When J.D. Salinger died last week at the age of 91, the Twitter- and the literatti aligned to mourn the reclusive writer. Charles McGrath wrote a touching obit in the New York Times; Lillian Ross waxed poetic in The New Yorker and Bret Easton Ellis, tweeted, “Yeah!! Thank God he’s finally dead. I’ve been waiting for this day for-fucking-ever. Party tonight!!!” Ah, the Twitterverse, where Chilon of Sparta’s maxim “Don’t speak ill of the dead” doesn’t apply, as long as you can do it in under 140 characters. We turned to the Twitterverse to see how other luminaries, literary and decidedly unliterary, marked Salinger’s passing*.
1. Flea will be part of the band that performs Thom Yorke’s solo material. [via Pitchfork]
2. A new book reveals that Bush administration officials refused to give JK Rowling a presidential medal of freedom because the Harry Potter books “encouraged witchcraft.” [via The Guardian]
3. Sarah Palin’s memoir Going Rogue — which took her four months to write — will be out November 17, just in time for holiday gag gifting. [via NPR]
4. When a preview performance of A Steady Rain was interrupted by a cell phone, Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig taunted its owner. (video) [via The Guardian]
5. Charlie Cox, Donald Sutherland, Gillian Anderson, William Hurt, and Ethan Hawke will star in a $25.5 million made-for-TV movie version of Moby Dick. [via Variety]
Despite the fact that the seven book series ended over two years ago and the latest film took a 60 percent tumble at the box office last weekend, it looks like Harry Potter’s grip on the muggle world may not be over yet. Quidditch, yes quidditch, is sweeping the nation’s colleges (broom pun intended) with over 200 schools interested in the sport, and 150 — from Princeton to LSU — already participating in the International Quidditch Association. Read More »
As the writer told ABC News, something that sounds nothing like Harry Potter. Not that we can blame her for wanting to take a break after 17 years of writing about the same characters. Are you planning to check out Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this weekend? [via MTV]
You may have noticed the Big Brother Book Club was missing last week. Your faithful spy went out of the country. But never fear, book lovers, for luckily there is no better place for people watching than the international airport system.
A middle-aged woman who shared our row on the first flight spent three hours putting a death grip on the arm rest and her copy of Ice Bound. We had to pull some tricky maneuvering to catch sight of 2666 while waiting in the line for customs. It had been a while since we’ve spotted Bolano. Read More »
A few weeks back, we decided the time had come to take the Kindle out in public. We hadn’t seen any out there in the world yet, but damned if we were going to relegate it to the coffee table and keep dragging hardcovers around in the old shoulder bag. The only problem with this is that the Kindle, in this early-adoption stage, invites interruptions from strangers. “What is that?” “I’ve never seen one of those before.” “What are you doing?” Read More »
Starck speakers on the market: Attention last-minute holiday shoppers: design star Philippe Starck just came out with an aesthetically pleasing and minimalistic set of wireless iPod speakers. Starck is known for his ability to combine the everyday with his artistic visions, but with a suggested retail price of $1,500, you better hope you’ve been mighty nice. [IBT]
Piven quits Mamet play: Jeremy Piven abruptly left the cast of Speed-the-Plow, David Mamet’s acclaimed revival of the play. Piven cited high mercury levels as the reason for his departure, to which Mamet (bitterly?) responded that perhaps Piven should take up a career as a thermometer. The show must go on without the exhausted actor, though a replacement has yet to be named. This is NOT good for the producers, who are likely to have plenty of people angry that they paid $200 only to find that the guy they paid said $200 to see is out. If it were Raul Esparza or Elizabeth Moss (sorry Peggy!), different story. [Playbill]
We don’t know who Beedle the Bard is, but chances are, if you’re a Harry Potter fan, you know about his book of fairy-tales that came out today.
And since J.K. Rowling knows fans will buy anything that keeps the Harry Pottery dream alive, she has teamed up with Amazon, Scholastic and Bloomsbury to release a special reproduction of the original bound volume of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which comes embellished with silver ornaments and mounted moonstones.
Of course, you can only get this collector’s item if you fork over $100.
Pigs filled the sky this week, as Guns N’ Roses finally released the ridiculously long-awaitedChinese Democracy. In addition to costing Dr. Pepper a boatload of free soda, Axl Rose has revealed that what he’s spent the last decade and a half working on may have been (mostly) worth the wait.
To help celebrate, and to put things in perspective, after the jump, a short list of some things that have happened since the release of the last original GNR albums, 1991′s Use Your Illusion 1 and 2.
