If the saying is true and everyone is a critic these days, then it should come as no surprise that tucked between the endless volumes of criticism about books appearing every day online and in print, there’s also a great deal of criticism about book…
So asks Scott Esposito at Conversational Reading, in reply to a new essay by Sarah Fay — “Could the Internet Save Book Reviews?” — published on the website of The Atlantic. Beginning with Orwell’s 1946 essay “Confessions of a Book Reviewer,” Fay asks if the…
I’ve long complained about the mainstream’s lessening books coverage — you tell me, does it make sense to you that increasingly desperate newspapers no longer cater to people who like to, you know, read? — but I have to say that some of the places…
I’m sitting in a room with nine other people, each one of us an employee of (or employer at) a thriving publisher that grew out of — and still publishes (duh) — a litblog. So Iván Thays‘s latest post over at El País, which he…
Fiction in which the author takes a clear political stance and argues for change seems to be disappearing from modern letters. As Aditya Chakrabortty in The Guardian argues, the English or American “political” author is almost extinct. Having attended a festival celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of…
We’ve been keeping a close watch on the case between the Department of Justice and five of the Big Six Publishers. If you’re after more context than the latest headline, here’s a roundup of our complete coverage, listed in chronological order as the news broke.…
As great books sometimes do, Debt, the First 5,000 Years has struck a chord with an unexpected audience: science fiction readers. Over at Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow reiterates the notions submitted by science fiction writer Jo Walton, namely that David Graeber’s work correlates with science fiction because…
The moral quandary of reading online has grown murkier with the increased popularity of “read-later” applications. These platforms allow readers to save articles from different sites and blogs in one place, for reading at a later time. The much picked-over issues of news aggregation are known…
Canada’s coolest, smartest, and bestest literary website, Bookninja, is no more. Chief cook and bottle washer George Murray has admitted that the fact that he hasn’t posted anything for a year is indeed a sign of the site’s retirement. In an essay for Toronto’s National…
Earlier this month Nick Moran at The Millions posted a great guide to the best literary Tumblrs. We’ve been enjoying them ever since and highly recommend it as high-minded time-killer. Here’s a slideshow of a few of our favorite oddities:
