Mais la chose est peu probable; vous savez que j'ai fait venir un cuisinier français, qui est le plus gai des hommes, et qui fait des calembours; or, le calembour est incompatible avec l'assassinat.
-La Charteuse de Parme (Stendhal), Livre II, ch. XXIV: Count Mosca speaking

Kenneth Koch's poem "The Circus" was subtle, but just astonishing, at least if you listen to the audio. Well, it bowled me over anyway, but that's just me. Dizzyingly clever and just a bit sad in its self-referentiality. Koch might even start to edge out Billy Collins for me with this one.And yes, I continue to randomly jumble "high" culture and ( Read more... )

George Washington racks up late fees at NY library
Read story posted on Yahoo

Philip Larkin's "This be the Verse"

Click to view

Videos of other short poems being read aloud are here

Cool! (Video is in French. Si vous ne le comprenez pas - suck it up! Story can also be found elsewhere.)


Trailer 100 LIVRES CLASSIQUES NDS
by Games-Art

There is one, apparently! If you're curious there's a short article here.

“And what if the Author shall be one so copious of Fancy, as to have many things well worth the adding, come into his mind after Licensing, while the Book is yet under Press, which not seldom happens to the best and diligentest Writers; and that perhaps a dozen times in one Book.”
-Milton, Areopagitica

"At the time, the Memoirs were surrounded by controversy-and deliberately so. Lackington outdid the Nobles and Trusler in defensive propaganda, and notably in rejecting the charges that he undercut other London booksellers and lowered the reputation of the book trade. . . . Lackington recanted in 1804 with a follow-up autobiography. . . As Mr. ( Read more... )

"What has been lost, according to Jacoby, is a culture of intellectual effort. We are increasingly ignorant, but we do not know enough to be properly ashamed. If we are determined to get on in life, we believe it will not have anything to do with our ability to reference Machiavelli or Adam Smith at the office Christmas party. The rejection of the ( Read more... )

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