I like to think of myself as a device-agnostic reader, but the truth is I’ve only ever managed three ebooks, and all of them were under a hundred pages. When it comes to books, I just really like the codex. So does Grant Buday, and this quick little read develops the point perfectly: “Not that I’ve anything against e-books and Kindles... But can you throw it at the cat or flatten a roach, can you hide things in it, use it as a filing system...?”
Another, slightly longer bit on the magic of books, although here those books are mostly on tape: Brad Leithauser remembers what it is to read like a child on the New Yorker’s books blog. (From what I understand, books on tape can’t flatten roaches either.)
Hurts so good: When acerbic critics fall in love, we all win.
Last weekend, there was a silly bit of ageist trolling in the NYT opinion pages. Irony was derided, and the word hipster was used. But then, out of what I had thought was a wasteland of stale ideas, Ann Powers came out with a lucid defense of thrifted swag, Do-It-Your-Artisanal-Self, and yes, irony. (Via fellow Hazlitt contributor, Carl Wilson.)
