‘The Book of William’ Explores Shakespeare By Focusing on the First Folio
OnA review of Paul Collins’ book “The Book of William,” which is not a book about William Shakespeare, but rather, the First Folio.
Category: Book Reviews
Book reviews
‘The Box’ Tells the History of Television From Creation to Vast Wasteland
OnA review of Jeff Kisseloff’s “The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1928-1961,” which describes the early day of everyone’s favorite medium.
The Comics Journal’s Book of Harvey Kurtzman Interviews Is Utterly Essential
OnA review of a book of interviews from the Comics Journal with Harvey Kurtzman, exploring his career from ‘Hey Look!’ to ‘Little Annie Fanny.’
Never Be at a Loss for Words with Richard Herring’s Emergency Questions
OnComedian Richard Herring has been using Emergency Questions on his podcast for years, and now you can ask people if they’ve been to Barometer World.
Review: You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me
OnI always have enjoyed Nathan Rabin’s writing — first at the AV Club and now at The Dissolve. His memoir The Big Rewind was outstanding, as was his book on Weird Al. (And, of course, his My Year Of Flops project for…
Review: Exploding The Phone
OnThis almost feels like a companion volume to The Idea Factory — the other side of the phone company. Phil Lapsley’s book, Exploding the Phone, is an absolutely fascinating book on the history of phone phreaking, or exploring the phone network (and…
Review: Mindsploitation
OnI never thought that there could be a book adaptation of Final Flesh, but then Vernon Chatman follows that film up with Mindsploitation, which… kinda is. With Final Flesh, he found a couple of porn studios that would let you write up…
Review: What I’d Say To The Martians
OnWhen I was younger, for whatever reason, I thought that Jack Handey was actually Al Franken. The idea that Jack Handey — known most for the “Deep Thoughts” segments on Saturday Night Live — was a pseudonym is a surprisingly common one….
Review: Making WET
OnI guess I have a soft-spot for weird, short-lived magazines. I’ve talked about how much I love RAW here before, and now I’ve just read Leonard Koren’s book Making WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing about, well, making WET: The Magazine of…
Review: The Idea Factory
OnBell Labs was awesome, and Jon Gertner’s new book The Idea Factory sets out to prove this simple fact. The Bell Laboratories (funded by AT&T when they were a government-sanctioned monopoly) was the place where vacuum tubes were improved and ultimately replaced…