The Master's Sputum: Unfinished Nabokov Novel Now Open to Examination
In 1962, prodded by an interviewer to share a glimpse of a first draft, novelist Vladimir Nabokov replied, “Only ambitious non-entities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough drafts. It is like passing around samples of one’s sputum.” Now, more than 30 years after his death, we have an opportunity—against Nabokov’s expressed wishes—to examine such a sample.... read more
Catching Up With... Augusten Burroughs
Augusten Burroughs overshares. For almost a decade, the ubiquitous author has plundered his personal life to spit out three memoirs and three collections of personal stories, in addition to a novel. But he says he's not doing it for the money. "I love preservation," he tells Paste. "Writing is the preservation of a memory." Burroughs' latest short story collection is You Better Not Cry, a wry, quick-witted handful of essays that revolve around Christmas. Skipping over the peace-and-goodwill part of the holidays, Burroughs paints the Yuletide season as a catalyst for dysfunction to reach its peak. And he would know. The... read more
The Booky Man: Children’s Accursed Literature
The first book that ever made me cry told the story of an egg-sucking, ringwormy male with one ear chewed off. Did I mention he was yellow? And I was six?... read more
Carolina De Robertis: Where The Magic Happens
Hometown: Oakland, Calif. Book: The Invisible MountainFor Fans Of: Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, Roberto Bolaño, HomerThe name of Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, literally means “I see a mountain” in Spanish. The moniker was given by one of the first European sailors to lay eyes on the verdant land. But it’s really little more than “a mountain the shape of a huge fried egg,” Carolina De Robertis writes in her stunning debut novel, The Invisible Mountain, named for the obscured landform.... read more
The Best Albums, Movies, TV & More From the 2000s
When this decade began, Paste’s website was barely a year old, and the magazine was still a twinkle in its daddies’ eyes. So looking back over the first 10 years of the 2000s feels like looking back over our own history. There hasn’t been a new album, film, TV show, video game or book Paste has covered that wasn’t eligible for our “Best of the Decade” consideration. We had dozens of critics vote in each of these five categories, and then we argued some more until we’d focused our spotlight onto the very best pop culture created during the aughts—whether... read more
Catching Up With... The Men Who Stare at Goats Author Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson knows his way around weird. The author and documentary filmmaker has spent his career tracking down some of the most wildly weird people on the planet to bring their stories to us normal folk. His bestseller, Them: Adventures with Extremists, chronicled the tales of wannabe global dominators like Islamic fundamentalists and neo-Nazi Ku Klux Klansmen. But it’s his book, The Men Who Stare at Goats, that’s putting his name on the map—in part thanks to George Clooney. The book, about the secret army unit of soldiers with psychic power called the First Earth Battalion, was just made into... read more
The Booky Man: Maus... or There's No Place Like Home for the Holocaust
Comic books in their most familiar form—tales of super-heroes and adventurers—sprang from pulp novel potboilers of the 1930s and ‘40s. They were often lurid, licentious, shocking. In fact, by the 1950s, as America focused on the Red Scare and those dirty Commies tunneling like termites under our American way of life, ‘seditious’ comic books grew so popular among impressionable young people that authorities passed laws banning comics… and even burned them.... read more
The Booky Man: The Stranger Among Us
God bless the French. They gave us French kissing, French bread, Brigitte Bardot and Tati. They gave us useful terms: ennui and guillotine. They gave us The Statue of Liberty.... read more
Robert Hilburn Recalls the Death of John Lennon
Reprinted from Cornflakes With John Lennon by Robert Hilburn © 2009 by Robert Hilburn. Permission granted by Rodale Inc.... read more
Vote for Your Favorite Books of the Decade
Vote for your favorite Books published during the 2000s. Just list one to 10 books from the beginning of 2000 to the present in the comments section below... read more
An Interview With Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Read Paste's full issue 56 cover story on Where the Wild Things Are here.--Paste: What’s the magic in the story Where The Wild Things Are? Why do you think children and their parents open this book again and again to read about Max and the wild things?O: I think Maurice struck on some winning formula. So much of the magic is in his voice as an illustrator and writer. The book is brimming with both darker and lighter sides of imagination—there is something bittersweet about the story, and maybe there is some hidden depth in that bittersweetness that kids connect... read more
The Call of the Wild Things
Maurice Sendak’s 1963 children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are first struck critics and teachers as too dark for little darlings... read more
Jim Carroll and the Punk Pulitzer
The celebrated author of The Basketball Diaries passed away on Friday... read more
Best of What's Next 2009: Peter Murphy [Author]
Hometown: Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Book: John the RevelatorFor Fans Of: Flannery O’Connor, Davis Grubb, Ray Bradbury... read more
Best of What's Next 2009: Lydia Peelle [Author]
Hometown: NashvilleBook: Reasons for and Advantages of BreathingFor Fans Of: Jane Smiley, Tony Earley, Emile Zola... read more
Best of What's Next 2009: Joshua Ferris [Author]
Hometown: Hudson, N.Y.Book: The Unnamed (January 2010)For Fans Of: Ethan Canin, Nicholson Baker, The Office... read more
Aravind Adiga: Reading Between the Streets
Aravind Adiga had just returned to India after years in Anglophone countries when he changed his mind about what to write... read more
Book Excerpt: Joe Pernice's It Feels So Good When I Stop
Lou Barlow from Sebadoh was headlining, playing solo acoustic, so I was okay with suffering through the four opening acts... read more
Snitches Get Stitches: Full-Contact College Quidditch Sweeps the Nation
When any creative project starts out small and humble and then vastly expands, those involved face the proverbial challenge of staying grounded... read more
Harry Potter and the Supposed Allegiance with the Devil
During the Middle Ages, hundreds of people who suffered from fits or other seemingly inexplicable behavior were immediately suspected of being in cahoots with the devil... read more
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
Final Fantasy: Heartland
The 10 Best Film Portrayals of God…
Nine First-Name-Only Female Artists Not Called Ke$ha
Fifteen Reasons to Love Conan O'Brien
Brandi Carlile - Hallelujah…
Sia - You’ve Changed
Matt Pond PA - Starting
My Cousin, The Emperor - Montevideo
Patterson Hood - Depression Era
Avett Brothers - The Avett Brothers -…
Brandi Carlile - Paste Reviews: Give Up…
