An old-school book lover in praise of the audiobook Brian Howe admits, “I don’t always take easily to new technology.” He still doesn’t use an e-reader—not, he explains, as an ethical matter but because texts for his obscure reading tastes, like small-press poetry, are generally not available as e-books. But, Howe says, he has become […]
Vanishing Point This piece is a translation of a speech given by Swedish novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard on receiving a German literary award. Here the writer explains how reading fiction helps us to understand humanity in general by focusing our awareness on individual people. What characterizes our age is “the sheer volume of images of
The universe within. This is not an example of outstanding writing. But I can’t help but warm to someone who can write this: While reading you create a universe within you where your characters talk and move through breathtaking landscapes and everything is as unique as you and your imagination are. You become the container
18 BOOKS FOR WINTER: A SELECTION OF FEEL-GOOD NOVELS, BIG BOOKS, AND CLASSICS TO ENJOY DURING COLDER WEATHER On Tolstoy Therapy, Lucy discusses books that she has loved and “ snippets of literary interestingness.” In this post she offers some reading choices for your winter reading in the categories of big books, feel-good novels, and
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I was excited to read that CBS is bringing to life yet another Star Trek series. When I stopped in at Twitter, I was surprised to see that lots of other people were excited about it, too. My husband and I were avid fans of the original series Star Trek. We watched the reruns so
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Think “The Exorcist” Was Just a Horror Movie? The Author Says You’re Wrong. Here’s an outstanding piece of creative nonfiction about William Peter Blatty, author of the 1971 bestseller The Exorcist, made into a blockbuster movie that remains on most lists of quintessential horror movies. I remember hearing back when the book came out that
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Is Google Books Leading Researchers Astray? Google Books, “a searchable digital archive of millions of texts spanning the history of the printed word,” can allow scholars to analyze the history of language and culture. But a recent published paper by three data scientists from the University of Vermont claims that the basic design of Google
Because I’m particularly interested in the intersection between literature and psychology, I curate Literature & Psychology, which I update regularly. Through this curation I’ve discovered a number of interesting blogs and web sites. Classroom as Microcosm Siobhan Curious describes herself as “a teacher, student and person.” She teaches college English and writes fiction (both novels
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Out with vampires, in with haunted houses: the ghost story is back Just in time for Halloween (or shortly thereafter), here are several new ghost stories: It has been supplanted in recent years by vampires, witches and other monsters, but now the good old-fashioned ghost story is back with a bang, with everyone from debut
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