What I've Been Reading
this and that
On the Internet
on snobbery, and “good” and “bad” culture ( I don’t agree, but I enjoy the debate) : We live in a philistine culture that’s hostile to criticism, in which everyone feels not only entitled to watch Marvel Movies but to congratulate themselves on their good taste, and that’s bad. Snobbery, otherwise known as discrimination, is a much needed remedy.’s “What To Watch in Book Publishing in 2023.” I’m grateful for #2, “Cash Flow Uncertainty” (lol sob). The Hot Sheet. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: Jane Friedman’s is the best newsletter about all of the publishing industry.
Merve Emre on literary criticism and John Guillory’s new book in The New Yorker. (I have not read, but I have read all your takes on, the Nathan Heller piece about English departments. My previous profession is being very angsty in the press these days!)
“Running a Big Publishing House Is Not As Much Fun As It Used To Be”, and other links as cited and discussed in
by Patrick Nathan. He’s just really smart.Boy would I love to go to this exhibition on the history of self-publishing at Harvard’s Houghton Library.
One Belt author reviews another Belt author’s book (for another press) on the history of the Midwest in The New Republic!
does important work researching and naming problematic/potentially scammy literary magazines and editors in Lit Mag News.
Books, Not Yet Published
Three incredible memoirs that Belt will be publishing in 2024. Check out these screenshots!
Mike and I are in various stages of editing these lovelies; expect Be Not Afraid of My Body in February 2024, The Minotaur at Calla Lanza in April-ish ‘24, and Cat and Bird in May-ish ‘24. (Interested in what Belt is publishing between now and then? Click here and here.)
Books, Published
More of Manning Marable’s biography of Malcolm X, which I wrote about recently.
The Brothers Karamozov. Making my way through.
Robert D. Kaplan’s Adriatic, which has a gorgeous prologue about travel:
“Travel is psychoanalysis that starts in a specific moment of time and space. And everything about that moment is both unique and sacred—everything. As Borges writes, “The moon of Bengal is not the same as the moon of Yemen.” Because you stand fully conscious before a moon and a sky that are not exactly like that are in any other place, in any other time, travel is an intensified form of consciousness, and therefore an affirmation of individual existence: that you have an identity even behind that high the world, your family, and your friends have given you. And because no one has the right to know you as you know yourself, you must seek to become more than what you are by exposing yourself to different lands, and the history and architecture that go with them. And you must do so alone! No one should get between you and a distant shore: not even a loved one. Originally emanates from solitude: from letting your thoughts wander in alien terrain.”
Photograph: the moon in Yemen
Thanks so much, Anne! One note - I'm writing at Buttondown now, so the link to the post is: https://buttondown.email/onthebooks/archive/what-to-watch-in-book-publishing-in-2023/
Really excited to see that you are publishing Kyoko Mori! I read her memoir years ago and it still has an important place on my bookcase. I'll keep my eye out for it when it comes into pre-publication sale.