A survey of 2,234 adults, published yesterday, finds that not much has changed since the poll was last conducted in 2008: apparently our favorite book is still the Bible and we still like Gone with the Wind second-best. There’s some good news: Atlas Shrugged has disappeared from the top ten.
Alex Pareene, formerly of Gawker and Salon, joinsFirst Look’s still-unnamed second vertical as executive editor. Pareene will oversee political content for the new magazine, which will focus on politics and finance.
Heidegger’s recently published notebooks reveal an anti-Semitism more deeply seated than suspected. At the New Yorker’s Page-Turner blog, Joshua Rothman reflects on the flaws of the philosopher he loves. “It’s . . . impossible to set aside Heidegger’s sins—and they cannot help but reduce the ardency with which his readers relate to him. . . . Even if his philosophy isn’t contaminated by Nazism, our relationship with him is.” But Heidegger’s own philosophy provides an out, as Rothman notes: after all, “being wrong” is an “irreducible part of being a person”: “human beings are not calculators, but conjecturers.”
The Webby awards honor Lawrence Lessig for “lifetime achievement.” The new publishing website Medium wins for Best User Experience and Best Visual Design.
The Wellcome prize goes to Andrew Solomon’s Far From the Tree.