I’ve begun to feel guilty when I give someone a book. Or maybe not guilty, maybe something more akin to wariness — I’m afraid to give a book. Because when you give someone a book, it’s not giving someone a DVD or movie tickets, which requires two hours of time, two hours that requires virtually […]
BookFox has been tracking with the Random House decision not to publish the Islamically-offensive “The Jewel of Medina” from the beginning, but this blacklisting from The Langum Charitable Trust comes as a complete surprise. On the heels of a Random House defense from Stanley Fish and a rebuke from Salman Rushdie, the Langum Trust announced […]
Stanley Fish says that Random House’s deep sixing of “The Jewel of Medina” in order to avoid offending Muslims is not censorship, as Salman Rushdie asserted. Edward Champion tells us why Fish is wrong. Check out a whole database of Haruki Murakami book covers from around the world. (via Bookninja). Elizabeth Baines recalls the trials […]
The newest edition of The Drawbridge is out, with the theme of Opulence. A BookFox favorite, Tobias Wolff, has a wet-hay-stacking short story, one of the ones included in “Our Story Begins.” Also included is a story by the wonderful essayist John Berger, “Across Prison Walls.” (“Shit” might be one of my favorite essays of […]
Here’s the lovely treat of a 67 year old man, publishing his first book, which goes on to be an international bestseller. Lit-blog Co-op members might remember Sam Savage’s “Firmin,” which is now doing remarkable business abroad: Firmin … about the adventures of an erratic, paper-gobbling, self-pitying rodent, has spent the summer knocking Ken Follett […]
The problem with textbook prices is more complex than either side (students/faculty versus textbook publishers) would lead you to believe. But exorbitant prices are being fought by a wave of open-source textbooks (yes that means free. And online). As difficult and time-consuming as it is, one of the best exercises for writers is to copy […]
More of a personal note, this post. In a week I'll be starting a class teaching electronic writing at a university in the Southern California area. I'm looking forward to it — a nice reprieve from the steady streak of regular English Composition classes. I've developed a good deal of my curriculum already — the […]
On this lovely Monday morning, I’d like to direct your attention to the left column, under “Pages.” I’ve added a new one: Ranking of Literary Journals. Although I realize the dangers of such an attempt and the impossibility of creating a list that will not be debated, I wrote this because when I was first […]
I’ve become disenchanted with the whole notion of ranking literary journals, but I don’t want to delete this page entirely and disappoint the many readers who come here daily to discover new literary journals to read and submit to. So instead, I’m radically changing the system. The list below arranges literary journals in order of […]
I can’t help but laugh at Gawker’s pitch for the N+1 Reality Television Show. Think “The Apprentice” meets “Project Runway.” Picture nubile young women completing challenges in order to win the coveted internship under Keith Gessen. Michael Chabon picked up a Hugo Award (Sci-fi award) for “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union,” but it’s not his best […]
