Monday Miscellany: Zombie Crit; Bukowski Lit; ISIS Hits; the President & Mitt

How much would you trust an independent bookseller? The ever-innovating Fiction Addiction pushes the boundaries:

‘Last year, Hendrix tried taking customers’ trust in her recommendations to another level by sending out an email blast inviting customers to take a “trust fall” with her. “What I want to know,” Hendrix wrote, “is whether you’ll agree to preorder this book, sight unseen, just based on our love for it, if we give you a full money-back guarantee if you read it but don’t love it as much as we have.” For the initial offer, Hendrix chose Andrew Weir’s The Martian and sold 65 copies of the $24.95 hardcover, with only three customers asking for a refund.’

“In our digital culture, ‘the zombie offers transmedial synergies for global entertainment corporations’”: The Guardian reviews a book on the walking, running, groaning dead (the author calls zombie films “cinema vomitif”).

For Charles Bukowski’s 95th, LitHub assembles his rules for writing, including a contradictory one about beards.

“Although the movement has changed its name seven times and has had four leaders, it continues to treat Zarqawi as its founder, and to propagate most of his original beliefs and techniques of terror. The New York Times refers to it as “the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.” Zarqawi also called it “Army of the Levant,” “Monotheism and Jihad,” “al-Qaeda in Iraq,” and “Mujihadeen Shura Council.” (A movement known for its marketing has rarely cared about consistent branding.) I will simplify the many changes of name and leadership by referring to it throughout as “ISIS,” although it has of course evolved during its fifteen years of existence.”

Not even Lindsey Graham knows how they came about. A Mideast hand offers some Kennanesque “X” thoughts.

They’ve got a little list.

What the President reads: model or anathema? The Telegraph lays out its brief.