The Criterion Collection represents a high-water mark in film restoration and presentation, selecting movies of the highest caliber and offering them in the best possible style. There are plenty of foreign films and obscure classics to be discovered, true, but also more popularly beloved works that deserve to be treated with the same level of […]
Popular books are like candy to filmmakers. A good book with a good story and a built-in audience can sound like an easy translation to box office gold and glory. But as we’ve all seen (many, many times), it’s not nearly so easy. The conventional wisdom is that the book is always better than the […]
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say, even in the book world. There are plenty of great parody novels out there (Sherlock Holmes pastiches alone could fill up their own bookstore section), but some novels that begin life as commentary or satire on a genre later prove to be lasting entrants into that genre’s canon. We’ve […]
Welcome to the Book Nerd’s Guide to Life! Every other week, we convene in this safe place to discuss the unique challenges of life for people whose noses are always wedged in books. For past guides, click here. To be clear, the title of this post was not referring to the excellent C-SPAN series Book […]
Because the holidays weren’t difficult enough, man invented the Secret Santa exchange, that age-old pastime in which you must procure gifts for good friends, curmudgeonly coworkers, and casual acquaintances alike. It can be tricky to pick up something you know will be a hit. But it can be done, with the safest bet of all: a […]