And as for me, well I'm going to go read "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." It's a novel in cartoons by Jeff Kinney.

‘How sick, sick, sick I am of Dublin! It is the city of failure, of rancour and of unhappiness.’

gDuring my senior year of high school, my enterprising and optimistic English teacher decided to assign our class James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

I couldn't read it (sorry, Ms. Horger...). I try not to give up on books before getting at least half-way through them, but I was finished with this by the end of the first chapter. It was like digging for a lost ring in a vat of concrete: Not worth the effort for my time.

I trudged through the first hundred or so pages, but when it got to the 50-page transcript of a sermon about going to hell, I couldn't make it any farther. I SparkNoted the rest, just like any other good future English major would.

So while I can appreciate the importance of the multiday celebration of Bloomsday all over Dublin in honor of Joyce's Ulysses, where people decide it's a fantastic idea to dress up in 1904-appropriate garb and wander the streets, I can't see myself joining in any time soon.

Joyce himself had a notoriously tumultuous relationship with the city (as evidenced by his 1909 quote that titles this post).

My friend Shannon, who is currently in Dublin, said the celebrations are "awesome." There is apparently a random guy who is dressed up as James Joyce that is poking people with a cane while reading from Ulysses, and I am all for random acts of violent street performance.

Has anyone else had a James Joyce experience? Or even finished one of his books?

Yet Another Reason to Love David Sedaris

David Sedaris, hilarious essayist/ author of Me Talk Pretty One Day and, most recently, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, is doing a "small town" book tour (being from Kentucky, 85-120K people doesn't qualify as a small town, but OK). He basically goes to cities that never see popular authors because they aren't New York, Boston or L.A. and then he stays up to 9.5 hours after a reading to sign books and talk with each reader/fan, according to the Publisher's Weekly article and my own personal experience.

As a senior in high school, I attended a reading of his with a friend, piggybacking on the unusual and unexpected good taste of said friend. Aside from being uproarious and one of the better writers of the past 15 years -- a memoirist who doesn't roll in his own self-pity (unless he wallows in it for your enjoyment) -- afterward, he also stayed for hours to sign each book of each patron. My friend brought four books, which was embarrassing and excessive, but Sedaris signed each one. He then complimented us for dressing up, deploring to the Kentucky Center for the Arts gods that he had to and why shouldn't everyone else?

Because of this long wait in line or our propensity to overdress or perhaps the fact that we were teenagers who read something other than Harry Potter in the 2000s, Sedaris then rummaged through his rucksack, saying he wished to give us a gift, but all he had was the soap and lotion he had stolen from a hotel. We took it.

So basically, even though Louisville isn't by any means a small town, I was glad to have had my second authorial experience (the first was with the renownd singer-songwriter Raffi) with a man so appreciative to meet readers.

And this is why I plan to be one of the people lined all the way to Mid-City Mall down Bardstown Road when he comes to Carmichael's on Sunday (Father's Day). Maybe I'm a bad kid, but at least I read?

For Sedaris' tour dates, click here.

A Striking Correlation Between Bureaucratic Snobbery and Our Own

Thanks to Larry and The Oregonian's Jack Ohman for this cartoon: The Harvard-Yale Game.

Leave Huckleberry alone!

According to the latest issue of The Economist, one of the reasons America's education system doesn't measure up to those of Europe and Asia is Huckleberry Finn, the river-raftin' vagabond of Mark Twain's most beloved work.

The article claims that the U.S. of A's fondness for undisciplined children contributes to the lackluster work ethic of its youth. This may be true, but please leave Huck out of it.

Those who have read the classic know that Twain's protagonist actually put on his thinking cap quite frequently. Sure, Huck was an independent spirit. He preferred fishin', huntin' and mischiefin' to studyin', but Huckleberry also wrestled with the great moral dilemma of his time (slavery) and came to reject the social norms of the day.

Such critical thought seems largely absent from our Wii-playing, YouTube-savvy generation of today. Instead of exploring the Mississippi, kids today struggle to explore their own neighborhoods. This is largely not their fault as their parents most likely are afraid to let them outside or have filled their schedule with piano lessons, Little League, travel team soccer and swimming camp.

This leaves little time for adventure let alone moral dilemma.

Of course, Huckleberry is a character, skillfully crafted by one of the greatest American writers ever, and we are common people cursed with the desire to shield our children from life's rigors.

But we don't need less of Huck in our education system. We need more. Much more.

Trust-bustin' Google Books

The U.S. Justice Department has made formal requests for information from some of the big whigs involved in the case against Google Books, which groups such as the Authors Guild have accused of being a trust and violating copyright laws.

Google Books is trying to settle for sharing its earnings with the authors and publishers for using the out of print books.

Click on the headline to view the entire NYTimes article.

Baa! Baa! Black Sheep or Gone With the Wind?

Would the classics be remembered at all if they had gone by their working titles? Or is something catchy something more important?

Click the headline above to read this article in from The Guardian and find out why you're glad authors change the titles from first draft to shelf.

Save NYPL!

So, I don't live in New York City and don't know if I ever will. But they have got arguably the coolest free public library ever. And it's a symbol to readers nationwide. What kid didn't love the library or the Bookmobile? Since newspapers are dying, libraries are one of the remaining vital strongholds of democracy - anybody, educate yourself, for free.

The administration of the New York Public Library is planning to shutdown as much as 20 percent of its properties, limiting access and getting rid of much of the architecture in the historic 1911 main branch facility (and about seven floors worth of books).

So, save NYPL! You can donate as little as $5 or fill out a form to send to your local congressperson (if you are a New York reader).

Women Are Relevant Writers; Or, Why Ernest Hemingway Is Not the Definition of 20th Century American Fiction

Please read Elaine Showalter's case for female writers and their relevance to "Great American Novel" (in quotes), something that many columnists have forgotten with the death of John Updike. (Although, let's face it, she also wrote it to promote her new book A Jury of Her Peers: American Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx).

Often excluded from the canon or judged by only their most recent works, women continue to dominate the American literary world (despite the critics' tendency to forget them).

Also, her list of the top eight female writers to watch has given me a new reading list. So hoorah!

Again, thanks to The Guardian for this contribution.

IT Dude Writes Best Romantic Comedy of the Year

Yes. That is correct. The Melissa Nathan prize for the best romantic comedy written in the UK goes to its first male recipient, who defends the genre and his interest in it.

Click on the headline to go to the article, courtesy of The Guardian.

Most Important Movie Based on a Book in 2009:

They are making Where the Wild Things Are into a children's movie. As a child of the 80s/90s, this vaguely dark children's book looks like an awesome movie, which is surprising, because, as we all know, people usually crucify great books when they make them into movies (see all "The Great Gatsby" films ever made as reference).

Survival of the fittest: May the cutest logo live on

Visit the link above to see the NYTimes diagram of how consolodation of major publishers still leaves room for variation in the logo pool.

Some people love the smell of books, and some people love to smell like books

Yes, you are reading correctly. Perfumiers are now attempting to encapsulate novels in your nostrils.

Will you be able to identify a person's taste in literature by their aromatherapy choices?

Click the headline above to read the article.

George Orwell- plot stealer?

Here, Guardian columnist Paul Owen discusses whether it is important that Orwell stole the plot of 1984 from Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, a book he reviewed three years before publishing his twentieth-century classic, or whether it is more important he brought it to a culture that it would impact (or at least be able to freely publish it).

Click on the headline of this story to take you to the article. Interesting stuff.

Marilynne Robinson reads from/discusses her new book

I love The Guardian. Also, I cannot wait to read Home - the sequel to Gilead.

Click the link above to hear a podcast of Robinson reading a passage and discussing the book. Eeek!

It all begins with the beginning.

As college students and recent grads who chose to major in things we liked when we were 18 and who have virtually no connections in the upper echelons of society, we are now either devoting our day times to interning, also known as indentured servitude, or working for slave wages.

By night, however, we entertain ourselves with books (because we are so old-fashioned and hip). With our other free time (seeing as we are some carless, some in the middle of nowhere, and some just epic procrastinators), we review these books here.

This blog isn't dedicated to a particular genre, type, or theme of book. We don't particularly care if it's new or old, short or long, poetry or prose.

So you might ask yourself, why should I lower myself into the world of some crappy 20-somethings' musings that they produce out of summer boredom when they didn't even attend an Ivy League school and they aren't published?

Because. In our years slummin' it at big state schools, we got really good at judging. Particularly literature.

Enjoy.