The Wild Things is easily the best book ever adapted from a movie that was adapted from a picture book — but it also succeeds in its own right. Dave Eggers has written a novel that is deeply imaginative, slightly strange, occasionally dark, and ultimately touching. Keep reading for our take and a chance to win a furry copy of the book.
On some level, we know the story. (Weren’t we all exposed to Maurice Sendak’s Caldecott winner in childhood?) And the world Sendak evokes is so gripping that it is easy to forget that the original book was built around nine sentences. Eggers, however, has produced a work of 300 pages that naturally includes many, many more sentences. He uses the original for inspiration, but leaps off to create a world of its own.
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[Editor's note: Sarah Weinman's away on vacation this week, so this recommendation comes to you courtesy of Boldtype, our bi-monthy sister publication covering books worth reading. Enjoy!] In 1925, Col. Percy Fawcett walked into the jungles of the Amazon in search of a forgotten empire. He was known for setting off into unmapped places, only to emerge months, or even years, later with new discoveries. Those expeditions made Fawcett one of the most famous explorers of his day — so celebrated that he became the model for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s hero in The Lost World. Read More »
Last fall, midway through an interview with Oprah, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos claimed that his team had designed a device so much like a book that users would forget that they were reading with an expensive piece of electronics.
I didn’t believe him.
Then, late one night, I was reading on my ten-day-old Kindle while brushing my teeth. I was midway through a crucial point in a story when, just as Bezos had said, I got wrapped up in the world created on the screen. Without thinking, I sat my toothbrush on the counter and tried to turn a physical page — which didn’t exist.
I only paused for a moment to consider the significance of what had happened, but before I hit the next page button, I was a believer in this machine.
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