This week saw the release of Brian Kimberling’s excellent debut novel, Snapper, a delightful, wry story of a young ornithologist romping around the Indiana backcountry in a glitter-encrusted truck. There’s no doubting Kimberling’s own obsession with birding after reading the book. But Kimberling is only the latest in a long history of authors with burning, decidedly offbeat obsessions — and the author himself has put together a list of his favorites. Click through to learn some things about D.H. Lawrence’s proclivities you weren’t sure you wanted to… Read More
D.H. Lawrence
The Most Ridiculous Claims Used to Challenge Classic Novels
The American Library Association has released its study of the most frequently challenged books of 2012, a list that includes classics and YA touchstones alike. But books have been challenged, banned, and removed from school curricula for years, and sometimes for the silliest of reasons. At the ALA’s website, we found a list of the justifications behind some historical challenges of classic novels, and some are frankly absurd. We’ve culled a few of our outrageous favorites from the ALA’s list — scoff or agree, but read… Read More
Staff Picks: Flavorwire’s Favorite Cultural Things This Week
Need a great book to read, album to listen to, or TV show to get hooked on? The Flavorwire team is here to help: in this new weekly feature, our editorial staffers each recommend the cultural object or experience they’ve enjoyed the most in the past seven days. Click through for our picks, and tell us what you’ve been loving in the comments. … Read More
The 10 Sexiest Books of All Time
Today would have been the 110th birthday of one of history’s sexiest women, Anaïs Nin. To honor her confessional and often erotic literary legacy, we suggest you spend the day reading something unabashedly sexy — but no, not Fifty Shades of Meek Girl Blushing. It wouldn’t be a tribute to Ms. Nin if it didn’t have any literary merit. After the jump, cuddle up to our picks for the ten sexiest literary works of all time — but as in all things romantic, it’s to each their own, so if these leave you cold, suggest your own favorite titillating reads in the comments. … Read More
15 of the Sexiest Book Covers of All Time [NSFW]
This week’s release of T. Cooper’s Real Man Adventures, a heartfelt memoir with a sexy, pulp fiction-inspired cover, inspired us to seek out the sexiest book covers of all time.… Read More
Famous Last Words: 15 Authors’ Epitaphs
In this the spookiest of months, we find ourselves occupied with the world’s darker themes, and we got to wondering — what words have sent famous men and women of letters into the great unknown? Or perhaps more precisely, which words were chosen to honor them for eternity? From the tongue-in-cheek to the ponderously serious, from the knightly to the poetic, and even one that doubles as a grave robber’s curse, we’re fascinated by the epitaphs of famous authors, so we’ve collected a few of them here for your shivering pleasure.… Read More
Awesome Photos of Writers Hanging Out Together
There’s something strangely inspiring about photographs of visionaries in the same room — we don’t know quite what it is, but the idea of (what we imagine to be) a profound meeting of minds captured on film always manages to get us excited. To that end, we put together a collection of some very excellent photographs of awesome musicians hanging out together a couple of months ago, but it’s not just musical types who like to gather in inspiring combinations. Writers, it seems, also enjoy each other’s company (whatever they might say to the contrary). Click through to see our photo roundup of writers hanging out with other writers, with a hat tip to the wonderful Tumblr Awesome People Hanging Out Together for inspiration and a few of the shots. … Read More
Watch John Waters Read ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’
Are you over watching celebrity after celebrity read 50 Shades of Grey for laughs? Then rejoice, for John Waters has totally got you covered. Open Culture points us to a clip in which the Pope of Trash reads the steamiest passage from Lady Chatterley’s Lover — which we would refer to as the 50 Shades of Grey of its time, if only the comparison wouldn’t make poor D.H. Lawrence roll over in his grave. The video comes via San Francisco’s legendary City Lights bookstore, which recruited Waters to do the reading in honor of Banned Books Week. Click through to watch him savor this oft-censored classic’s dirtiest descriptions — but make sure you put on your headphones first, because this stuff is as delightfully NSFW now as it was in 1928. … Read More
Watch Your Favorite TV Characters Talking About Books
If you’ve been paying attention to this space over the last couple of months, you already know that we’re fascinated by the reading habits of our favorite fictional characters. But what’s better than a simple reading list? A little informed dialogue, of course. Or even a few well-placed snarky comments. Recently, we spotted this excellent clip of The Wire‘s D’Angelo talking about The Great Gatsby over at Open Culture, and it inspired us to round up a few more clips of some of our favorite TV characters waxing poetic about their favorite (or least favorite) books. From simple proclamations of Dr. Seuss’s brilliance to Boardwalk Empire‘s very physical commentary on David Copperfield, we love seeing books we love figure into the drama. Click through to watch — and hey, you just might learn something. … Read More
Doodling on the Faces of Famous Writers
When video director and editor Michael Daye found himself at home with a box of postcards of 100 famous authors and nothing to do, he decided to take a Sharpie and have a little fun. Doodling on the faces of the defenseless writers, Daye created a series of often charming artworks of his own — sometimes the augmentations are relevant to the author they decorate, and sometimes they’re just for show, but we love the way he has taken these iconic faces and made them his own. Click through to see some of our favorites from the project, and head over to Daye’s Tumblr to check out even more. … Read More
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