in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Squier Electrics: 30 Years of Fenders Budget Guitar Brand, by Tony Bacon
"Dude, wanna come over my house after school and play guitar?" "I don't know. We have a calculus midterm tomorrow." "Come on, dude, don't be a p*ssy." "I don't know man, I [...]

Today, the New Yorker's many contributors, editors, staffers, BFFs, etc., listed their most enjoyable reads of the year. Nothing too groundbreaking: David Remnick went with Updike, as well as "autobiographies by Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin," which the New Yorker editor calls "predecessors" to Dreams From My [...]

This is surreal: Das Racist are sorta-kinda-but-not-really calling Sasha Frere-Jones a racist for saying what's what about the death of rap.
Here's Victor Vazquez, one half of Das Racist, taking SFJ to task:

SFJ is savvy enough to know that before pulling a “white man speaks authoritatively on black culture” move, he needs to first establish an acceptable [...]