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David Foster Wallace

Books

Learn from the Best: 10 Course Syllabi by Famous Authors

By Emily Temple on

Every once in a while, one of eminent professor and author David Foster Wallace’s syllabi emerges on the Internet, and countless devotees head to their local bookstores. In case you’ve already read through DFW’s favorites (or want another look), we’ve taken this opportunity to pull together a series of famous authors’ syllabi and reading lists for your convenience. Hey, who needs to go to college when you’ve got a list of texts from the best and a public library (you should still go to college)? After the jump, read through ten syllabi from famous writers — who knows, you might just learn something. … Read More

Books

10 Books That Could Save Your Life

By Emily Temple on

This week marked the release of Reality Hunger author David Shields’ newest book, How Literature Saved My Life, a wonderfully meandering meditation on reading, writing, and the reason for art. In that spirit, we offer ten books that just might save your life — some which Shields mentions in his latest, some of which are our own favorites.… Read More

Books

10 Novels to Solve All of Your Problems

By Emily Temple on

There’s no denying it — the self-help book business is booming. Recently, we read a fascinating article in New York magazine that argues that part of the reason the industry is doing well is that publishers have changed the way we think about self-help — no longer just how-tos, but memoirs, narrative nonfiction, business writing, and yes, even novels are making their way onto that once-scoffed-at shelf. Indeed, why relegate yourself to cheesy self-help books proper when you could clear that paranoia/codependency/narcissism right up with a good novel? A novel, you say? Which novel? Never fear, sufferers: after the jump, we prescribe (though take our comments with a grain of salt, we’re nerds, not doctors) a few books to cure whatever ails you. Have some prescriptions of your own? Be a good Samaritan and leave them in the comments. … Read More

Books

The Private Book Collections of 10 Famous Readers

By Emily Temple on

Earlier this month, we stumbled across Carolyn Kellogg’s great article about Bernie Madoff’s book collection, parts of which are being sold slowly on eBay by the person who won Madoff’s books in an auction. Sure, the books someone has may not be as great an indicator of their personality as, er, some other things we know about them, but, nerds that we are, we tend to consider our libraries extensions of ourselves. So of course, we did a little digging, pouring through the collections of famous (or infamous) cultural icons and see what they were made of. After the jump, browse through our excerpts of the private libraries of everyone from Darwin to Houdini to Oprah, and draw your conclusions where you may. … Read More

Pop Culture

Bret Easton Ellis' Worst Tweets of 2012

By Emily Temple on

It’s year’s end, which means we’re doing a lot of roundups of our cultural touchstones from 2012. But not all roundups have to be of the things we liked, right? Enter American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis, whose Twitter feed, as much as we hate to admit it, definitely ranked on our cultural radar this year. To be honest, a lot of what he says is truly hilarious, he recommends good books (he’s been on about Skippy Dies recently, which we also loved), and we actually find his insistence that Magic Mike was the best movie of 2012 kind of refreshing. But at this point, he’s much more famous for the pretty awful things he says than he is for the clever ones. And he can be an enormous jerk. Remember when he said bullying victims should “man up“? Or how about the time he compared watching Glee to stepping into a puddle of HIV? Or the time he celebrated J.D. Salinger’s death? Well, he’s only stepped up his game this year. After the jump, we present BEE’s most offensive, most left-field, and flat-out worst tweets of 2012. Feel free to argue with us in the comments. … Read More

Books

The Best Literary Quotes Ever Tattooed

By Emily Temple on

We’ve all had great lines from literature stuck in our heads before. Some people choose to make the situation more permanent. Here, our favorite literary quote… Read More

Books

You Don’t Want to Click on the Hipster Lit Flowchart, But You Will

By Judy Berman on

How do we know this? Because we didn’t want to, either, but of course we couldn’t resist. So, yes, we are aware that Goodreads’ “What Should I Read Next? A Hipster Lit Flowchart” is pure click-bait, and we are on record as being so unhappy with the endless discourse about the dubiously defined subcultural group known as “hipsters.” And yet, here we are, following the path from Infinite Jest through everything else and judging ourselves hard for having read at least half the books on the list. Share in our pain — and, you know, perhaps find something very good to read in spite of yourself — below. … Read More

Books

10 of the Most Gloriously Frustrating Endings in Literature

By Tom Hawking on

While some readers may not agree, here at Flavorpill we love a good ambiguous ending. Here, a few favorites that we’ve found thrilling, maddening, or just thought-provoking — what are… Read More

Books

10 Notorious Literary Slogs That Are Worth the Effort

By Emily Temple on

There has been much discussion over the years as to whether Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is The Great American Novel, simply A Great American Novel, or is just a lengthy collection of complaints about whales (not that many people admit to thinking the latter). But if you’ve been meaning to read it for years and have never quite gotten up the nerve (or the time), an awesome marathon reading begins tonight at WORD in Greenpoint, which also happens to be one of our very favorite bookstores. To celebrate the event, we’ve put together a list of notorious literary slogs — long, difficult, and/or complicated enough to scare even the strongest reader — that are definitely worth the effort. Read our list after the jump, and add on your own favorites in the comments! … Read More

Books

The Artist and the Critic: 8 Famous Author/Editor Relationships

By Emily Temple on

This week, we were totally psyched to hear that Colin Firth and Michael Fassbender will be playing Thomas Wolfe and his legendary editor Max Perkins in a film adaption of A. Scott Berg’s National Book Award–winning account of their relationship, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. And not just for all the Firth/Fassbender it means we’ll be getting. Inspired by this national nod towards an important literary relationship, we’ve rounded up a few other famous author/editor relationships to inspire both the critics and the scribblers among you. Read about them after the jump, and if we’ve missed your favorite, tell us the story in the comments. … Read More