“With the book, you give something of yourself—something that may hold some of your thoughts and deliberations in the form of notes, or indicate part of your personal history in that the book may be heavily used or not used at all; it may be a special edition or translation; it may show traces of having been dropped in the bath, speaking to your reading habits.” Antonia Hirsch talks The Surplus Library at Triple Canopy.

Colm Tóibín on literary Dublin.

There’s new fiction from Alexander Chee at TriQuarterly.

Mr. Chee also comes up in Maud Newton’s discussion of writers’ paces at Tin House.

Robert Christgau’s thoughts on the music of 2012.

Okkervil River’s Will Sheff has a new project called Lovestreams.

Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google + our Tumblr, and sign up for our mailing list.