A Reader's Guide to Toyko Bookstores

Think Tokyo and you think bright lights, busy streets, and technology so ubiquitous that you can buy bananas out of a vending machine. It's true, all those things are there. But even though iPads and e-readers are everywhere, Tokyo is still a great city for readers partial to paper and ink.

Think Tokyo and you think bright lights, busy streets, and technology so ubiquitous that you can buy bananas out of a vending machine. And all those things are there. But even though iPads and e-readers are everywhere, Tokyo is still a great city for readers partial to paper and ink. The city’s students and artists contribute to a thriving free-zine scene, and its bookstores stock everything from vintage American magazines to the latest New York Times bestsellers.

Even in Shibuya, the bustling shopping district largely dedicated to the latest technology and cutting-edge fashion, carefully

culture July 19, 2012

As Texas Goes by Gail Collins

“You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.”

Davy Crockett supposedly uttered these words in 1835, when the people of Tennessee declined to re-elect the frontiersman to another term in Congress. Crockett didn’t last long in Texas; Santa Ana’s army dispatched him at the Alamo the following year. But his words certainly did. Almost two centuries later, the phrase is proudly emblazoned on T-shirts and coffee mugs for sale across the Lone Star State.

New York Times columnist Gail Collins must find this phrase—and Texans’ delight in it—pretty rich, as she believes that Texas is hell, at least