Quick Hits
April 24, 2013
What Should I Read on Vacation?: A Question I Never Took Lightly Again 1
by Janet Potter
This theory of vacation books, which I subscribe to so heartily, all began with a vacation I took, to London, which was one of the worst decisions I ever made, and the book I took along, Banvard’s Folly, which was one of the best.
November 20, 2012
Goodwill in Brooklyn: On Donating Books to Unexpected Readers 12
by Jessica Francis Kane
I am uncomfortable shedding books. The three boxes my husband and I were holding, plus three more in the trunk of the car, were the result of a careful purge executed after living abroad for a year.
November 16, 2012
Cyber-Babbittry: Conventionality and Banality Are Alive and Well on the Internet 2
by John Hendel
Whether the information comes via a Twitter newsfeed or from 20th-century church fellows, ads, and business pals, the effect is the same. Leave it to the crowds! Let the masses decide! This is still straight Babbittry.
October 26, 2012
All Hallow’s Read: A Parents’ Guide to Scary Books for Young Readers 6
by Margaret H. Willison
As someone who models most attempts to spread her personal taste on the Marshall Plan, I am apt to seize any opportunity for book-gifting with fevered delight
October 4, 2012
All Creatures Great and Small: On Animals in Literature 2
by Dan Josefson
A brief catalogue of non-human animals seen and discussed in its pages would include deer, bees, ducks, a turkey, cats, a caterpillar, a goat, a pig, some chickens, an owl, two wasps, a peahen, horses, bats, some birds that are not further identified, and a snake. This seems to me, if not quite excessive, then at least curious.
August 24, 2012
Excerpt: The Opening Paragraphs of D.T. Max’s Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace 18
by Editor
The first definitive treatment of David Foster Wallace’s life arrives next week.