Elsewhere on this site you will soon find a recently rediscovered, never before published conversation with Alberto Manguel, author of The History of Reading, and more recently A Reading Diary. Growing up in Buenos Aires, he came to know one of modern history’s most renowned librarians, Jorge Luis Borges.
Perhaps you are thinking, Who is this guy and why should I listen to him about books? (That is, for those who are not thinking, Who cares? or He’s cool; he went to high school with my second cousin.) A perfectly legitimate question, which if we are going to
Politics can be dangerous in some parts of Africa, but childhood can be even more risky. A conversation with Uzodinma Iweala about what's breaking the continent apart--and what's holding it together.
Here are some things axiomatic for me in my take on talking about books: 1) There are far too many books and writers deserving of the meager attention doled our by America’s mainstream literary press; 2) I am not at all constrained by whatever Byzantine code or principles book
Author and Columbia professor Andrew Delbanco, named by Time as "America's Best Social Critic," talks about his new Melville biography--one that's actually enjoyable to read.
In 2003 when Susan Sontag won the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, her acceptance speech--delivered in Frankfurt at a ceremony boycotted by the U.S. ambassador--was entitled "Literature is Freedom." Almost no American media noted her award or cited
Christopher Lydon, former New York Times man, former local TV news anchor, and one-time Boston mayoral candidate and his able crew have ventured into a compelling hybrid of radio and new media. Open Source combines broadcasts of Lydon's dialogues with smart people on wide-ranging topics with
Strings, branes, and baryogenesis--our man in Boston is guided through contemporary science by one of the country's top theoretical physicists, Lisa Randall.
French intellectual superstar (the French have such things) Bernard-Henri Levy, known there as BHL, was introduced to these shores with Melville House's publication of Who Killed Daniel Pearl? Proving everything new is old, BHL has now reprised a 19th-century classic with his 21st-century American Vertigo:
As an occasional TV viewer, far be it from me to question the apparently immense popularity of Fox Network's 24, though how anyone can take Kiefer Sutherland's arboreal acting style seriously does perplex me. The network in question makes it up to me with its well-
