Right Reads

Posted on October 22nd, 2009 by Daniel McCarthy

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A new issue The American Conservative went to press today — our Fall books issue. Highlights include:

– A symposium on the best books you probably haven’t read, featuring contributions from Alexander Waugh, Florence King, Sam Tanenhaus, Peregrine Worsthorne, David Bromwich, Justin Raimondo,
Alfred Regnery, George Scialabba, Michael Lind, and many more

– Daniel Hannan, British Conservative Party member of the European Parliament, on the literary failings of Ayn Rand

– John Carney on the rise and fall of conservative publishing (from Henry Regnery to Mark Levin is, as Richard Weaver might have said, a “fearful descent”)

– Plus Taki on Hemingway! Septimus Waugh on Henry Ford! R.J. Stove on Macaulay! Albert Jay Nock! And … Bernard-Henri Levy?!?

There’s much else besides, including a take on the late Irving Kristol by yours truly. Look for the new issue, dated December 2009, on newsstands in about a week. Or better yet — subscribe. You’ll get instant access to the new issue in PDF form when it’s uploaded at the beginning of next week. And, of course, you’ll never miss an issue of the paper mag. (TAC also makes a great gift for friends, students, and family members.)

Filed under: Books, Conservatism, Magazines

9 Responses to “Right Reads”

  1. R J Stove, on October 22nd, 2009 at 5:15 pm Said:

    But I’ll bet the cover picture for your December issue isn’t as pulchritudinous as the one for November. Especially if part or all of the December cover is devoted to Macaulay. Great writer and all that, but oil painting, nah, he wasn’t an oil painting.

  2. SteveM, on October 23rd, 2009 at 7:04 am Said:

    Uh…I’m a subscriber. While I enjoy the online access, the pdf interface pretty much stinks.

    Can you fix that?

    P.S. Why don’t you have a simple index page with hyper-links to complete individual articles like every other online mag does?

  3. MattSwartz, on October 23rd, 2009 at 7:57 am Said:

    A subscription costs as much as two evenings out at the movies, one trip to the bar, or a twelve-pack of Red Bull.

    Unless there are some pretty serious mitigating circumstances involved, I feel pretty safe in saying that a subscription will provide most readers with more entertainment over the course of a year than any of those things.

    In the last two years, I have read four or five articles I thought were lame, and maybe one or two I thought were unconscionable, but that is less than 5% of the total in what I find to be the most consistent, interesting, witty, and well-measured magazine in print today.

    If that isn’t worth $30, I don’t know what would be.

  4. Barney Rebble, on October 23rd, 2009 at 9:57 am Said:

    Did you ever figure out a way for us to order an “online only” subscription, with NO hardcopy mailed?

  5. Daniel McCarthy, on October 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 am Said:

    Steve and Barney: There are some tweaks to the PDF system, including an online only option, coming soon. Will put up a post about them when they’re ready, which will be toward the new year.

  6. SteveM, on October 23rd, 2009 at 1:59 pm Said:

    Daniel,

    Great. Thanks.

    When you guys were trying to drum up some cash earlier in the year, the online-only alternative seemed like a good one to me then. Especially since the gap between the online posting and the actual hard copy delivery is so long. When I get the hard copy now it’s sort of anti-climatic.

    Anyway, looking forward to an improved interface.

  7. R J Stove, on October 24th, 2009 at 1:38 am Said:

    Americans who object to paying $30 for a hard-copy mag subscription should spare a thought for Australians. Thanks to the sheer distances involved and the costs of air mail postage, we Aussies pay at least twice as much to get American periodicals (in their print format) as Americans themselves do. (With, say, The New Yorker, it’s more like three times as much.)

    Sea mail postage is considerably less expensive, of course. But if I relied on a sea mail subscription to get TAC hard copies, I’d be waiting three or four months for each number to arrive.

    Instead, being an impatient type, I hang on like grim death to my online TAC sub. I tell myself, like a kid awaiting his Christmas gifts: “Only three more sleeps till the next TAC issue in PDF form.”

  8. Angela, on October 25th, 2009 at 3:41 pm Said:

    I love my hard copy. That’s all I’m saying.

    Daniel it might be fun to open a post and invite readers to list one or two of their favorite but unread books. :)

  9. Freddy Gray, on October 26th, 2009 at 1:37 pm Said:

    Good thinking Angela. See above (http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2009/10/26/favourite-books-youve-never-read/)

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