Okay—so perhaps your take-home message from the recent Giraldi-Ohlin incident was “Oh my god, I hope that I never get a review like that.” Unfortunately, at some point, every writer usually gets some harsh feedback—in a workshop, in a review, or from a reader. (Discuss: which writer is most fortunate, and why?)
Anyway, when [...]

Not awesome enough? How about Rosa Parks reading a children’s book about herself, Gabriel Garcia Márquez wearing a book like a hat, or William S. Burroughs reading to Kurt Cobain?
Much more at the Awesome People Reading Tumblr site. (You’re welcome.)

I get a childish delight out of anachronistic mashups, so the Paris Review’s
drunk texts from Gertrude Stein, Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, and more are right in my wheelhouse:
Read the full set on the Paris Review’s site.
Meanwhile, on The Hairpin, Mallory Ortberg imagines texts from Jane Eyre–the character:
JANE WHERE HAVE YOU GONE
I AM BEREFT AND WITHOUT [...]

A friend of mine once admitted to being obsessed with dashes. She said it like she was admitting to a clandestine affair–bashfully yet boldly: “I LOVE the dash.”
When she said that, I felt a pang of jealousy. For I, too, love the dash, and I am not good at sharing things [...]

While talking with a fellow writer–call her A—I described a friend—call him B—as looking like “a young Charles Baxter.” A’s eyes lit up. “Really?” she said. “So he’s really hot?”
This was not precisely what I had meant, but the truth is that Charles Baxter is the kind of writer who inspires serious [...]

If you’re a newly-minted MFA wondering what to do with your degree, perhaps you can take inspiration from Eric Wahl, who works at the University of Washington’s surplus store. Wahl puts his writing skills to use by crafting hilarious descriptions of items for sale–and offering proof that pretty much everything gets way better with [...]

Everyone thinks it’s like this:
But Weldon Owen has an infographic with the real process of how a book is born. Click on over to laugh—and cry. (One key step: “Everyone who approved design decides they actually hate it.”)

Further Reading:

Okay, fine. This is really how a book is made.
Or maybe this is more [...]

So we know how books are born, how they fall in love, and what they’re up to after the bookstore closes for the night. But did you know that books sometimes think about ending it all?
It’s sad but true. What drives them to despair? This display I spotted in Porter Square [...]