LitHub Daily: August 17, 2015

TODAY: In 1959, Jonathan Franzen, reluctant Internet-user and bird-lover, is born. 

• “When I first arrived at Shakespeare & Company, carrying a small suitcase—George took me in that night, I didn’t have a key, and wouldn’t for weeks.” | Literary Hub
• President Obama’s summer reading list and the inevitable think piece it spawned. | Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian
• “If I had no idea whatsoever what it meant, it nonetheless sounded perfectly assured and meaningful.” Reading Bernadette Mayer’s early poetry. | Hyperallergic
• On the complicated and combative Gore Vidal, feud aficionado. | The Guardian
• Getting closer to overarching truth: Susan Barker recommends ten novels with multiple narratives. | Publishers Weekly
• On A Fan’s Notes, Frederick Exley’s fictional memoir recounting his obsession with football legend Frank Gifford. | Hazlitt
• A history of the written word that examines humanity’s relationship to writing (for Plato and Rousseau, it was contentious; for Jesus, it was complicated). | Slate
• On California’s Desert Hot Springs, alleged healing properties, and long-standing love of aquatic lounging. | Los Angeles Review of Books
• A very good and important listicle combining two things we hold very dear (publishers, cute animal pics). | Queen Mob’s Tea House

Also on Literary Hub: Square Books, the place to be in in Faulkner’s hometown · Inside the video game: a story by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

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