The Daily Rumpus
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From Stephen Elliott
Technology might have made studying and homework faster and easier, but thanks to CourseSmart, a new digital textbook system that tracks students’ reading progress, teachers will now have a way to see who is skimming and who is skipping chapters in their textbooks.
...moreWho doesn’t want to validate their decision to purchase an e-book by seeing it in physical form at a bookstore first?
At Melville House, Dennis Johnson discusses how the rapid demise of Barnes & Noble is slowly sucking the life out of the e-book industry.
...moreForget magazines—for a small subscription fee, Melville House will send you two novellas every month in whatever format you prefer.
It’s the perfect way to finally get around to reading classics like Gustave Flaubert’s A Simple Heart and Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
...moreThis week’s installment of BOMB’s “Word Choice” is four poems by Leigh Stein, whose new collection, Dispatch from the Future, launches July 19th at Melville House.
The poems, like Stein’s debut novel, The Fallback Plan—a depiction of after-college limbo—strike a powerful balance between humor and melancholy, reference and storytelling.
...more“M.M.: What do you wish to do before dying?
R.B.: Nothing special. Well, clearly I’d prefer not to die. But sooner or later the distinguished lady arrives. The problem is that sometimes she’s neither a lady nor very distinguished, but, as Nicanor Parra says in a poem, she’s a hot wench who will make your teeth chatter no matter how fancy you think you are.”
I had totally forgotten about Bolaño’s last interview, which the NY Times Paper Cuts has just now made me remember.
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This week, Chinua Achebe speaks, n+1 in conversation with Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat, Jonathan Lethem reads, composer/drummer Bobby Previte with Psychedelic Furs’ Knox Chandler, photographer Jeff Wall presents more urban decay, “junkyard bohos” Huggabroomstik play, CMJ Music Marathon begins and Renée Fleming sings at the Met.