LitHub Daily: June 17, 2015

TODAY: In 1958, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is published by William Heinemann, first print run: 2,000. 

• Laura Dave on the joy of “…18 grueling months, 97,000 words, and 500 pages of research—all of which I would eventually toss into a recycling bin in northern California, off Highway 12.” | Literary Hub
• Amazon, publishing’s most aggressive frenemy, is now paying e-book royalties based on the number of pages read, allegedly “in response to great feedback” from authors who asked for this. | Kindle Direct Publishing
• Joshua Cohen may have finally written the long-awaited “novel for the Facebook age,” in which the excellence of his writing may excuse his comparing breasts to young fawns. | Bookforum
• Born from the union of a computer and a typewriter: on the captivating fiction of Alejandro Zambra. | The New Yorker
• The newly-crowned king of the controversial reading list has compiled one about “passing across racial boundaries.” | The New York Times
• It’s pronounced Na-BOW-kov, and other shocking discoveries: an interview with Nabokov’s most recent biographer. | Biographile
• A graceful teratoma: on The Dig’s visceral elegance. | The Rumpus
• On “Désirée’s Baby,” Rachel Dolezal, and the revision of white womanhood. | Avidly
• Shows we, like xTx, would like to watch: of a dog napping, a baked potato thinking, pheromones acting on unsuspecting humans. | Dark Fucking Wizard

Also on Literary Hub: On the beauty of a house filled with stacks (and stacks, and stacks) of books · A day in the life of Porter Square Books · The art of brain surgery

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