Robot authors trying to compete with Orwell
A non-profit lab called Open AI has announced that they’ve trained a machine to read, write, translate, and summarize text unsupervised. According to Open AI’s blog post, the objective is… Read more »
Book reading models are lit
Bella and Gigi Hadid make books the hot new accessory of 2019 https://t.co/TR3gIo0Vrv pic.twitter.com/Zg3H5JQefU— New York Post (@nypost) March 19, 2019 Last week, infamous tabloid newspaper the New York Post… Read more »
Five koans of wisdom from the screenwriter of Blade Runner
Melville House just published The Wall Will Tell You, a collection of meditations on the art of screenwriting by Hampton Fancher of Blade Runner fame. Written as a series of bite-sized meditations,… Read more »
Major New Zealand bookstore chain removes Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life from its shelves
New Zealand’s response to the horrific string of deadly shootings in mosques on March 15 is one worth studying. Most notably, the country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Arden announced in no uncertain… Read more »
Never-before-seen letters by Georgia O’Keeffe offer perspective into her life in the 1930s
The Library of Congress has acquired “a trove of letters” by the famous artist Georgia O’Keeffe, according to Elizabeth Blair at NPR. What these long-lost letters elucidate is a woman deeply… Read more »
An online petition to stop Brexit crashes government website due to sheer number of supporters.
You know that feeling before an exam, of sheer panic and anxiety in the pit of your stomach? The dread of realising your coursework is due in and it’s nowhere… Read more »
Everyone we saw at the London Book Fair 2019
The London Book Fair can be a pretty overwhelming place. As one of the biggest trade fairs in the world, you can expect a LOT of people to show up—many… Read more »
Thousands of Indonesians have opened their own libraries
Promoting reading in Indonesia has long been a struggle—so citizens have taken it upon themselves to make books accessible to children. Indonesia is vast, with “17,000 islands and a geography that almost… Read more »
Alaa al-Aswany, Egyptian author and activist, is being sued by the Egyptian military for insulting President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
Alaa al-Aswany, author of The Yacoubian Building and critic of the political regime of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, will face a lawsuit filed by the military authority of Egypt. According to reporting… Read more »
Amazon removes from the marketplace books promoting dangerous and false "cures" for autism
The PEN America Literary Awards shortlist has been announced! Here's a totally unbiased look at it—especially the biography category
Hester Prynne, eat your heart out: naughty books previously on lock-down now on display
As more books are banned in Kuwait, activists rise up
Youth Climate Strike left us full of hope
Last Friday, two Melvillians got to take part in history at a Youth Climate Strike in NYC. Last week’s Strike was part of an international effort led by teens to… Read more »
Disney inches toward world dominance with Fox acquisition
All around the world / we’ll go marching / who’s the leader of the club / that’s made for you and me / M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E Yes, capitalism’s favorite anthropomorphic mouse continues… Read more »
I like rare books and I cannot lie
I like rare books and I cannot lie, but like most of us, I’m too poor to ever own any rare books. But I can window-shop! I can read and dream… Read more »
Facebook local news aggregator can’t find enough local news to work with
Today, a riddle: How can I live in a cool to semi-arid part of the United States and still live in a desert? Well my friend, that’s because you probably… Read more »
Wellcome Prize shortlist honors writers exploring gender, identity, and sexuality
As the awards season continues on amidst major changes, a younger prize is honoring spectacular new voices in fiction and non-fiction. In its tenth year, The Wellcome Prize just announced… Read more »
“Civilization backup” on its way to the moon
Corey Powell of NBC News reports that the Arch Mission Foundation is designing a “civilization backup” that will be sent to other planets and last at least 6 billion years. The… Read more »
On literary citizenship and giving back to the literary community
“Literary citizenship”—we hear this term tossed around a lot. From MFA programs to online literary communities, being a “lit citizen” is tantamount to being, well, a person with more than… Read more »
Hail and Farewell: Jake Phelps of Thrasher magazine
As our man on the skateboard-publishing beat, it is my unfortunate duty today to report some sad news from one of the raddest corners of the publishing world: Jake Phelps, editor of Thrasher… Read more »
Nonprofit Literacy Partners unveils campaign to fight adult illiteracy
Those of us who love to read probably take it for granted. But Literacy Partners is a New York City-based nonprofit dedicated to improving literacy in families, and they’ve recently… Read more »
Scholastic Harry Potter editor launching an independent publishing company
We all know J.K Rowling (a.k.a Mother Potter) to be the source of all things Hogwarts and Harry, and rightfully so. But what about the man behind the scenes responsible… Read more »
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day thrives on a new stage
Ishiguro fans get treated well. From countless movie adaptations to a Nobel prize, their beloved author has thankfully received his due. Like many, I’m fascinated by Ishiguro’s range, capable of… Read more »
Amazon removes from the marketplace books promoting dangerous and false “cures” for autism
One week after concerns regarding Amazon’s algorithmic promotion of whack-o conspiracy theory garbage made headlines, the company is back in the news for removing a different breed of insane and… Read more »
This year’s Man Booker Prize International longlist is pretty freaking awesome
The Man Booker Prize, soon to simply be the Booker Prize, has announced the 2019 longlist for its coveted prize for best work of literature in translation. It’s a nifty… Read more »
James Patterson creates award to celebrate young booksellers
Bestselling author James Patterson is creating an award to celebrate young booksellers new to the book selling field. According to Heloise Wood of The Bookseller, Paterson is working with the… Read more »
Endeavor talent agency pulls out of partnership with Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi killing
The last time we wrote about Saudi Arabia, we entered through the back door: where the National Enquirer was threatening to publish even more intimate photos of Jeff Bezos than… Read more »
Book piracy is a real problem—and it could affect you
Harry Potter without The Deathly Hallows. Game of Thrones without A Dream of Spring. The Trainspotting saga without (shameless plug) Dead Men’s Trousers. What if your favorite series was cancelled before… Read more »
Buying the home that inspired Wuthering Heights may bring you one step closer to 19th cent. gothic realness
If reorganizing your bookshelf with the spine-in, or saving your favorite bookshop from closure via GoFundMe campaigns, is not enough to show your true “book nerd”-self, have you ever thought of… Read more »
The “Burn Book” authored by Virginia Woolf instead of Regina George
The grandchildren of novelist Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967) recently found an interesting collaborative work that seems to be the 1920’s equivalent of the Burn Book as seen in the 2004 movie… Read more »
Macmillan doubles down on true crime
Macmillan has announced the inclusion of another piece of programming for their ever-growing list of literary podcasts, and this time it’s true crime. Calvin Reid reports for Publishers Weekly that Case Closed… Read more »
The Library of Congress hopes to be and do more for the American people
According to Peggy McGlone at the Washington Post, the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. is set for a renovation that for some, might mean a shift in the institution’s… Read more »
New biopic to present a new Emily Dickinson
A new biopic about Emily Dickinson promises to fill in the blanks of her life, somewhat literally. Indie filmmaker Madeleine Olnek’s Wild Nights With Emily, starring Molly Shannon as the titular Emily,… Read more »
The launch event for Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale sequel will livestream around the world
No matter how you feel about The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s upcoming sequel to her beloved feminist dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, one thing is for sure: It’s going to be… Read more »
Deleted material from Kathy Acker: The Last Interview
At long last, Kathy Acker: The Last Interview, is about to publish (this Tuesday, 3/12). At more than 200 pages, this addition to the series was growing rather long and… Read more »
Cymru am byth! Welsh-language Braille books included in World Book Day 2019
Bore da!* It seems that Welsh (or Cymraeg)—the Celtic language spoken by our esteemed neighbours over the Severn—is rarely out of the news at the moment. Most recently, Radio 2… Read more »
Children’s book about a Syrian refugee wins this year’s Blue Peter award
For so many Brits, Blue Peter was (and is) a seminal part of childhood. The longest-running children’s TV show in the world, first broadcast in 1958, its jaunty nautical theme… Read more »
In defense of the paperback
I come to you today in defense of the beloved paperback book. And no, my relation to a publishing house does not feed any of the bias (okay, maybe a… Read more »
A History of Money
Bolaño
Trainwreck
Half The Kingdom
The Buenos Aires Quintet
The Jane Austen Rules
The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure
How to Do Nothing
Why I Am Not a Feminist
Spurious, Dogma, & Exodus
Contraband Cocktails
Rules for Werewolves
The Dark Net
Melancholy Accidents
James Baldwin: The Last Interview
Bernie goes to the Vatican Bundle
The Utopia of Rules
Future Days
The Duke’s Table
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: The Last Interview
Gnarr!
We, Robots
The Philosophy of Beards
Billy Budd, Sailor
The Quest for a Moral Compass
Bartleby the Scrivener
Sophia
Bartleby Mug
How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive
The Dead
The Ghost Network
The Damned Utd
The Weirdness
Cat Out of Hell
The Establishment
Philip K. Dick: The Last Interview
Ray Bradbury: The Last Interview
The U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Marriage Equality (Gift Edition)
Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality
The North of God
Not on Fire, But Burning
La Femme de Gilles
The Dunwich Horror
Ernest Hemingway: The Last Interview
The Art of the Novella subscription + Referral Rewards!
An Exaggerated Murder
The Constitution Demands It
Wittgenstein Jr
Patience and Fortitude
The Next Next Level
Ada’s Algorithm
Nora Ephron: The Last Interview
Happiness
Red or Dead
What We Do Now
Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview
The Essential Heinrich Böll
The Day the Renaissance Was Saved
“I Would Prefer Not To” Bartleby Tote Bag
The Dog Walker
The Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture
