Books Acquired Recently

Child, Lydia Maria. Letters From New-York. 1843. Ed. Bruce Mills. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1998. I picked this up from the “free book box” at school. I’ve never heard of Child, but I love books about New York City and I am also interested in the Abolitionist movement as an extension of my scholarshipContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”

Salman Rushdie on “The Rushdie Affair”

I just read Salman Rushdie’s personal essay in the 17 September 2012 issue of the New Yorker about the first few months of his life after the fatwa against his life was issued upon the publication of The Satanic Verses. It is a moving, heartbreaking text that makes one realize how much of a heroContinue reading “Salman Rushdie on “The Rushdie Affair””

On the Accumulation of Multiple Copies of the Same Book

In an article in the July 12, 2012 New York Review of Books, Michael Chabon writes that he “acquired five copies, of various size and vintage” of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake during the year that he worked his way through the novel. I love this little detail because I, too, find myself obsessively buying different printingsContinue reading “On the Accumulation of Multiple Copies of the Same Book”

“Another Life” by Paul La Farge

There’s a fantastic short story in this week’s New Yorker (July 2, 2012) by Paul La Farge called “Another Life,” which is about an English professor (aren’t stories by English professors about English professors the best?) in his late 30s who picks up the bartender of his hotel after his wife goes off to sleepContinue reading ““Another Life” by Paul La Farge”

R.I.P. Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron died today at the age of 71. This is a major loss for American culture. While I enjoyed a number of Ephron’s films, including When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, and Bewitched, I will especially remember her for her occasional witty personal essays from the New Yorker and her early feminist essaysContinue reading “R.I.P. Nora Ephron”

Real Books Forever! or, Just Say “No” to ebooks

There is a fascinating and disturbing article by Ken Auletta in this week’s (June 25, 2012) New Yorker about the current legal face-offs between amazon.com and six large publishing companies in the U.S. (Random House, Penguin, Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster). Basically, Apple created a deal with the publishers to fix their ebookContinue reading “Real Books Forever! or, Just Say “No” to ebooks”

Books Acquired Recently

Baraka, Amiri. Dutchman and The Slave. 1964. New York: Harper, 2001. I bought this book to use while completing my essay in the forthcoming Modern Language Association volume Approaches to Teaching Baraka’s Dutchman, for which it is the standard edition. However, I’ve never read The Slave before, and I look forward to it. I love Baraka’sContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”