It’s been less than a week since George Zimmerman was acquitted for the murder of Trayvon Martin, but one of the jurors on the case is already angling for a book deal. Galleycat reports that Juror B37 has teamed up with Martin Literary Agency to explain “why the jurors had no option but to find Zimmerman Not Guilty due to the manner in which he was charged and the content of the jury instructions.” The real name of Juror B37 has not been released, but Gawker has posted the courtroom interviews conducted with the woman prior to her jury selection. In them, she refers to Martin as “a boy of color” and explains why she thinks all newspapers are best used “in the parrot’s cage.”
A cottage in West Sussex, England that William Blake lived in from 1800 to 1803 is on sale for just shy of a million dollars. It’s unclear whether Blake wrote any of his more famous poems while living in the cottage, but he did engage in other poetic activities: “When Blake lived there, one friend arrived to discover the poet and his wife in that very summer house, nude. 'Come in!' Blake cried. 'It's only Adam and Eve, you know!' Legend has it the couple were reading John Milton's Paradise Lost to each other, in character."
In 2011, Michel Houellebecq disappeared for a week while he was supposed to be on a book tour in Belgium. Where was he? He hasn’t said, but all will be revealed in The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq, a new French film about the disappearance starring the author himself.
Everybody knows why people write positive reviews online (they’re married to the author, they’re being blackmailed, etc.), but what’s the psychology behind writing a negative review? A new study finds that the crankiest reviewers are often the most devoted customers.
New Yorkers, if you’re in the city and want to avoid the heat tomorrow night, there are a lot of good events to attend. To celebrate the publication of the late David Rakoff’s Love Dishonor Marry Die Cherish Perish, Barnes & Noble Union Square will be hosting a marathon reading of the novel. Meanwhile, across the river, the Brooklyn Quarterly is celebrating the magazine’s debut with a party at the Cherry Tree bar (the online-only literary journal will come out four times a year and is dedicated to publishing fiction, essays, interviews, and poetry). And at 155 Freeman Street, Triple Canopy is holding a discussion about the work of Bas Jan Ader with Alexander Dumbadze, Matthew Day Jackson, and Xaviera Simmons.
David Carr explains why Barnes & Noble is good for Amazon.
