This would be Ulysses, by James Joyce, which came out 100 years ago, and has been commonly heralded as the Best Novel Ever Written. I feel like I should underline and bold that for effect, or you can just imagine me using my best voice-of-God impression. - The Smart Set
Crikey, collecting the lingo that makes Strine Strine is a hard yakka that can leave a poor bastard with a head like a half-sucked mango. - The New York Times
The increase in online buying has meant a reduction in the number of physical outlets, but those that remain have a beadier eye for bargains unsuspected by their owners. The trade has lost much of its charm and romance, and the number of eccentrics has dwindled. - The Critic
If a writer is to be rejected on grounds of style, it might as well be done stylishly. One publisher brilliantly mimicked Gertrude Stein’s experimental prose with “Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one. Hardly one”. - The Critic
People in publishing are increasingly nervous of causing offence. I have been told that some books are being rejected not because the publishers don’t think the books have an audience, but because they don’t want to upset an online mob. - Prospect
Daniel Paisner: Ghostwriting has "helped me see what it takes to succeed at the very highest level—or, at least, they’ve left me thinking about it. Also: what it means to stumble, how to hold a dream out in front of you and find a way." - The Millions
"The arrangement seems to have been made entirely at random, unless you know the quirk by which it was conceived. Books are placed next to one another for companionship, based on some kinship or shared sensibility that I believe ties them together." - The Atlantic
Hall wrote by hand in the mornings: "I go into, as I call it, Sarah Connor mode from The Terminator: out there, here’s my child, what do I need to do? Get buff! I got pains in my hand because I wasn’t used to writing so much." - The Guardian (UK)
Graham Greene's advice might have been rather ... specific. "Greene could have kids and write 500 words first thing every day because he had money, because of the gender norms at his time, and because he abandoned his family in 1947." - Slate
British publishing surely does not know, or want to deal with it. "You’re not being cancelled, you’re being challenged. You’re not used to being challenged, and, now you are, you don’t know what to do about it." - The Guardian (UK)
No, they aren't just gag gifts. From their (modern) beginnings in Playboy magazine's food and drinks column, and then Mimi Sheraton's Seducer's Cookbook (somewhat scandalous in 1963), they track the way changing attitudes toward sexuality became part of the American mainstream. - Eater
The novel has the rather Zen title The Book of Form and Emptiness, and its author is American-Canadian novelist and filmmaker Ruth Ozeki (who, yes, is a Zen Buddhist priest). Among the other finalists for the £30,000 award were Elif Shafak and Louise Erdrich. - BBC
In a Q&A, Adrian Matejka, a multiple award-winner who holds an endowed chair at Indiana University and was the state's poet laureate from 2018-19, talks about his plans for the magazine and diversity and equity at its parent, the Poetry Foundation. - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
Two big reasons: Interference - that is, the other books we've read get in the way; and passive engagement. That is, if you write a review of a book you're reading, you'll remember it better. But is it worth it? We have limited working memory, after all. - The Guardian (UK)
A child in a multilingual environment? A fair number, with no particular firm ceiling, but not, say, three dozen; there are limits. This makes intuitive sense, but here's an explanation of the reasons. - The New York Times
