Philip Larkin, one of the seminal modern writers in Britain, has been memorialized in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner, at long last. He is known for his sardonic wit which he maintained through a substantial collection of poetry and five novels. Image courtesy of flickr He is situated among such masters as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Eliot. The ceremony has taken place 31 years after his death in 1985, due to esophageal cancer. It is fitting that Larkin has been memorialized in Westminster Abbey, given that his most famous and celebrated poem, Church Going, sees a narrator wandering around a Church in …
Through the help of Harper Lee’s lawyer and a distinguished local paper mill’s chairman, Monroeville, Alabama is set to be partially transformed into a monument to the late author. Monroeville was the known geographical inspiration for Maycomb, which features in Lee’s two novels. image courtesy of al.com The coalition working on the project has high hopes for what they are dubbing ‘Harper Lee trail’, as a major tourist destination. Not unlike Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon, the attraction will feature museums, replicas of homes, and the famous county court house. image courtesy of al.com The endeavor is far from finished, but those …
A new app that delivers users books as text message conversations is competing neck and neck with Kindle and Audible. The app is called ‘Hooked‘, and it was developed earlier this year through a company called ‘Telepathic.’ The premise is simple: the app sends you segments of a book in the form of text messages, but once you hit your max, the app will pause, and you will have to buy the book. Hence, you must be ‘hooked’ on the book in order to buy it. The app is resonating most, as the creators hoped, with 13-24-year-olds. The wary among us …
Kathryn Burnett is a massive Harry Potter fan (aren’t we all?), and she has decided to express her love for the franchise by making her Christmas tree a shrine to the Wizarding World. She’s posted plenty of pics on her Facebook page, but we’ve gathered some highlights: image courtesy of Kathryn Burnett Featured image courtesy of Kathryn Burnett
Jonathan Safran Foer is not the first author to worry about the public’s diminishing interest in the written word in favor of the screen. In this latest article for The Guardian, he worries out loud about our deteriorating relationship with the physical world and with each other. Of course, he has some ideas about what you should be doing instead of obsessively checking social media, and chief among them is concentrating on a good ol’ fashioned book. On the attention required of reading a novel: Novels demand many things of readers, but the most obvious is attention. I can do any number …
