George Saunders—following in the footsteps of David Foster Wallace, whose 2005 commencement speech to Kenyon College was recently turned into a book—has become the latest author to eternalize his advice to graduates. Random House has announced that it will publish an extended version of the speech he delivered last year at Ithaca's commencement, titled Congratulations, by the Way, in 2014.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million—which BusinessInsider says might be “more than four times the price” that the paper is worth. Meanwhile, is the New York Times going to be next? Rumors are flying about whether the Sulzbergers are looking to sell the storied paper, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been singled out as a potential buyer.
The Awl’s Choire Sicha helps you decide which book you should read next.
A previously unpublished story by seventeen-year-old Steig Larsson will be released next year in a new anthology of Swedish crime fiction, A Darker Shade of Sweden.
Danielle Steel does not like it when men ask her if “she’s still writing.” In a blog post on Monday, Steel wrote, "I think it is something that only men do to only women, and not just to me... What this does is that it immediately puts my writing into the category as a hobby. As in, are you still taking piano lessons, doing macrame, have a parrot? I don't have a huge ego about my work, but let's face it, for me it is a job. Yes, for heaven's sake, I am still writing." In fact, she added, “I finished a book about an hour ago.” That will be her 108th.
Who sent Philip Roth an anonymous letter accusing him of “sexually exploiting an abused, illiterate woman half your age,” and did a photo of that letter end up on the cover of The Human Stain? Gawker follows the trail of Roth biographer Blake Bailey to investigate the author’s mysterious hate mail.
