And for your random bookstore news of the day: The Housing Works Tumblr boasts possibly the best celebriture story you'll hear this week. It involves donated books (obviously, Housing Works) as well the actresses who once played Michelle Tanner and the host of America's Next Top Model. Smize, everybody! more ›

It is safe to say that our billionaire mayor from Boston will not be following in the footsteps of former mayor Ed Koch when he leaves office. Where Koch has spent almost a decade now reviewing movies as a side gig (see: The Mayor at the Movies), Mike Bloomberg "once told a friend he had seen only 10 movies in his life." Make that 11—he admitted he went to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. more ›

Yesterday came the disheartening news that a New Jersey school was booting two books, Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood and Nic Sheff's Tweak, off their summer reading list after parents complained about the (limited) gay sex scenes in the books. Today, Wood's publisher, Knopf, sticks up for their author, calling out the district for succumbing to the pressures of a small handful of parents. more ›

Welcome to our weekly column, "Staff Picks," in which we ask the staffers at our favorite book, music, and movie stores around to town to share with us what they're reading, listening to, and watching this week. We figure they're good people to ask. Today we're checking in with the staff at Chelsea literary-scene favorite 192 Books to find out what they've been dog-earing lately. more ›

Bookstores—big bookstores, indie bookstores, and everything in between—are starting to charge admission for author readings, according to the Times, shoppers are increasingly viewing bookstores as "merely another library," where they'll browse, ask for staff recommendations, type those recommendations into their iPhones, and then go home without buying. “If [customers] aren’t purchasing the books from the establishments that are running these events, the bookstores are going to go away," said one bookstore owner. So some stores are charging nominal fees—usually in the $10 range—to attend events, which have traditionally been free and considered part of the "community spirit" of the literary world. more ›

Welcome to our newish weekly column, Staff Picks, in which we ask the staffers at our favorite book, music, and movie stores around to town to share with us what they're reading, listening to, and watching this week. We figure they're good people to ask. Last week we talked to Adam Sypnier at Videology, and this week we head to Strand, home of "18 Miles of Books!" to talk to staffer Colin M. about what he's been dog-earing lately. more ›

Emma Straub is having a moment: the belle of the Brooklyn indie lit ball, her collection of short stories Other People We Married is getting rave reviews, she was recently featured in The New York Times, and she's setting off on a wholly unique tour—reading each of the stories in her book in the city it takes place in. Oh, and have we mentioned that she lives in Brooklyn, works at BookCourt, and also runs a graphic design company, M + E, with her husband Michael? Because she somehow finds time for all of that, too. more ›

Do you have romantic visions of meeting the man or woman of your dreams while walking through tall grasses with a dog-eared copy of Catcher in the Rye tucked under your courdory-clad arm? Well, here's your chance! Create the illusion that you are well-read with minimal effort this weekend at the High Line, where roaming book carts filled with classic lit will circle the path as part of the PEN World Voices of International Literature festival. more ›

Before the holidays, there was much debate about the appropriateness of giving elementary school kids poetry with references to crackheads performing oral sex. City Councilman Charles Barron argued that 'Huckleberry Finn' was more offensive, since it included over 200 uses of the N-word. While nobody may want Barron to be their Governor, it seems as though the publishing industry was listening: Publishers Weekly announced the release of a new edition of the Mark Twain classic, which will leave out the N-word entirely. And that hasn't gotten anybody riled up at all. more ›

A former opponent of Pedro Espada Jr. is accusing the Bronxchester Senator of playing dirty on the campaign trail, even after the campaign was over. Waaaaait, someone is accusing Pedro of dirty tricks?? Next you'll be telling us the prospect of an Islamic community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan is the cause of mass controversy! more ›

The teens first dreamed up the trip six years ago. After all, they grew up with Harry, his pals Ron and Hermione, and the rest of the Hogwarts crew. more ›

Mr. Nicosia told the Sun that he was subject to a "blacklist" and "censorship," which he believes are in part a response to his having supported a lawsuit in 1994 by Kerouac's daughter, Jan Kerouac, who had sued the relatives of Jack Kerouac's third wife and widow, Stella Sampas, including her brother, the estate's executor, Mr. Sampas. more ›

The store was founded by Ben Bass on what was known as Book Row, which at the time housed 48 bookstores. Today it's run by Fred and Nancy Bass. When asked how the business changed over the past 80 years and if people are still as literary as they once were, Fred Bass answered: more ›

The NY Sun reports that members of Community Board 6 have spoken, and they want the late Kurt Vonnegut to have a street named after him. The Manhattan block where he spent most of his writing career (East 48th Street and Second Avenue) may be named "Kurt Vonnegut Way." A decision should be made by October. Why that block (which, incidentally, he shared with another famous writer, E.B. White)?: more ›

If it's exam time, it must mean that kids are settling down and studying for finals. Or, if they are Columbia freshman, they just might be using a review sheet that essentially gives all the answers to a big exam. A few days ago, Columbia blog The Bwog broke news that a professor had given her students much of what would be on the Literature Humanities final in the form of a review sheet. Hilariously, the cheating was discovered because the faculty changed one of the excerpts; while the study guide said the excerpt would be from the epilogue of a novel, the faculty switched it out for an earlier passage. The novel: Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment." more ›

"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York. I'm stupid about executions. The idea of being electrocuted makes me sick, and that's all there was to read about in the papers - goggle-eyed headlines staring up at me on every street corner and at the fusty, peanut-smelling mouth of every subway. It had nothing to do with me, but I couldn't help wondering what it would be like, being burned alive all along your nerves. more ›

The good folks at The Spotted Pig are ringing in the Year of the Pig with, you guessed it, a pig roast. 314 W. 11th Street at Greenwich. Call 212-620-0393 for details. more ›

Neal Pollack, author of Never Mind the Pollacks and The Neal Pollack Anthology of Literature discusses his latest book, Alternadad, his childhood, and his foray into the world of screen writing. more ›

It's been announced that Angelina Jolie will play the role of Dagny Taggart in the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. Braveheart writer, Randall Wallace, will adapt the novel. more ›

Rumor has it that Spike Lee is taking a class at Columbia this fall. Ivy Leak says he may be at a Tuesday/Thursday night class in Hamilton, and BWOG thinks he could be taking a Literature Humanities, "brushing up on his dead white men." Oh, we suppose Spike couldn't be content reading David Denby's Great Books, which is about Columbia's humanities classes - or attending a class at his alma mater, NYU (is he still on sabbatical from the graduate film program?). Maybe Spike is researching the college life for a new movie! more ›

Tomorrow is Bloomsday, the day chronicled in James Joyce's Ulysses. And for the 25th year, Symphony Space has a full Bloomsday on Broadway celebration, focusing on "on Mr. Leopold Bloom's spiritual son, Stephen Dedelus (aka James Joyce), with readings from Ulysses, Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners." The events start at noon tomorrow, and the final performance is the inimitable Fionnula Flanagan reading Molly Bloom's monologue (aka, "The Fully Molly") at 10PM till whenever she finishes. more ›

," as part of the acclaimed 33 1/3 series. The book takes a look at the 1989 release of the Pixies sonic masterpiece of the same name, gaining insight from the band themselves. more ›

. This makes the NYPL's collection of Bea-era materials the most comprehensive, since it already holds the Jack Kerouac archive. The NY Times story about the acquisition had the interesting sidenote about how Allen Ginsberg wanted the NYPL to buy his collection, but since he wanted to sell it quickly, the NYPL wasn't able to get the money together in time - the Ginsberg collection is at Stanford - but now the NYPL can say "This will be the place in the world to come to study the Beats." At any rate, we hope an exhibition of the work will be mounted soon - we'd love to see his letters to Kerouac, Timothy Leary, Ginsberg, and Terry Southern, among others. more ›

We usually associate reading with sleeping. When we were younger we were read to before going to bed, or taking a nap. Now, thanks to Lindsay Robertson, Alex Balk and Jon Friedman...we can associate reading with pills. more ›

One of our favorite guilty pleasure blogs, the Social Cavity, points us in the direction of Mr. Beller's Neighborhood. more ›

Whether you're celebrating Christmas or compiling Best of 2005 lists for your blog this weekend, if you're sticking around the city there will be plenty to do. And of course the subways are now back to take you where you need to go...it's a Chrismukkah miracle! more ›

We're sure you're all busy with office parties and hiding from the cold, cold weather. But it's one of the last weekends of 2005, so try to get out there (besides, who knows if we'll have subways after the weekend is over!) more ›