This Week’s Reading, 10.3.12

What left us out for the count this week:

• This upcoming art auction (in Romania, sadly), featuring – amongst many worthy others – the work of Nicolae Tonitza (above: portion of ‘Coadă la pâine’ or, ‘The Bread Line’).

• Death row inmate under investigation for writing and selling books from his cell.

• Harry Crews, literary hardass.

• Charts, maps and diagrams, as drawn by famous writers – Nabokov, Kerouac, Heller and friends nerd out.

• The Beat the Dust Bookshop. This is the good stuff.

• Reflections on Guy de Maupassant’s Bel Ami from Dolly at Book Me …

• The latest BULL, out now with work from Chuck Klosterman, Curtis Dawkins, Padgett Powell and Nick Bertelson. There’s also a new BULL tumblr (tumBULLr) and, for subscribers, free … leather coasters (really).

• A free copy of Nicholas Royle’s story The Lure, a part of this anthology.

• The Composites, a blog dedicated to creating images of literary characters using law enforcement composite sketch software and their in-book descriptions.

• Terrific post at 50 Watts on late Dutch illustrator Peter Vos and his otherwordly work.

• Food, by Jan Švankmajer: