Naked Girls Reading (literally) [via Harper Perennial’s twitter]

This essay about the book Intermere in The Believer has me thinking about the old, weird Utopian novel. Like this one. Or some of the other books from Health Research Books. Question: do you readers have a favorite oddball Utopian book? Let’s hear about it.

Do you feel like there is a singular ‘best thing you’ve ever written’? What became of it? What happened to the thing that was ‘the best thing you’ve ever written’ before you wrote the current one? What do you do when you feel good about something you made?

Justin, my love, I’m not sure what to say about Tuesday’s event at the NYPL. It’s at the NYPL. The big, main one, with the lions. Patience and Fortitide, bitches! It’s our only big event in celebration of I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets, the only Six-Word Memoir book written entirely by 13-19 year olds. We’ll read from the book, talk about the project, show videos, take questions, and lead the room in a six-word slam. The best part will be the young writers who will share their six-worders and the stories behind them. They are brave. They are 13. They make your spring chicken ass look as old as Philip Roth.

Our facebook page for the event says: The ultimate six-word memoir slam — Larry and Rachel, friends and fans, teens and adults alike take the venerable New York Public Library by storm for a celebration of all things six. Share your stories and support the amazing teen writers braving the stage to tell theirs.

The library says:
http://www.nypl.org/research/calendar/eventdesc.cfm?id=5829

I say: Peeps should come. Support the youngest readers and writers in their debut publications. I’ll bring candy.

Love,

Rachel

You can now submit to HTMLGIANT. Sorry.

Zizek Op-ed on the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling.

Favorite new thing I’ve read online in a while: Doorographical Divisions by Ryan Ridge, from the Diagram 9.5.

Today is National Delete That Old Ass Shitty Manuscript Off Your Hard Drive and Live Again Day.

Matt Kirkpatrick’s Improbable Object has a lot of new alive, including Drew Kalbach, Forrest Roth, Jeff Crouch, Jeremy Schmall, and more…

Here’s Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing, introducing this Guardian article about the Kindle. (Link clicks through to the Guardian piece.)

In today’s Observer Business column, John Naughton discusses what a ripoff it is for ebook vendors to “sell” you books with abusive, multi-thousand word “license agreements,” pretending that because you bought your book over the network, it wasn’t a sale, and so you don’t get to own it. These “licenses” aren’t about upholding copyright (if they were, you could replace thousands of words of lawyerese with four simple words: “Don’t violate copyright law”). They’re about overriding copyright — which has all kinds of guarantees for the rights of book-owners — with a private law that gives every advantage to the publisher or retailer, converting you from a noble reader to a wormy, contemptible licensor who doesn’t deserve to own books.