Two For Tuesday: Should Books Be Snackable, Serialized, and Delicious?
Topics discussed: Tim Parks, length, reader feedback (write to us!), Michael Schaub, Ben Carson, thinkpieces, Hillary Kelly, The Way We Publish Now, serialization, cookie cutting (metaphorically), Jonathan Franzen, Harper Lee,… Read more »
Three for Tuesday: An Interview with Tim Parks
Topics discussed: mozzarella sticks, Nick During, incompetence, silliness, fear, Martin Amis, Facebook comments, George Orwell, the New York Review of Books, Charlie Hebdo, Henry Green, the Nobel Prize, John Banville, Tomas Tranströmer, Karl Ove… Read more »
Two for Tuesday: Are there too many books?
Topics discussed: warmth, beach vacations, gently crashing waves, rust, Rust, Norwegian domestic terrorism, American domestic terrorism, the long tail, The Long Tail, Stewart O’Nan, Alex’s party skills, cynicism, poker, Authors… Read more »
Two For Tuesday: Is The Publishing Industry Doomed?
Topics discussed: death, On Kawara, bouncy castles, Mark Wahlberg, Ben Affleck, Slate, disruption, #disruption, e-books, Barnes & Noble, ideology, Matt Yglesias, Uber, martinis, dens, tweed, candelight, Mumford and Sons, Periscope,… Read more »
Two for Tuesday: Reviews! What Are They Good For? (Absolutely Nothing?) (Or Absolutely Everything?) (Or Something In Between?) Huh!
Topics discussed: Gene Simmons (again), this column’s terrible name (again), Salman Rushdie, Jonah Berger, Rick Moody, Goodreads, Amazon, Netflix, Barnes & Noble, the New York Review of Books, n+1, The… Read more »
Two for Tuesday: Would Robert Giroux Publish the 300 Sandwiches book?
Topics discussed: the Giroux Index, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Beatles, the U.S.S.R., being back in the U.S.S.R., being from the U.S.S.R., the time Alex called Mark a communist agent,… Read more »
Two For Tuesday: Are Corporations Totally Awesome At Everything?
Topics discussed: airports, music that inspired airports but that’s not necessarily for airports, big corporations, bigger corporations, Google, Google Translate, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Laundry, The Internship, The Interview,… Read more »
Two for Tuesday: Should books cost less than a cup of coffee?
Topics discussed: book prices, publishing brands, 80 p., $.99, $2.99, 4:20, $9,99, The Apple Watch, technology addiction, price point, Tim Cook, Bob Marley, Penguin, Penguin Classics, Penguin Little Black Classics,… Read more »
Two for Tuesday: Should Justin Bieber blurb Jonathan Franzen?
Topics discussed: blurbers, blurbers, blurbees, Led Zeppelin, logrolling, the state of the publishing industry, the state of our confusion about the publishing industry, ISIS, Alex’s love of ISIS, Alex’s love of… Read more »
Two for Tuesday: who will publish the ebooks?
Topics discussed: The Oscars, Inherent Vice, team trivia, Traffic, Traffic, ebook production, SAG Awards, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, misguided opinions, adolescence, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, self-publishing triumphalists, Mark… Read more »