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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
It probably is not the case that casual, complete-with-coffee digital brainteasers are not the internet equivalent of classified ads in newspapers: a low-cost, high-engagement substrate on which basically whole enterprises ride. Probably. Also: I will definitely invest far too much of my self-esteem via imagined appreciation of my prowess with this.
I browsed this list hoping for something bloodless to pick up on audio (thefts, cons, forgeries, corporate grifting that sort of thing), but alas: bodies, bodies everywhere. Still, several here that I would read were I a fundamentally different person.
I didn’t think I could ever be more charmed by Paddington than in the truly excellent Paddington 2. But I clearly am a man of closed imagination. Because it never occurred to me that modern animatronics combined with live action performers could ever make something this purely and powerfully adorable. (Note to AI/robot hypesters: do not make your vaporware humanoids look like crash test dummies from the year 2500. Make them look like shambling, well-mannered animals. We will fall for it).
For the last five years, N+1 has run a genuinely inspired holiday fundraising drive. Donate any amount, fill out your preferences, and you will get a curated selection of book recommendations (supplied by serious readers I might add). There are way worse ways to blow a few dollars and if you care about good writing and quality internet, few better.
In this latest episode of Zero to Well-Read, we tackle Sophocles’s Oedipus the King, which none other than Aristotle called the perfect tragedy. Spoiler: there is a reason for that. Join us as we talk about the play’s history, what it’s like to read it now, and the questions it asks that make it shockingly alive.
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