Scrapbook

By Kathryn 

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  • We’re trying hard not to disrespect Stevie Wonder (I just called to say —) … so, we’ll quote the BBC’s lede without commentary: “The widow of U.S. writer Hunter S Thompson has said her husband killed himself while they were speaking to one another on the telephone.”
  • The Guardian talks to six authors “preparing for the moment they’ve been dreaming about — the launch of their debut novel.” But there’s also an element of the nightmare-ish, as they worry about parents seeing the word “penis” in their books.
  • Next up on Laura Bush’s reading list: Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead. And, in case the choice seems too highfalutin, Kurt Andersen reminds us that her choice of husband isn’t; Laura is “like [so] many women in America who read novels and are married to men who don’t.”
  • Panopticist.com presents “an annotation of the first page of White Noise, with help from Don DeLillo.” Watch ‘garlic-flavored potato chips’ become ‘onion-and-garlic chips.’