New Tom Waits biography coming in May
When Johnny Cash passed away, the title of Coolest Man Alive fell to a former Coast Guardsman/dishwasher/nightclub singer named Thomas Alan Waits. Notoriously enigmatic with journalists, the curtain of Waits' vaudevillian persona has been pulled back ever so slightly lately with the publication Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader a few years ago and distinct traces of sincerity in interviews like this one. Now veteran journalist (and occasional Paste writer) Barney Hoskyns has a new biography on the way. Low Side of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits is due out May 19 on Broadway Books.... read more
Michael Azerrad to help pen Bob Mould's autobiography
Few capture the essence of the essence of the Renaissance man as well as Hüsker Dü frontman-turned-soloist-turned-professional wrestler-turned nightclub owner Bob Mould. Chronicling a life story like that ain't chump change, so it's a good thing he recently tapped Michael Azerrad to help him write his autobiography.... read more
Artist publishes Stephen King character's novel
Does reading an entire book consisting only of the words, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" sound like a good time? If so, boy does Phil Buehler have a book for you! An artist and fan of the Stephen King's work The Shining, Buehler has self-published the lost manuscript from the character Jack Torrance, the obsessed writer who slowly goes insane while holed up in the Overlook Hotel.... read more
Ernest Hemingway's Cuban archives released
Ernest Hemingway’s archives, compiled during the Nobel-winning author’s 21-year residence in Cuba, were reportedly made available to scholars on Monday. The documents were stored in the basement of his home near Havana surviving decades of humidity and insects and are currently being restored and digitized by Cuban conservationists. ... read more
Paste presents An Indie Rock Alphabet Book
We're proud to announce Paste's first foray into book publishing... read more
New York Times publishes 10 Best Books of 2008 list
Last week, The New York Times unveiled its "10 Best Books of 2008" list, and seven of the selections were published by Random House imprint Alfred A. Knopf. The sweep is not exactly surprising, as Knopf sits at the upper echelon of literary publishers; but if you take this 7/10 domination and include the ownership that came with the recent restructuring of Random House, two of the remaining three are from the Knopf/Doubleday Publishing Group. ... read more
Paste celebrates 10 years
On Dec. 3, 1998, Josh Jackson, Nick Purdy and Jordan Feibus launched PasteMusic.com... read more
What is Chuck Klosterman's best book to date?
Vote in PasteMagazine.com's latest poll... ... read more
Twilight movie sets pre-release records
Being a teenager sucks. Being a teenage vampire? Now that's the sort of misery worthy of an obtusely titled album. But if you just happen to be an adolescent bloodsucker on a Washington peninsula poised to cash in on the (lucrative) intersection of J.K. Rowling and Stephen King, life is actually pretty good right now.... read more
Chuck Klosterman writes 1,700 words on Chinese Democracy
Of the two speeches given at the Soldier's National Cemetery dedication in 1863, it's Lincoln's 272-word Gettysburg Address that far eclipses the memory of Edward Everett's 13,607-word firebrand oration from only moments earlier. The lesson? Terser formats capture attention. It's a fact we see reverberate through the many listicles of our lives. ... read more
Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself to Live going film
If the inherently morbid 6,557 mile cross-country trek in Killing Yourself to Live had one lesson for Chuck Klosterman, it was the old trope that the journey is more important than the destination. Still, the destination has been pretty nice for Klosterman; five books into his career, he's the reigning king of pop-culture addicts. He'll be adding another feather to his cap (probably a Kiss hat) soon too: Half Shell Entertainment has nabbed film production rights to Klosterman's rock memoir/romantic confessional.... read more
Patton Oswalt is writing a book
Like most of us, Patton Oswalt had his head in the election last week. He was a live blogger for Comedy Central Indecision, and he also turned his attention to the future of the ill-fated Republican nominee. “McCain, someday, is going to make a great novel,” he wrote on his website. “He doesn't want to be a part of it, but it’ll be one of the most readable things to come out of this dark spiral we’ve been going through for eight years." ... read more
Eugene Mirman has an album and a book on the way
Eugene Mirman, poster boy for absurdist comedy, is nothing if not prolific. After working with Stella, 236.com, and Modest Mouse (to name a few,) Messr. Mirman plans to expand his ouevre with a book and follow-up album.... read more
Spiral Stairs, Wrens, many more contribute to Lifted Brow
Those crazy kids at The Lifted Brow are winding down their buzz-worthy multimedia project. After the announcement of their "Fake Bookshelf" project earlier this year, the Australia-based zine has (finally!) announced pre-orders for the issue, due out Jan. 17.... read more
Patton Oswalt lusts for John McCain book, blogs election
Patton Oswalt is known for his comedy, not his politics. But on his website last week, the Comedians of Comedy founder noticed, perhaps presciently (and with a surprisingly small amount of tongue in his cheek), the subject of America's next great political novel: John McCain. ... read more
Sam Mendes is a Preacher man
As close as a Preacher film has been to getting made, it's always seemed like a prayer that would never be answered. It's not that the cross-country, nihilistic, confrontational comic book couldn't be filmed, but more that given its content, a studio would have to be pretty insane to throw up the kind of money it would take to do it right. But then, the same thing was said about Watchmen, a similarly dense and literate comic, so who's to say what gets greenlighted these days. ... read more
National Novel Writing Month commences tomorrow
This November marks the 10th annual National Novel Writing Month—which kind of sounds like an academic exercise celebrating ivory-tower types, right? ... read more
National Book Awards finalists announced
The National Book Awards nominees are out, and this year's fiction section spans every level of experience. Marilynne Robinson is nominated for Home, a sequel to her 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead. The other veteran of the group is 81-year-old Peter Matthiessen, who received the NBA in 1979 for nonfiction. Aleksandar Hemon is the mid-career writer of the bunch, and the two first-novel authors are Rachel Kushner and Salvatore Scibona. ... read more
Aravind Adiga's White Tiger wins Booker Prize
Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize for fiction last week with his novel, The White Tiger. At 34, Adiga was the youngest of the Booker's six shortlisted finalists. The White Tiger, his first book, chronicles the journey of a young Indian entrepreneur bent on escaping impoverished rural life. ... read more
Eminem releases new book, announces Relapse
It's really happening. The much-hyped new album from Eminem, lost from the music industry for four years, has a title. And it's not Empack or King Mathers. ... read more
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