Bites: Hemingway’s African Snows, Colson Whitehead on Your Next Novel, The Virtuousness of Swiss Prisons, and more

Hemingway’s short story “The Snows of Kilimanjara” may make a resurgence in the coming years, as the African snows, once “as wide as all the world…and unbelievably white,” of the sky-high peak could be completely obsolete within as little as 12 years. Lit. Is the Internet making you illiterate? Colson Whitehead on choosing What to Write Next: play darts! The Millions has compiled a descriptive list of Difficult Books.  I like this.  Let’s read them. Somerset Maugham broke all the […]

Continue Reading

Weekend Bites: New York nostalgia, Dzanc’s new lit mag, the Seinfeld effect, Jane Austen’s syllabus, bit.ly is bad?, Brooklyn’s Stairway to Heaven

For Bookforum, Philip Nobel’s review essay on The Eternal City: “Despite New Yorkers’ powerful nostalgia for the Gotham-that-was, the city’s urban ecology has always thrived on change.” There’s a new monthly online lit mag, The Collagist, by Dzanc Books. Field Guide to the Snob: The Seinfeld Effect. Like Jane Austen? Don’t read zombie lit! Read some of these books instead. Are shortened url’s bad for the health of the web? Finally, has Google found a Stairway to Heaven in Brooklyn??

Continue Reading