Reading in Transit (Some Notes)
Last weekend, I flew to Chicago for my father’s 60th birthday. I wanted to spy on my fellow Southwest travelers’ books, but everyone had a Kindle or an iPad so I can’t tell you what people flying from LA to Chicago were reading.
Now, Amazon is hurting individual humans, who probably resemble the humans that buy from Amazon. For the first time, Amazon could be seen as hurting their own customers.
A review of Goodreads’ new book recommendations algorithm.
Lightning People – Christopher Bollen
Unlike lesser character-oriented writers, Bollen manages to create lives that seem to have already been in motion before the book began.
We Are Broke And We Like Monsters
A trend piece about trend pieces.
Everyone Hates a Preachy Vegan
Unfortunately, I recently realized I’ve become the books-equivalent of this terrible type of person – all someone has to do is bring up how much they are enjoying their new Kindle and I jump down their throat about “mafia-style business tactics” and “selling books at a loss and forcing publishers and writers to eat part of the loss.” It’s becoming incredibly unattractive.
Music and writing are basically BFFs – Jennifer Egan’s victory lap sweep of last year’s major literary awards only reinforces their interconnectedness. Under the nebulous, pulsating umbrella that is “popular culture,” books and music have been weaving themselves together since before kids in college dorms stapled their first punk zines.
A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness
“Reading vampire fiction in a culture saturated with vampires is chasing the dragon.”