National Public Radio’s All Things Considered interviews Philip Roth, whose latest novel, Exit Ghost, is the last to feature protagonist Nathan Zuckerman.

Recommended.

Adam Kirsch at the New York Sun writes of the role of the critic:

The critic’s first job, then, even before he evaluates individual works, is to make the reader feel uneasy about his ignorance—to convince him that the art in question is vital and serious, deserving of complex attention.

The Washington Post is running a preview of events at this year’s National Book Festival.

At the New York Times, David Bowman reviews Brock Clarke’s An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England.

Recommended.

At the San Francisco Chronicle, Stephen Elliott reminds readers to focus on the words.

And what about Henry Miller? Susan Sontag? The endlessly self-promoting Truman Capote? Or the ultimate narcissist-pundit, Norman Mailer? Is Ernest Hemingway a lesser writer because his subject was often himself?

For the good of culture and the survival of literature we need to refocus and celebrate what’s between the covers and immerse ourselves in the richness on the page. . .

While reading Yukio Mishima’s Sea of Fertility tetralogy, I came across an article at Exquisite Corpse detailing a bizarrely mystical search for answers from the wielder of the blade.

At The New Republic Jonathan Cohn, author of Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis—and the People Who Pay the Price, analyzes Hillary Clinton’s health care proposal.

n+1 has a piece on the worth of e-mail.

Email is good for one thing only: flirtation. The problem with flirtation has always been that the nervousness you feel in front of the object of your infatuation deprives you of your wittiness. But with email you can spend an hour refining a casual sally. You trade clever notes as weightless, pretty, and tickling as feathers.

At 7 PM on Saturday, September 15, CSPAN2’s Book TV will feature Bill Clinton discussing Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World.

Salon has an interview with Jonathan Kozol, author of Letters to a Young Teacher.

Terry Eagleton at the London Review of Books explains Bakhtin’s cachet in the West.

National Public Radio’s All Things Considered has a review of Junot Diaz’s first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Recommended with reservations.

Not recommended.

The Washington Post has a piece on the persistence of incorrect information.

In a lovely article that is apparently a cover story of the September/October issue of Columbia Journalism Review, Steve Wasserman defends books as the foundation of civil society.

Readers know that. They know in their bones something newspapers forget at their peril: that without books, indeed, without the news of such books—without literacy—the good society vanishes and barbarism triumphs.

Recommended with reservations.