Learn why Wednesday, January 27th will be forever remembered as one of the saddest days in modern literature and then cheer yourself up by discovering 10 rock’n'roll novels, the bookish side of the Apple iPad, and the latest Costa Book Award winner. Also, the New York Times‘ Jennifer Schuessler gives us permission to get bored. (Which is an important step in the grieving process.)
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J.D. Salinger, 1919-2010
Of course, the major news today is the death of J.D. Salinger, who died from natural causes at the age of ninety-one on Wednesday, January 27, at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. A consummate artist known for his intense desire for personal privacy, Salinger will forever be best remembered for his only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, which was hailed as “brilliant” upon its publication in 1951 and has endured as one of the most significant and influential books of the twentieth century. While several of the short stories Salinger also wrote and published in popular magazines during the 1950s were eventually collected in book form, it remains Catcher in the Rye that kept his name a familiar one, particularly among the many young readers who have found in the novel’s teen protagonist, Holden Caulfield, an attitude of rebellion against the world of “phoniness” that serves as a model for their own rejection of adult values and mores. If you want to know more about Salinger’s life and legacy, take a look at these remembrances of Salinger’s life from the Associated Press, The New York Times, or The Washington Post.
- Moving onto significantly happier (and sillier) news – We love random Top 10 book lists, so here’s a “Top 10 Rock’n'Roll Novels” list from British author Tiffany Murray. Murray describes rock’n'roll as “a coming-of-age sound that allows us to find ourselves,” and she picks ten novels that capture this sentiment. Some of her picks, like High Fidelity, aren’t too surprising, while others, like Wuthering Heights, may take some explaining.
- Have you ever been embarrassed to admit that you found a supposedly “brilliant” book boring? Jennifer Schuessler, an editor for the New York Times Book Review, discusses boredom and literature in “Our Boredom, Ourselves,” confessing that boredom “is something professional readers, who are expected to keep things lively, would rather not admit to, for fear of being scolded and sent back to the Weekly Reader.” She touches on the history of boredom, its potential cognitive benefits, and how it plays a role in David Foster Wallace’s final, unfinished novel, The Pale King (to be published in April 2011). Maybe boredom isn’t such a bad thing, after all.
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Brace yourself for the iPad bookshelf.
The 2009 Costa Book of the Year award was announced earlier this week, with the prize going to poet Christopher Reid for his collection The Scattering. Written in memory of his wife, Reid’s book struck a chord with award judges, who called it, “Intensely moving, compelling and honest” and “highly readable.” Reid beat out favorite Colm Toibin, who was expected to win for his novel Brooklyn.
- In case you’ve been living under a rock the past 2 days, Apple has announced its much anticipated tablet computer, the iPad. The iPad resembles an oversized iPhone, but it also has an e-reader function backed by some of the biggest book publishers. Pretty soon, you’ll be shopping for iBooks along with your iTunes. Shelf Life breaks down the gadget’s new features, emphasizing which ones book lovers should pay attention to.
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