The Millions » Curiosities

Birnbaum and Giraldi

C. Max Magee — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:00:28 +0000

Robert Birnbaum talks to William Giraldi, author of Busy Monsters, about Val Kilmer, Diana Ross, and Gerard Manley Hopkins, among other topics.

Seeking an End to eBook DRM

C. Max Magee — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:00:59 +0000

Joe Wikert explains why the book industry needs to learn from the music industry, drop DRM, and adopt a unified ebook format.

The Times on Boo

C. Max Magee — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:00:22 +0000

Upon the release of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, the Times profiles the spotlight-shy Katherine Boo, “Unlike many journalists Katherine Boo aspires to invisibility.”

Cohen’s New Old Ideas

C. Max Magee — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:00:13 +0000

Leonard Cohen’s new album Old Ideas is getting glowing reviews. Slate says of Cohen, “When it comes to lyrics, he’s second to no one—including Dylan.”

Slate’s New Language Podcast

C. Max Magee — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:00:56 +0000

Word nerds will likely dig Slate’s new language-focused podcast, Lexicon Valley, with Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo.

Sorkin Takes on the News

C. Max Magee — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:18:58 +0000

Fans of West Wing, will no doubt be excited to hear that a new Aaron Sorkin series is on its way. The Newsroom will follow the action at a cable news network and is set to air on HBO this summer.

Hatchet Job Prize

Bill Morris — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:30:07 +0000

Turns out Americans aren’t the only ones who adore snark. The novelist and critic Adam Mars-Jones has won the first Hatchet Job prize from the British website Omnivore for his blistering takedown of Michael Cunningham’s latest novel, By Nightfall. Mars-Jones beat out Geoff Dyer’s slam of Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending. “It isn’t terrible,” Dyer wrote, “it’s just so…average.”

How Do You Illustrate Footnotes?

Nick Moran — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:00:57 +0000

Seven Stories Press is publishing three volumes of a Graphic Canon, which will illustrate and panel everything from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Infinite Jest. Their first volume, Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons will be released on May 22nd.

The Why and How of Colophons

Nick Moran — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:00:37 +0000

Ever wondered why Knopf’s colophon is a borzoi, or why Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s colophon appears to be a musician riding a flying dolphin? Well, now you can find out. Also, a while back, HTMLGIANT‘s Jimmy Chen ranked some colophons by their ability to fly.

There’s Franco in My McCarthy

Nick Moran — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:30:22 +0000

Sometime Ph.D candidate, sometime actor, and ubiquitous lit blog all-star James Franco (henceforth known as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”) has begun filming an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God in West Virginia, and I’m reminded of that line from W. B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming” — “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”