The latest stats from the Pew Research Center on American reading habits are out this week. According to the report, roughly three-quarters of Americans read at least one book last year, and the median number of books that most Americans read was six. Eighty-one percent of women read at least one book last year, while only seventy percent of men did.
To celebrate the pre-sale of his first book, Bookforum columnist and Awl mastermind Choire Sicha reflects on the grim process of bookmaking: “There is something about the publication of a book that feels to me like the going to the airport and being manhandled by security and then heading down the long cold lonely ramp until, at last, the book is poured into InDesign or whatever they use now, which is when they slam the pressurized doors shut and then there's nothing you can do but sit there with yourself.”
Flavorwire rounds up the year’s top innovations in literary magazines.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s next project is an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 L.A. noir novel Inherent Vice. Per the New York Times, Anderson’s found some odd inspiration for his latest project: “The book is a stoner private-eye saga, and Mr. Anderson has found an invaluable ‘research bible,’ he said, in the underground comic strip the 'Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.'”
Dennis Lehane’s beagle, Tessa, has run away, and the crime novelist has taken to Facebook to find her. And that’s not all: “Her Daddy, author Dennis Lehane, has offered to name a character in his next book after the person who brings her home.”
Contrary to popular belief, writers live in places other than Brooklyn. At Tin House, Roxanne Gay gives literary credit where credit is due.
