The Angelica Library, in Rome, is a public library located next to the church of Sant’Agostino. Among its numerous shelves of original and fragile manuscripts dating back centuries exists a very important collection that the Catholic Church hid from public view since 1559- the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or List...
Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs, was originally published in 1959 and is included in Time magazine’s “100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005”. Burroughs stated that the chapters, or “routines” as he calls them- are a collection of loosely-connected vignettes and intended to be read in any...
Singapore’s National Library Board has been busy as of late- stopping citizens from reading. Books and comics have been on their hit list because they contain same-sex issues in their content. The organization last week withdrew from libraries the books and Tango Makes Three, which has been covered previously,...
“The Fine Line Between Believer and Skeptic” By R. Wolf Baldassarro I have been doing a careful dance as of late on a very thin tightrope. I have been skeptical, highly critical, and utterly blatant lately in calling out bullshit when it comes to ghost hunting and paranormal research...
Henry Miller is one of the most important literary figures in American history, but most people don’t even know his name. His was a true underdog story: a creative and challenging author who influenced such literary and pop culture icons as Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Phillip Roth, Paul Theroux,...
Today it became official. I will be playing the villainous role of the Klepto King in the sci-fi adventure film Aladdin 3477. Written and directed by Star Wars artist Matt Busch and set 1500 years in the future, it is a fast-paced spin on a literary and cinematic...
Published in 1952, East of Eden is often heralded as his most ambitious novel and was originally addressed to Steinbeck’s sons- 6 and 4 at the time- because he wanted to describe Salinas Valley in detail for them through the complex tale of two families. Steinbeck is the author...
Academics, writers, and lawyers have voiced strong opposition to the withdrawal of American scholar Wendy Doniger’s book, The Hindus: An Alternative History, following a settlement between the publisher Penguin, a division of Random House, and a complainant group, Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti. Under the settlement, all copies of the...
Aside from the complete lack of due process and blatant disregard for religious liberty, human rights and amnesty groups continue to be baffled by the random and apparently arbitrary reasoning behind what publications are and are not allowed to be read by detainees within the walls of the United...
It’s no secret that some serious and basic human rights are suspended, deferred, and outright denied for those caged at Guantánamo Bay, the United States’ military prison where it keeps its political prisoners. These violations also include the freedom to read. Clive Stafford Smith, the director of the charity...