“I have come to view the state of English-language book availability in Hong Kong as a productive constraint, a structural or epistemological condition akin to the rules of a challenging and rewarding game. My interest is in playing to win, not in devising ways to cheat.” At The Faster Times, Justin Taylor tours the bookstores of Hong Kong.

• At the New York Times, Ta-Nehisi Coates looks at the period-specific X-Men: First Class and its treatment (or lack thereof) of race in 1960s America.

• Ann Patchett is opening a bookstore in Nashville later this year.

• There is a Jane Austen drinking game. (via Flavorpill)

• Alina Simone is profiled at The Portland Mercury.

• The Savage Critics have begun a roundtable discussion of Chester Brown’s graphic novel Paying For It.