Notable Articles
August 15, 2011
The E-Reader of Sand: The Kindle and the Inner Conflict Between Consumer and Booklover 56
by Mark O'Connell
It occurred to me that Borges would have been thrilled and horrified in equal measure by the Kindle. In fact, in a weird way, he sort of invented it.
July 21, 2011
A Critic’s Notebook: On Meeting Ayn Rand’s Editor at Antioch College 52
by Gary Percesepe
This is America, he said. There aren’t many ideas. Ayn Rand had a few simple ones which she believed in fiercely and promoted relentlessly.
July 7, 2011
The Year of Wonders 44
by Alex Shakar
It was midday on a Monday in early August of the year 2000 and the bidding on my first novel had reached six figures, then paused for people to track down more cash. I was 32. I’d never made over $12,000 in a year.
July 5, 2011
Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2011 Book Preview 45
by Editor
At 7,500 words strong and encompassing 66 titles, this is the only second-half of 2011 book preview you will ever need.
June 24, 2011
Six Egyptian Writers You Don’t Know But You Should 13
by Pauls Toutonghi
More writers from Egypt made the longlist for the $50,000, 2011 International Arabic Prize for Fiction (IPAF) than writers from any other country. And now it was Egypt’s Arab Spring. Where was the work of these men and women, work that was a catalyst for the ongoing social transformation of the largest nation in the Middle East?
June 16, 2011
On the Desire to Be Well-Read: A Review of The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction 20
by Timothy Aubry
The advice of many aesthetes turns the reader’s capacity for pleasure into just another test of his cultural status—and the effect of this kind of sly pressure is to make it more difficult to distinguish what we enjoy from what we think we ought to enjoy.
