FiveBooks Newsletter 121

Links to all our original FiveBooks interviews of the week before, plus a pick of the best content on The Browser.
FiveBooks weekly newsletter: Links to all our original FiveBooks interviews of the week before, plus a pick of the best content on The Browser.
(http://thebrowser.com)

FiveBooks at The Browser

FiveBooks News

Gary Taubes on Dieting

Friday October 19

Struggling to hold yourself to a calorie-counting regimen? Ignore the conventional advice on losing weight, says the science writer – what constitutes a healthy diet needs to be drastically re-evaluated Continue reading… (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/gary-taubes-on-dieting)

Jessica Pressman on Electronic Literature

Thursday October 18

The literature and reading scholar tells us about the profound effect that the rise of electronic literature has had on authors, the publishing industry and the nature of the book. Continue reading… (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/jessica-pressman-on-electronic-literature)

PJ O’Rourke on Political Satire

Wednesday October 17

PJ O’Rourke talks Swift, Huxley, Orwell and Waugh and says we now live in the world of 1984 but, instead of being a horror show, a television that looks back at you is just a pain in the ass Continue reading… (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/p-j-o’rourke-on-political-satire)

Philip Marsden on The Sea

Tuesday October 16

The travel writer casts his net over books about the sea and comes up with a haul including Moby Dick and a naval history Of Britain Continue reading… (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/philip-marsden-on-sea)

Andy Lawrence on Astronomy, Physics and People

Monday October 15

The astronomy professor says the process of scientific discovery can be slow and messy – but that reading about some of the extraordinary personalities involved brings the history alive Continue reading… (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/andy-lawrence-on-astronomy-physics-and-people)
(http://www.amazon.com/Best-of-FiveBooks-2011-ebook/dp/B007GAM6RC?tag=thebro-21)

Best of the Moment

Boss Rail

Evan Osnos | New Yorker | 15 October 2012

How a high-speed rail disaster exposed China's corruption. "An engineer who worked on the railway’s construction told me, 'There is an expression in Chinese: when you take too great a leap, you can tear your balls'" More like this (http://thebrowser.com/best)

(http://thebrowser.com/reports/fall-lance-armstrong)

The Fall of Lance Armstrong

Once a hero, but now the game is up. Here's how the aggressively preserved reputation of Lance Armstrong finally crumbled Read on (http://thebrowser.com/reports/fall-lance-armstrong)

Book of the Week

Book of the Day

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis  by Giorgio Bassani

Tim Parks says (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/tim-parks-on-italian-fiction) : “It’s about a desire to possess the whole world in your house and garden and to control it all without having to be exposed to the outside world” FiveBooks Archive (http://thebrowser.com/fivebooks)

Video of the Week

Stratos Jump: Lego Edition

(http://thebrowser.com/videos/stratos-jump-lego-edition)

Felix Baumgartner tribute More videos (http://thebrowser.com/videos)

Quote of the Week

Demian Farnworth, on failure (http://freelanceswitch.com/start/why-freelancers-fail)

"Failure can be a great teacher—especially if you learn from someone else’s failure"

More quotes (http://thebrowser.com/quotations)

Reader Recommendations

@joespring Checking in on a oceanic Eden, where hell lies just below the surface. "Paradise with An Asterisk" #longform t.co/TcchSI3R #browsings (https://twitter.com/search?q=#browsings) More like this (http://thebrowser.com/browsings)