Wall Street Journal
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The 24 Amtrak Residents
Earlier this year, Alexander Chee tweeted about his enjoyment of writing on trains. Amtrak jumped aboard and decided to launch an Amtrak residency program granting writers free, multi-day train rides where they could write. Amtrak has announced the first 24…
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Read Slowly, Read Better
Reading is healthy, but not all reading is created equally. Advocates of slow reading suggest that dedicated periods of thirty to forty-five minutes away from other distractions can lower stress and maximize reading benefits. And reading online content just isn’t…
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Tehran Taxi Library
A taxi driving husband-and-wife team converted their cab into a library with more than 40 titles, reports The Wall Street Journal. Mehdi Yazdany and Sarvenaz Heraner sell about 30 books a day, but also give away books to passengers who…
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Baijiu on the Rocks
Baijiu is a distilled firewater somewhat like vodka crossed with a non-apple Calvados, with a distinctive nose. Have you tried baijiu, the world’s most consumed liquor? Chances are high that you have not even heard of it. Let novelist and…
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We Can Rebuild Ourselves by Reading
Libraries without Borders unveiled its latest project at the New York Public Library. They’re shipping a “library in a box,” or Idea Boxes, to refugee camps. The idea is that food, water and shelter aren’t enough, said Patrick Weil, the…
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Well, This Is Certainly One Way to Give Advice
On a blog for the Wall Street Journal (where else?), Emily Oster gives advice based on economic theory. For example: There is a model in economics called the “sS” model. It’s not often applied to relationships, but I think it should…
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Bestsellers, Worst Ethics
Reading bestsellers lists can be baffling. You know the whole world isn’t going to spring for literary fiction or erudite essay collections all the time, but sometimes a book seems so bland and unremarkable that you wonder how so many…
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Letter Play
“The challenge is simple: Create an image from a word, using only the letters contained in the word itself—and using only the shapes of the letters, without adding extra parts.” Facebook creative director Ji Lee has released a new collection,…
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #46: Dane Golden in Conversation with Alan Paul
Beijing was changing under his feet, and expatriate Alan Paul was changing, too. A transplanted suburban dad, he was a “trailing spouse” who followed his wife on her promotion and relocation from New Jersey to Beijing. A writer used to…
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Lucky Peach Y’all
McSweeney’s and David Chang’s new hunger-inducing venture, Lucky Peach, is out now. Check out the McSweeney’s attention in the Wall Street Journal. The first issue is ramen-themed. Being that there’s some sort of transitive property of common interest among those…
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A Necessarily Incomplete But Hopefully Helpful List That Proves The Slush Pile Has a Pulse
A couple of weeks ago, I ranted against a Wall Street Journal article that proclaimed “The Slush Pile is Dead.” The slush pile, for those who are unfamiliar, is the name for the large amount of unsolicited writing that’s submitted…
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Breaking: Writers Are Eccentric And Enjoy Bathtubs, Charts
The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed a bunch of writers to see how they do it. Of course, they called it “How to Write a Great Novel,” but I’m not sure if trying to copy exactly what these writers do…