by Jesse Montgomery

Chris Adrian reads from The Great Night

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Check out this clip of Chris Adrian reading from his forthcoming novel The Great Night (April 26) is a few months old, but timely and worth a good chunk of your day.

The end of Achewood? This is basically a thing.

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Chris Onstad recently announced on his blog that he will be taking an indefinite haitus from his long running webcomic Achewood, the best thing on the internet. Rough chuckles all around.

Roberto Bolaño on Stealing from Bookstores

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The New York Review of Books runs an excellent excerpt from the late Roberto Bolaño’s forthcoming book of essays Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles and Speeches (1998 – 2003). In it, Bolaño discusses theft, Camus, and recommending books to dying men (see excerpt below). Between Parentheses will be published by New Directions on March 30.

Book Club #3: The Late American Novel

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The Full Stop Book Club is a regular feature in which Full Stop editors and guest contributors discuss a book in detail over the course of a week. Our first Book Club selection is The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books, edited by Jeff Martin and The Millions‘ C. Max Magee (Soft Skull Press, 2011).

Melville House Donating All Profits to Japan Disaster Relief

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Melville House announced that it will be donating all profits made this week to Japan’s relief efforts. Non-profits that will receive support from the publishing house include Save the Children, GlobalGiving Project, Hands on Tokyo and the American Red Cross. Head to Melville House’s website for more information.

The Pale King: First Sentence

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The first sentence of David Foster Wallace’s soon-to-be-published posthumous novel The Pale King is cropping up all over the internet. If you don’t want the first sentence of a 560 page book ruined (the novel consists of roughly, 559 additional sentences [ed. note: just kidding!]) avert your browser.

The Tournament of Books: First Blood & Week Two

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The Morning News’ annual Tournament of Books enters its second week today as Andrew Womack debates the merits of Anne Carson’s Nox and Jaimy Gordon’s National Book Award winning Lord of Misrule (a beguiling favorite of mine from 2010).

Watson: Just How Scared Should We Be?

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“A few weeks ago, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings got whupped up on by IBM’s Watson in three consecutive episodes of Jeopardy! Billed as the ultimate intellectual showdown between man and machine.”

Today In: Herman Melville/Dragons

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I’m not going to make much of an effort to gild this lilly, so here are the bare bones: the trailer for a soon to be released film entitled Age of the Dragons appeared on Slashfilm today and it’s a reimagining of Moby Dick, but with dragons. Pause for a second. Ok, want a little more?

2011 Tournament of Books Bracket Unveiled

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Continuing in their effort to counter the hurtful notion that us bookworms are nebbish and anemic, The Morning News recently published the bracket for their annual Tournament of Books.