In John Self’s latest missive in the Guardian, he discusses the idea of “an easy read,” which is defined as a book that is “not too hard going.” But what… 2 / Read more »

With three new translations of The Iliad plus a new edition of Richmond Lattimore’s classic 1951 translation due out this month, The Economist wonders if it’s all really necessary. The article… 3 / Read more »

Masha Gessen’s new book, The Man Without a Face: The Rise and Crimes of Vladimir Putin, has been stirring up the Frankfurt Book Festival for its controversial take on the… 4 / Read more »

The damage was self-inflicted, of course, but it hasn’t been a great week for the National Book Awards. But before the fiasco whereby they forced Lauren Myracle to withdraw from… 2 / Read more »

Yesterday, The Not-the-Booker Prize, the rowdy, populist rival to the Man Booker Prize, came down to what prize moderator Sam Jordison described as a “bum-squeakingly close” (translation for American readers:… Read more »

What frequently used metaphors make you shudder, dear readers? As George Orwell writes in his oft-quoted essay, “Politics and the English Language”: “The sole aim of a metaphor is to… Read more »

Well, there are a lot of things you can say about reader reviews on Amazon.com, and among them is that they seem to be, as a rule, written by a… 4 / Read more »

The first book you read by an author is the ultimate first impression. Indeed, if you dislike a book, chances are you will never read anything by that author ever… 2 / Read more »

At The Millions Lydia Kiesling has written an article that expresses displeasure with the current cultural fondness for acts of curation. To “curate,” she writes, a verb formerly evoking museums… Read more »

A. Whitney Ellsworth, one of the founders of The New York Review of Books, and its publisher for nearly 25 years, died on Saturday at his home in Salisbury, Conneticut… Read more »