How GoodReads hides some bad book reviews to keep the site from degenerating into a commenter free-for-all.
Popular science writer Jonah Lehrer has resigned from his position as a staff writer at the New Yorker after confessing to having fabricating several quotes from Bob Dylan in his latest book, Imagine: How Creativity Works. Lehrer was confronted about the quotes in an email from journalist and Dylan diehard Michael Moynihan last week (who was just interviewed by the Observer about the matter) and came clean on Monday morning.
Is there any point to the word “literary?” “It seems to imply some particular formal characteristics,” Rob Horning writes at the New Inquiry, “but that implication only allows the term to serve as an alibi for the status aspirations of the people who use it.”
Filmmaker Chris Marker, whose short films on time and memory have been described as “the cinematic answer to the creative non-fiction essay,” died in France today at the age of 91.
To celebrate William H. Gass’s birthday, John Madera has asked a number of authors to name their “50 Literary Pillars,” in the style of Gass’s own “Temple of Texts.” Contributors include Matt Bell, Paula Bomer, and Kyle Minor, among others.
Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain that recently confirmed its financial support of religious organizations that fight gay marriage, has selected a new item to give away with children’s meals: Berenstain Bears books. The Berenstain family, which holds the copyright, has informed concerned customers to contact Chick-fil-A or the books’ publisher: HarperCollins.
HarperCollins has announced that John Ashbery’s latest poetry collection, Quick Question, will be published on December 4.
