When Elena decided to camp out for the next Star Wars movie, she was expecting a celebration, a communion — a line full of people who love Star Wars so much, they have to share it. She wasn’t expecting this: a freezing sidewalk, nowhere to pee, and three nights stuck ... more >
McInerney’s murder tale wins Baileys book prize – Formerly the Orange Prize, the Baileys Prize for Fiction honors the best UK books by women, and this year’s winner is Lisa McInerney for The Glorious Heresies. The Prize is £30,000 and is 20 years old this year. The shortlisted books were as follows: ... more >
Confessions of a newspaper publishing exec: ‘We’ve screwed up by pursuing scale’ – I think almost every Q&A from this interview could begin with “Dear Twitter,” because the platform has become so twisted by the pursuit of NEW USERS and MORE CLICKS. For the sake of NEW USERS and MORE CLICKS. ... more >
Alan Rickman dead: Harry Potter actor had the most perfect voice, according to science – Like David Bowie, Alan Rickman died at 69 from cancer. Eerie and sad, to say the least. While there are many wonderful tributes to the actor online (I love this one on Rickman as a “working ... more >
The Greatest Books of All Time, As Voted by 125 Famous Authors – 125 writers choose, in total, 544 titles, which perhaps suggests an interesting amount of coherence among the writers chosen than the books they chose. In regard to that most difficult of words, “great:” In introducing the lists, David Orr offers ... more >
Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ to be republished in Germany – For seventy years, ending today, Bavaria has owned the copyright to Mein Kampf, and has banned its republication in Germany. Next month, Munich’s Institute for Contemporary History will publish an annotated version of the book, with a desire to “thoroughly deconstruct Hitler’s propaganda ... more >