The Happy Reader - Issue 12

The Happy Reader #12

by Penguin Classics

LAURIE ANDERSON became a household name in 1981, when her 8-minute avant-garde monologue ‘O Superman’ became the world’s strangest-ever hit single. Anderson, now 71, is an artist whose work encompasses whatever she needs it to, from performance to music, from CD-ROM to virtual reality. Interviewed in Denmark, she discusses the dizzying breadth of her reading habits, which underpin everything she does, her useful belief in multiple realities, and the old Kindle she carries from her late husband, LOU REED.

FRANKENSTEIN by MARY SHELLEY was published exactly two hundred years ago. Two archetypes — the manmade monster and the mad scientist who created him — have been loping around in the collective unconscious ever since. To honour this incredible act of literary invention, part two of this issue presents a sequence of monsters, as fed through various prisms of association, and emerging as everything from chatbots to man bags. Contributors include GEOFF DYER, JEFFREY LEWIS, JEAN HANNAH EDELSTEIN and JUSTIN E. H. SMITH.

66 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 2018

About the author

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, providing readers with a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. We focus on bringing together the best of the past and the future, using cutting-edge design and production as well as embracing the digital age to create unforgettable editions of treasured literature. Penguin Classics is timeless and trend setting. Whether you love our familiar black-spine series, our Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions, or our Penguin Enriched eBook Classics, we bring the writer to the reader in every format available.

Reviews

[Austra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great conversation about books and other important things in life, this time with Laurie Anderson. The only downside of it - too short!

[Anne]

Another good issue. Laurie Anderson was a really good interviewee for a bookish magazine, which can't be said of all of the issues unfortu ately.

[massmarketbareback · Rating 4 out of 5]

...i don't just love this magazine because it counts towards my reading challenge...

[Jeff Howells · Rating 3 out of 5]

The winter 2018 issue (now sadly published biannually rather than quarterly) has an interview with Laurie Anderson at the front and articles using Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as the jumping off point at the back. I always prefer the interviews although some of the articles can be quite interesting.

[Andrew Mcconville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good fun and source for other good reads.

[māris šteinbergs · Rating 5 out of 5]

looking forward to the newest edition