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Your Favorite Authors’ Favorite Musicians

By Tom Hawking on

Here at Flavorwire of late, we’ve been looking at what some of our favorite creative types have appreciated in the work of their peers — our favorite actors’ favorite actors, etc. We do like a bit of genre cross-pollination, though, so we thought we’d extend the remit of the idea across genre lines, starting with some of our favorite authors discussing the work of the musicians who inspire, excite, or just generally impress… Read More

Books

10 Famous Novelists Who Have Dabbled in Comics

By Emily Temple on

This week, we were delighted to come across You’ll Have to Save That For Another Time, a comic written by Dave Eggers and drawn by Noah Van Sciver, over at Trip City. Unaware as we were that Eggers had any talent for the comic strip, we were inspired to go hunting for other noted novelists who’ve made forays into the graphic form, whether official (that is, published) or personal. Keep in mind that we’re focusing on novelists who went to the colorful side as opposed to the other way around, so you won’t find Neil Gaiman (mastermind as he is), Warren Ellis, or their wonderful ilk here. Check out some novelists who can also write comics after the jump, and if we missed your favorite cross-over, be sure to add it to our list in the comments. … Read More

Books

25 Fascinating Photos of Famous Writers at Home

By Emily Temple on

This week, we caught a glimpse of author Tao Lin’s Murray Hill apartment in this cheeky review over at Vice. Though somewhat alarmed at the squalor of Lin’s digs (seriously, can you blame us?), we found ourselves inspired to hunt down a few more shots of notable authors hanging out at home. After the jump, stop by and visit with everyone from Zora Neale Hurston to Paul Auster. Whose apartment would you most like to move into? Let us know in the comments. … Read More

Books

The Books That Made the Most ‘Best Of 2012′ Book Lists

By Emily Temple on

December means a lot of things. Our normally latent shopping gene starts itching like crazy, mint-flavored coffee starts sounding like a good idea, and every single media outlet (ourselves included) puts up their “best of” everything lists. Well, ’tis the season. In an effort to distill all those year’s end book round-ups — and let’s face it, be a little meta — we looked at 16 lists from 14 media organizations and counted up the books that tickled the most critics this year. Turns out, they had quite a few differing opinions — on those 16 lists alone, we noted more than 150 unique titles — but also agreed across the board on a few knock-outs. After the jump, feast your eyes on the most popular books of the 2012 best book list season — and let us know if you agree with consensus or think the world’s gone mad in the comments. … Read More

Books

Famous Writers on Their Favorite Bookstores

By Emily Temple on

Writers tend know a thing or two about bookstores. Not only do they spend time in them touring, reading and signing, but writers tend to be voracious readers, and every voracious reader has a favorite brick and mortar bookstore. Enter My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop, which hits shelves today, a fantastic book that collects 82 short essays from noted authors on their best loved bookshops, whether obvious or out of the way, accompanied by great illustrations by Leif Parsons. After the jump, we’ve excerpted just a few of some of our favorite authors’ picks — check them out, and if you feel so inclined, tell us about your own favorite bookstores in the comments! … Read More

Books

An Essential Stormy Weather Reading List

By Emily Temple on

In case you haven’t heard, a massive storm is slated to sock the Northeast over the next two days as Hurricane Sandy, combined with a wintery cold weather system (that’s why it’s earned the seasonally-appropriate nickname “Frankenstorm”) threatens to slam into us. If you live anywhere on the East Coast or thereabouts, we imagine you’ll be wanting to stay inside for the foreseeable future, so we’ve put together an essential stormy weather reading list to get you in the hurricane mood and keep you busy while the weather rages. The lights might go out, but books don’t run out of batteries. Just don’t forget the… Read More

Books

2012 National Book Awards Finalists Announced

By Emily Temple on

The twenty finalists for the 2012 National Book Awards were announced this morning by David Steinberger, Chairman of the National Book Foundation’s Board of Directors, on (somewhat randomly) MSNBC’s Morning Joe. The finalists are a satisfying mix of established writers (five Pulitzer Prize winners, two recipients of MacArthur “Genius” grants) and fresh talent (five of the books are debut works) across four genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and YA. While we expected National Book Award darling Junot Díaz to get a nod, we were pleasantly surprised to see Dave Eggers’ newest book, which has been sort of a sleeper, on the list, and definitely psyched to see Louise Erdrich’s The Round House among the finalists. The winners will be announced on November 14. Click through to read the full list of finalists, and let us know your predictions in the comments. … Read More

Books

Writers Praising Writers: 15 of the Best Compliments from One Author to Another

By Emily Temple on

We all know authors can insult one another with aplomb, but do those bitter wordsmiths ever have anything nice to say? Well, yes, of course. If we had to guess, we’d say that most authors’ biggest fans are other authors, who might understand a given piece of literature better than any mere mortal — or they might just be more likely to write about it. In the excellent collection Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story, which hit shelves last week, 20 famous writers choose and introduce the short stories from the periodical that moved and thrilled them. In honor of the book’s publication, we’ve put together a few of our favorite author-on-author compliments. Click through to spread the love, and if we’ve missed your favorite compliment, add to our list in the comments. … Read More

Books

10 ‘Nonrequired’ Reading Recommendations from Us to You

By Josh Mak on

Ten years ago, Dave Eggers published the inaugural volume of his Best American Nonrequired Reading series, which has since attracted a devoted following of outside-the-box readers of all ages. It’s hard to believe the series that anthologized so many of our favorite pieces is already celebrating its tenth anniversary this month, but hey, time flies when you’re reading. Once again, Eggers and his team of student volunteers have outdone themselves, bringing together a compilation of irreverent lists, timely journalism, top short fiction, and graphic pieces representing the best of the year, kicking off with a love letter to the art of reading by Ray Bradbury, completed just weeks before his passing.

To celebrate ten years of the beloved anthology, we picked ten additional “nonrequired” reading selections that stood out to us in 2011 and beyond, all available for you to read online. While we didn’t envy Eggers and his team the task of choosing their twenty best, we embraced their idiosyncratic spirit by choosing the pieces that excited us most. This is in no way a comprehensive list, so be sure to share your favorite pieces that didn’t appear on any college syllabi or required reading lists in our comments section, and then check out The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012 when it hits bookstores this Tuesday. … Read More

Photography

20 Nostalgia-Inducing Photo Booth Snaps of Famous People

By Emily Temple on

[Editor's note: It's Labor Day, so your devoted Flavorwire team is taking a break. To keep you entertained, we're leaving you with our most popular features of the summer months. This post originally ran July 14th.] Here at Flavorpill, we love a photo booth. There’s something so satisfying (and pleasantly retro) about the art of the instant photograph, and we love the spontaneity that always seems to come from all those quick photos in succession, with only a small space to work with. But we’re not alone in our photo booth love. Actors, musicians, artists and celebrities of all kinds have also been known to step behind the cheap velvet curtain and indulge in the fun of automatic photography, and inspired by these shots of Elvis we recently spotted at Retronaut, we’ve pulled an Amélie and obsessively collected a few of the results here. … Read More