23 Band Names Inspired by Literature

At Paste, we look for "Signs of Life" in all forms of art. And while we value each artform for its unique merits, it's always a treat when they overlap. So we decided to take a look at bands that derived their names from literature. Who knew metalheads were such scholars?  read more

A Dozen of Literature's Greatest Jerks

The other day, while listening to LCD Soundsystem’s “Dance Yrself Clean” the line, “Talking like a jerk / Except you are an actual jerk / And living proof that sometimes friends are mean” started knocking around in our heads, and it got us to thinking about all the jerks we’ve met in our lifetimes. From there, we started thinking about all the jerks we’ve read about in our lifetimes—there are plenty of literary characters we’ve encountered that almost make the real-life jerks seem tolerable. Below are a dozen that particularly stand out....  read more

10 Frequently-Challenged Books Everyone Should Read

It should go without saying that, as a publication, we're pretty big fans of that whole freedom-of-speech thing. So, we couldn't help but notice the list of the 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990-2000, as reported by the American Library Association. These are all books that people have tried to keep out of libraries or other public venues because they are somehow deemed "inappropriate" or "dangerous." The whole thing is a little Fahrenheit 451 if you ask us. (Although, oddly, the great book about the dangers of censorship doesn't appear on the list of books people most commonly try...  read more