Rancor'd Type.

Fall Reading

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:41:39 -0400

[Literature] Lately, Hurricane Katrina has experienced a sort of popularity with books like Dave...

Wild Things

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:19:54 -0400

[Literature] I just today read Max at Sea, the excerpt for Dave Eggers’s novel The Wild...

Pardon the Dust

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:46:19 -0400

[Excuses] The blog has been and will continue to be on an unexpected summer holiday. I am preparing...

Judging Books by their Covers

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:38:58 -0400

[Literature] This week, it’s come to light how publishers are doing terrible things with book...

[Glossy Pages] What struck me in this week’s issue of the...

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:34:00 -0400

[Glossy Pages] What struck me in this week’s issue of the New Yorker was not the “goings on about town,” nor the “talk of the town” nor even the review for the new Harry Potter movie. What struck me was an ad for Target.

The double-page picture immediately caught my attention, with bold typeface and the Target color scheme (lots of red and white, and black where those colors aren’t present.) The red strip you see at the right folds out of the right-side page, begging to be read when found closed in the magazine.

Target does not simply display what may be bought at their stores, nor do they illustrate people made happy solely by their purchases there, but rather list their choice of “top ten oxymorons,” a list of items that catch the interest of a curious reader (and someone who simply likes word play) while also creatively hinting at some products you may find at Target (such as number 5 on the list, “bittersweet” chocolate chips).

I approached this advertisement not as a glossy spread of fabulous people, but as an actual feature of the magazine I was reading. I just wanted to commend Target’s marketing team for that.

Polishing Up the Classics

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:07:00 -0400

[Literature] It’s looking like we won’t get the Catcher sequel this fall, and we luckily...

Like Gilligan's Island, but not

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:26:46 -0400

[Literature] If you want to get an early start on the Tempest craze before the film comes out,...

[Art] Today my friends and I visited the Grounds for Sculpture...

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:14:53 -0400

[Art] Today my friends and I visited the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, where we found many strange and interesting things. There were an awful lot of comparisons to being in Wonderland, and an awful lot of giggling at what we found.

"I always like to think that I killed [Edward Gorey]."

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:41:00 -0400

[Literature] Mike Sacks interviews Daniel Handler (or Lemony Snicket to his young readers) about his...

McSweeney's Garage Sale

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:10:14 -0400

McSweeney's Garage Sale: McSweeney’s is selling a bunch of books for only $3, $5 and $10. I...

Brain Food? Comfort Food.

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:47:46 -0400

[Literature] No one cares about The Catcher in the Rye anymore it seems, but the world is all agog...

Shunning Death

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:19:05 -0400

[Literature] The newest issue of Common-place asks Mark Schantz, author of Awaiting the Heavenly...

Do Not Review Books

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:21:23 -0400

[Whackjobs] …Unless you want to be mailed vaguely threatening objects or have a disgruntled...

"The time requisite to complete even this preliminary labour of reading books and collecting..."

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:41:00 -0400

“The time requisite to complete even this preliminary labour of reading books and collecting...

To Infinity and... Page 63. For Now.

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:04:14 -0400

[Infinite Summer] Today begins Infinite Summer, a sort of online bookclub running from today until...

"Things would be so much easier if I could just write myself."

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:30:18 -0400

[Tweeting] Twitter makes some people’s lives into open books. It’s especially simple...

[Album Art] I’ve recently been drawn into Belle &...

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:10:00 -0400

[Album Art] I’ve recently been drawn into Belle & Sebastian’s album Tigermilk, and through various research and things I have come across an album by Isobel Campbell, Swansong for You, with art of similar composition.

I found it striking how well the two images went with one another: both are tinted black & white photos of a woman coddling an animal — in Swansong we see her holding close a cat, while in Tigermilk a woman appears to be breastfeeding a young tiger. There is a maternal essence prevalent in both images.

Their similarity cannot be a coincidence; Campbell was a member of the band Belle & Sebastian, which leads me to wonder if the album artworks were designed by the same person.

Mona Lisa a Man? The Nude Version Doesn't Suggest So.

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:54:30 -0400

[Art] Some liked to muse that the Mona Lisa was in fact a man — or da Vinci himself! —...

'Infinite Jest' Too Much for You?

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:12:18 -0400

[Literature] The Valve suggests another summer reading pick.

Recent Articles of Note

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:42:00 -0400

[Link Bundle] Some interesting finds in the past week or so: JD Salinger has filed a lawsuit to...