After parents complained of a scene depicting a "drug-fuelled, homosexual orgy," tenth graders at Williamstown High School in New Jersey will no longer have Haruki Murakami’s classic, Norwegian Wood, on their summer reading list.
Dick Cheney’s forthcoming memoir is already making people angry.
Meanwhile, the CIA is "demanding extensive cuts" in former FBI agent Ali H. Soufan's forthcoming memoir about American intelligence and the September 11 attacks.
Geoff Dyer reads books, picks nose.
Katie Rophie talks with Nicholson Baker about House of Holes, his latest "book of raunch:" "Things are in this book because I found them arousing. I was excited by writing this book. There is no point in doing it if you are not. You know the worry is, is it too tame? Is it too nice? Is it too weird? Is it too Dr Seuss-y? There is a review that says that. I kind of like that."
A new book examines the “under-the-radar sneakiness” of “function” words, like pronouns, and in particular, Obama’s supposedly excessive use of “me.”
Ford Madox Ford once advised judging a book by page 99. “The Page 99 Test” blog asks authors (including, most recently, Jeff Sharlet) to do the same.
