After railing against Twitter in the New York Times Magazine, Bill Keller expands his beef with the written word in a new column titled “Let’s Ban Books, or At Least Stop Writing Them.” The gist: too many reporters are taking leave to write books, and Keller’s own failed attempts at book-writing haven’t endeared him to the practice: “Book-writing is agony—slow, lonely, frustrating work that, unless you are a very rare exception, gets a lukewarm review (if any), reaches a few thousand people and lands on a remaindered shelf at Barnes & Noble.” Let the Twitter wars begin.
In honor of Snooki’s landing another book deal, Anderson Cooper does a dramatic reading of her first novel, A Shore Thing.
The New York Times says it will pay back a $250 million loan from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim (his real name) by August 15—three and a half years ahead of schedule.
Taking a page from Calvino, The Guardian is enamoured with the Book Barge, a floating bookstore located (for now) in Staffordshire, England.
How do you make your kid a writer? “First of all, let her be bored. Let her have long afternoons with absolutely nothing to do... Let her get a job. Let her work long hours for crappy pay with a mean employer and rude customers. If she wants to be a writer, she'll have to be comfortable with hard work and low pay.” [Via Ta-Nehisi Coates]
We're looking forward to the launch of Girl Crush Zine, a ladies-only online mag featuring a stellar list of contributors.
