Eryn
Surprise: Philip Roth is not a fan of e-books and “the distracting influences of modern technology, which he feels diminishes the ability to appreciate the beauty and aesthetic experience of reading books on paper.” He says, “I like to read in bed at night and I like to read with a book. I can’t stand [...]
I’m about a month behind, but I loved this article about Peter Knego, who collects decor from post-war cruise ships. It’s a little scary to imagine what his house looks like, but this is coming from someone whose floor has warped so much that her bathroom door cannot even begin to close, so. (And actually, [...]
The little boy in this photo might be my brother, or it might just be some random kid. (I found it in a pile my parents were throwing out, in an attempt to get rid of some extraneous stuff.) Which is more interesting?
In this piece, Jessa really gets at the impossibility of reading the “right” books all the time:
The idea that as a literary person there are a certain set of books you must read because they are important parts of the literary conversation is constantly implied, yet quite ridiculous. Once you get done with the Musts [...]
My favorite recent thing: The Believer’s amazing interview with Robin Nagle, who holds the enviable position of anthropologist-in-residence at New York City’s Department of Sanitation. “My entry point is through things we decide are no longer worth keeping,” she explains.
Every single thing you see is future trash. Everything. So we are surrounded by ephemera, but [...]
The last of the tomatoes are coming in now, wide and cracked, heavy with the captured humidity of passing summer, each one a Neruda poem shedding its own light, benign majesty. It is time to eat them, these sunsets of the season, then put away our flip-flops and face the fall.
Dear Sam Sifton: You are [...]
And now for today’s accounting of things that are dead or otherwise over: Paste magazine. Heeb magazine. Felicity Merriman, the Revolutionary War-era American Girl doll (once owned and beloved by my childhood friend Joanna, whose mother wouldn’t buy her a doll tied to a more recent historical period because it wouldn’t have been educational enough). [...]
