Lit Hub Daily: January 3, 2022

• “What happens on the road happens because of America; the very land determines the outcome of the plot.” Tiphanie Yanique on the political tensions of the road narrative. | Lit Hub
• Too spidery, too angsty, too homely: how we almost didn’t have Spider-Man (and how he broke the superhero mold). | Lit Hub Comics
• How a stalled novelist became a data scientist, and a data scientist became a published novelist. | Lit Hub
• Alice McDermott on why we read and write. | Lit Hub Radio
• WATCH: Michael Kimmage on the western ideals that once shaped America • Roslyn Fuller on the future of democracy • Sarah Burns on the fabulous life of Perkins Harnly • Larry Downes on taking advantage of modern technology in business. | Lit Hub Virtual Book Channel
• Hilton Als: “No country but America could have produced Joan Didion. And no other country would have tolerated her.” | The New Yorker
• Robert Gottlieb revisits the life and career of Sinclair Lewis, whose books paid “all-consuming attention to the surfaces of American life.” | The New York Times
• Jennifer Wilson considers Dostoevsky’s love-hate relationship with true crime. | The New Republic
• On the radical work of Eve Babitz and Joan Didion. | LARB
• Philadelphia authors are calling attention to what they say is a trend of “silent censorship” among educators. | The Philadelphia Inquirer
• What if your kids don’t like to read? Here’s what one educational consultant says. | Los Angeles Times
• An Instagram page helps readers locate long-lost, beloved children’s books. | NPR

Also on Lit Hub: What to read this month, based on your zodiac sign • Heather Houser on spotting the tropes of the genre • Read from Velorio