fortnightly boat (book)

erik larson, author of many narrative nonfiction bangerz, including "the devil in the white city", has a new book and it is about...

the sinking of the lusitania! it's called "dead wake"!

you can read an excerpt here, before it comes out on march 10.

toot toooooooooooot.

BREAKING LITERATURE NEWS

Harper Lee wrote a 'To Kill a Mockingbird' sequel, and it’s coming in July: http://t.co/6pMKXb4obf pic.twitter.com/zw220T1Gqs
— Vulture (@vulture) February 3, 2015

why are you down there

julie klausner's "what i read" is just great.

read it here.

i love it when chelsea handler gets mean

via

books and pages = OVER.

this blew my fucking mind today:

The “Optimal Recognition Point” (ORP) is slightly left of the center of each word, and is the precise point at which our brain deciphers each jumble of letters.

The unique aspect of Spritz is that it identifies the ORP of each word, makes that letter red and presents all of the ORPs at the same space on the screen.

In this way, our eyes don’t move at all as we see the words, and we can therefore process information instantaneously rather than spend time decoding each word. (via)

250 words per minute:


350 words per minute:


500 words per minute:

these two old queens giggle and whisper about being gay in paris

edmund white (who i honestly thought was dead) and dennis cooper in interview magazine

and while we're discussing things you should and should not read:

i know it seems like something you should avoid, and i did avoid it for a couple of days, but my morbid curiosity won out in the end, and i read the nymag "my abortion" feature. i have to say it was quite illuminating and moving at times and only contained a couple of medical nightmares, so i encourage you, especially, to check it out.

BUT.

whatever you do, do NOT read this new yorker piece about a woman who had a late-term miscarriage while traveling in mongolia. do. NOT. i haven't been able to close my eyes all week.

2Pz Summer Reading List

there is only one book that everyone will be buzzing about this summer. don't be surprised if you see it sticking out of beach bags, tucked into picnic baskets, or in the hands of straphangers on the subway or bus.

Sum It Up, by Pat Head Summitt with Patty Jenkins is a must read. go get your copy today and let us know when you finish!

wuthering heights

this is one of those songs that is hugely popular except i had never heard it before. now im obsessed. the royksopp cover with anneli drecker is really good too. kate bush is that witchy kind of cuckoo that i really adore.

make me believe in you

referenced in Dancer From the Dance

chloe - reading

phenomyuhnon.

RIP Gore Vidal

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you probably read yesterday that acclaimed author Gore Vidal died Tuesday.

Gore Vidal has been one of my favorite authors ever since I read City and the Pillar in college. When I was studying abroad I found an English language bookstore and started reading everything of his I could get my hands on.

Do yourself a favor and go pick up Julian or Lincoln and enjoy the finest work of one of America's greatest authors. More here.

fifty states of grey

(via)

the northeast has the most readers, but the south mistakenly thinks its a good-ass book. why are they pointing at tennessee like that? clearly mississippi is worse, like always.

Baz Luhrmann - Great Gatsby trailer

mariah carey throws mad shade

for starla:

She's reading it you know.  How emBEARassing!

what david sedaris reads

here's a delightful little q + a with david sedaris, focusing mainly on his reading habits. it's adorbz.

Do you consider yourself a fiction or a nonfiction person? What’s your favorite literary genre? Any guilty pleasures?
I like nonfiction books about people with wretched lives. The worse off the subjects, the more inclined I am to read about them. When it comes to fictional characters, I’m much less picky. Happy, confused, bitter: if I like the writing I’ll take all comers. I guess my guilty pleasure would be listening to the British audio versions of the “Harry Potter” books. They’re read by the great Stephen Fry, and I play them over and over, like an 8-year-old.
...
Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel as if you were supposed to like, and didn’t? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?
Boy, did I have a hard time with “Moby-Dick.” I read it for an assignment 10 years ago and realized after the first few pages that without some sort of a reward system I was never going to make any progress. I told myself that I couldn’t bathe, shave, brush my teeth or change my clothes until I had finished it. In the end, I stunk much more than the book did.
...
If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want to know? Have you ever written to an author?
I’m horrible at meeting people I admire, but if I could go back in time, I’d love to collect kindling or iron a few shirts for Flannery O’Connor. After I’d finished, she’d offer to pay me, and I’d say, awe-struck, my voice high and quivering, that it was on me. (via)

nothing to be ashamed of.

look who made the top hunger-games-reading-cities list!

1. Sunnyvale, CA
2. Salt Lake City, UT
3. Tallahassee, FL
4. Seattle, WA
5. Orlando, FL
6. Pittsburgh, PA
7. St. Louis, MO
8. Provo, UT
9. San Francisco, CA
10. Naperville, IL
11. Washington, DC
12. Richmond, VA
13. Scottsdale, AZ
14. Wilmington, NC
15. Murfreesboro, TN
16. Vancouver, WA
17. Portland, OR
18. Tampa, FL
19. Overland Park, KS
20. Norman, OK

thx ktv!

ima read

from @jakeshears