The Late American Novel

The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books is a book of interest to we bibliophiles, published this month by Soft Skull Press. Co-editors C. Max Magee (of The Millions) and Jeff Martin, call it a collection of “inventive, thoughtful, and funny pieces in which Jonathan Lethem, Rivka Galchen, Benjamin Kunkel, Joe Meno, Deb Olin Unferth, and many others consider the landscape as the literary world faces a revolution, a sudden change in the way we buy, produce, and read books.” They continue in their introduction, “With the advent of e-readers, near infinite data storage capability, and a shift to a more sustainable and digitized culture, a sea change is upon us. Will books survive? And in what form? Can you really say you’re reading a book without holding one in your hands? These and other similar questions are guiding the current and sometimes heated conversations going on in bookstores, universities, libraries and living room book clubs.” City Arts has a short review, and this one-minute book trailer is fun to watch.