Best of the Week: June 29 – July 3, 2015

TODAY: In 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne is born; this stereograph of his study in Concord reveals him to be an early adopter of the standing desk.

• A misremembrance of words past: on the forgetful nature of reading. | NYRB
• Literary diaries, no longer singularly the realm of sad teens, are forcing readers to confront the nature of being and time. | The New Republic
• Buying giant boots, sporting a mane of long hair, and becoming a Cuban sci-fi legend: a profile of Yoss. | The New York Times
• Ta-Nehisi Coates’s publishers have graciously decided that we should not have to wait another three months to read Between the World and Me. | Melville House
• In what itself could be an amazing movie: Zadie Smith and French director Claire Denis are teaming up with a contemporary artist, astrophysicist, and indie band to create a sci-fi film. | Screen Daily
• The most fantastical part of contemporary YA is its complete lack of diversity; Daniel José Older has set out to change that. | The Guardian
• On colonialism, critiques, and conflation: The Meursault Investigation and retort literature. | The New Inquiry
• Netflix for books vs. publishing Hunger Games: the royalty models of Oyster and Amazon. | The Observer
• David Foster Wallace, unstable commodity and cult figure, now belongs to no one and everyone. | Vulture
• Paul Beatty on learning to read signage, the impotence of intoxicants, and detecting bullshit. | Full Stop
• Discovering that, through the power of Pinterest, churches, bed & breakfasts, and the Internet itself, your “truly, deeply rotten sentence” has gone viral. | The Paris Review
• Nell Zink on pubic hair as intimidation tactic, artistic posturing, and her plans for world domination. | VICE
• Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) loved “fairies, animals, dressing up, art, and beauty;” we deeply regret that he did not live to see Frozen. | The Public Domain Review
• In praise of Susan Sontag, paladin of seriousness, champion of the Eros of difficulty. | The Los Angeles Review of Books
• “poems don’t burn / love won’t burn / these ties can’t burn.” An anthology of poems giving voice to Mexico’s disappeared students. | Hyperallergic
• You can trap birds in your heart if you want to: texting with Charles Bukowksi. | The Toast

And on Literary Hub:

• Naomi Jackson on her quest to make a Caribbean artist’s painting the cover of her debut novel. | Literary Hub
• Joshua Cohen on beer, nostalgia, and the greatest Czech writer of the past century. | Literary Hub
• The true adventures of a Faeroese poet-hero in America [WARNING: contains drunkeness and childrens’ books]. | Literary Hub
• Etgar Keret’s exhausting book tour may have taken him below 14th Street. Behold his photo diary and judge for yourself. | Literary Hub
• In hour of July 4th, we asked literary types from across the world to pick  their three quintessentially American novels.  | Literary Hub

---