Artistic coffee addicts the world over were doubtless dismayed to read an article in this week’s New Yorker asserting that their beloved cup of joe might actually be stifling their creativity. Sure, there may be science behind it, but considering how many writers and artists have used the stuff, Flavorwire is not wholly convinced (willful ignorance?). To plead the case, find some coffee-related musings from various creative types after the jump. If you find your favorite missing here, add it to the list in the comments. … Read More
Gustave Flaubert
Required Reading List: Don Draper
“I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten,” Ralph Waldo Emerson famously quipped, “even so, they have made me.” In this new bi-weekly series, Flavorwire plays professor to some of our favorite pop culture characters, assigning reading lists tailored to their temperaments or — in some cases — designed to make them into slightly better people. After all, even fictional characters can have their lives changed by books. Or so we imagine. This week, we recommend a reading list for Don Draper. … Read More
Lev Grossman on ‘The Magicians’ Trilogy, VIDA, and 5 Books Everyone Needs to Read
Last night, Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians and The Magician King, and the book critic for Time, participated in the first-ever AMA (that’s Ask Me Anything, for the uninitiated) over in Reddit’s books subreddit. Since we’re fans of his, and always have our ears open for authors we like saying interesting stuff, we moseyed on over to see what we could learn. We suggest checking out the whole thing, but if you’re pressed for time, we’ve collected some of the most interesting bits after the jump. … Read More
10 Famous Writers on How to Read
Recently, we came across Kurt Vonnegut’s term paper assignment for his 1965 “Form of Fiction” course at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, recently reprinted in Kurt Vonnegut: Letters, edited by Dan Wakefield. Needless to say, the assignment is almost a short story in and of itself — filled with Vonnegut’s delicious turns of phrase and serious expectations, plus his advice on how best to read fiction, or in particular, how best to read short stories that one can then talk or write about well. Inspired, we hunted around for other famous authors with opinions on how best to read — get a little instruction in something you’ve been doing all your life after the jump. … Read More
15 Scathing Early Reviews of Classic Novels
There are some literary classics that are near unimpeachable. We’re thinking Lolita, Ulysses, The Great Gatsby: the best of the best. Except that they’re decidedly not unimpeachable — or at least they weren’t when they first hit bookshelves. These books and many others that are now considered masterpieces got their fair share of scathing reviews when they first came out, and in reputable publications no less. Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but we can’t help having this to say to these brutal reviewers: ha, ha. Click through to read 15 harshly negative early reviews of classic novels, and feel free to register your outrage (or your agreement) in the comments. … Read More
Exclusive Infographic: The Greatest Books of All Time
What are the greatest books of all time? And who should be the judge? Recently, Brain Pickings pointed out an awesome book of lists wherein 125 famous authors — everyone from Norman Mailer to Claire Messud to Annie Proulx to Stephen King — choose their ten favorite books. The book, The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, then handily synthesizes all that info (544 works total mentioned in 125 lists) into a few important master lists: namely, the greatest books and authors of all time. Each book is assigned a value based on its position in any given list — that is, ”a first-place pick is worth ten points, and a tenth-place pick is worth one point” and so on — and those numbers are then added up to give each book a ranking. We’ve collected a few of the top rankings here in an easy to digest infographic. How many have you read? … Read More
Joshua Landsman’s Sketchbook Odes to His Favorite Authors
We’ve all felt moved to scribble by our favorite writers or books from time to time — or at least, we know we have. But Joshua Landsman’s “Writers I Have Loved” project, which we spotted over at Imprint, takes that impulse and runs with it. Landsman keeps a gorgeous notebook filled with excellent drawings, musings and quotations from some of his favorite authors, from Samuel Beckett to Flaubert. But it’s not only gushing adulations and loving portraiture — Landsman also puts to paper the books that drove him to defenestration, and steps back far enough to consider the Google search results for William Gaddis. All in all, we think it’s a wonderful ode to the reading life, and we can’t help but feel inspired (again) to start up a little notebook of our own. But for now, click through to see some of our favorite pages from Landsman’s project, and then head here to see even more of his work. … Read More
An Essential French Lit Reading List for Bastille Day
Tomorrow is Bastille Day, or as the French call it, la Fête Nationale or le quatorze juillet, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, the flashpoint of the French Revolution that symbolizes the birth of the modern nation. So basically the French version of the fourth of July, only slightly bloodier and with more presidential garden parties. In honor of the French’s national holiday, we’ve put together a list of essential French literature to get anyone in the spirit. And obviously, there’s no way to distill the literature of an entire country into a ten point list, so these are just some of our favorites — chime in with your own in the comments. Vive la révolution! … Read More
Books That Will Change the Way You Think About Love
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, love is in the air… but wait a second, what is love, anyway? For anyone who’s ever wanted a satisfying answer to that question — you know, besides, “Baby, don’t hurt me no more” — we’ve put together a list of great books that will challenge your assumptions about love, sex, and relationships. From a surprisingly short history of heterosexuality and an attack on monogamy to a classic novel of betrayal and an exploration of a different sort of love altogether, there’s something to shock, test, and perhaps even titillate you after the jump. … Read More
The Art of the White Female F*ck-Up Novel
Last week, we had the pleasure of reading John Warner’s great article, “The White Male F*ck-Up Novel,” over at Book Riot. “You know the story,” Warner writes, “white male protagonist, comes from a privileged background, should have the world by the short hairs, but manages to screw up his life at every turn. Depression, extra-marital affairs, other methods of self-sabotage. Bellow made a career of them.” While it’s true that the field is overrun with these “WMFuNs,” we couldn’t help but wonder: what about all the lady bunglers in literature? True, the male screw up is more iconic (as of course is the male protagonist, for that matter), but we wanted to give our favorite tragic heroines a little love as well. After all, as Daisy Buchanan famously opined, “that’s about the best a girl can hope for these days, to be a pretty little fool.” Right. Click through to see our list of white female fuck up novels, and let us know if we’ve missed any of your favorites in the comments. … Read More
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