From The Millions
1. Single-Servings
- Awesome People Reading: Where to see what famous people read.
- Cover Spy: Where to see what MTA passengers read.
- Lisa Simpson Book Club: Where to see what Lisa Simpson reads.
- Bookshelf Porn: The SFW (despite its title) spot to ogle bookshelves.
- Slaughterhouse 90210: The middle of the television/literature Venn diagram.
- The Art of Google Books: Who’s scanning those books? Whose hand is that?
- The Final Sentence: An effort to spoil every book’s ending.
- Better Book Titles: Where spoilers and humor coexist.
- n+personals: As Malcolm Harris put it, the apex of The New Sincerity.
- Ransom Book Quotes: Title supposedly wasn’t meant to be “random.” Sure.
- Writers No One Reads: Neglected authors and philosophers.
- (un)justly (un)read: Same as above, but perhaps even more obscure.
- 50 Watts: Book design from around the world and across the ages.
- The Books They Gave Me: The intimate details of books gifted by exes.
- The Collected Blurbs of Gary Shteyngart: The man gets around, doesn’t he?
- Poor Yorick Entertainment: Now-defunct, but a must-see for all fantods.
- Lady Journos!: Highlights the best female journalists and their work.
2. Reviewers
- The Los Angeles Review of Books: Rapidly increasing L.A.’s literary cachet.
- The New Inquiry: The Times can look down its nose all it wants. Who cares?
- The Boston Review: Loose updates from the Boston non-profit.
3. Booksellers/Libraries/Foundations
- Housing Works Bookstore Café: Dispatches from a great cause.
- New York Public Library: The epicenter of literary Manhattan. (& its events)
- McNally Jackson: One of New York City’s favorite bookshops.
- WORD Brooklyn: One of New York City’s favorite bookshops across the river.
- 57th Street Books: One of Chicago’s favorite bookshops.
- Tattered Cover: One of Denver’s favorite bookshops.
- Powell’s: One of Portland’s favorite bookshops.
- PEN American Center: Great quotations from the PEN folks.
- 92nd Street Y: One of New York’s best curators of cultural entertainment.
4. Marginalia
- Proustitute: A highbrow, poetry-heavy mental treat.
- Dostoesvky: All things Fyodor.
- Russkaya Literatura: All things Fyodor, Lev, Anton, Mikhail, etc…
- F*ck Yeah Manuscripts: Like LettersOfNote, but exclusively authors.
- John Jeremiah Sullivan: Dispatches from the essayist’s book tour.
5. Publishers (Big Six) — Bear in mind: most of these lean pretty heavily
towards being just marketing tools.
- A. A. Knopf: The intersection of books and borzoi.
- Harper Perennial: The most exciting Big Six imprint in the game right now.
- Farrar, Straus & Giroux: Welcome aboard, newcomers! Way to get off on the right foot.
- Scribner: Bookish miscellany from the Simon & Schuster imprint.
- Doubleday: One of the more stereotypically Tumblr-like publishing Tumblrs.
- Vintage & Anchor: Great stuff from Random House’s paperback wizards.
- Pantheon Books: Image-heavy in a great way.
- Classic Penguin: It’s about time the Penguin folks joined the Tumblr crowd.
- Viking Penguin: Updates from the Viking & Penguin publicity team.
- Riverhead Books: Penguin’s got the most imprints on Tumblr, bar-none.
6. Publishers (Littler Guys)
- W. W. Norton & Co.: Plus ten points for their GZA post.
- NYRB Classics: The inimitable publisher of overlooked classics.
- Fantagraphics: The premier publishers of alternative comics in the U.S.
- New Directions: Come back, guys! You were great while you lasted.
- OR Books: Small, politically-minded indie publisher.
- Ugly Duckling Presse: Photos from one of the best book designers in the U.S.
- Bloomsbury Publishing: The U.S. office of London’s reputable house.
- Verso Books: Very #OWS-heavy of late.
- Nouvella Books: The most Downton Abbey-obsessed publishers around.
7. Magazines
- Longreads: Looking for something to read? Not anymore.
- Hobart Pulp: They came here to drink bourbon and publish stories.
- BOMB Magazine: The best of the BOMBsite.
- The Missouri Review: Multimedia posts from the underrated journal.
- Lapham’s Quarterly: Witty and smart, and with a great design to boot.
- The Atlantic: A steady stream of interesting links.
- Utne Reader: Good stuff from the Minneapolis (and soon Topeka) institution.
- The Believer: Special features from the monthly magazine.
- Specter: Not to be confused with the James Bond villains.
- The Atavist: More people should know about these folks!
8. Wish List
- The Paris Review: They’re on Tumblr, but they never post Tumblr-specific content. Dive all the way in, Parisians. You can do better.
- More authors!: With so many on Twitter, it’s only a matter of time.
- Books & Books: South Florida’s best indie deserves more attention.
- The Oxford American: The South is underrepresented on the platform.
- Poetry Magazine: Poems just beg for reblogs.
- Book Soup: The L.A. shop would be a nice complement to NYC’s dominance.
- Vroman’s: They’re there, but they haven’t updated since 2010.
- The Strand: The New York City icon is sorely missed on Tumblr.
- Picador: Perhaps the Flatiron folks are on their way soon.
This list, of course, is by nature incomplete. I am sure I’ve missed a ton of standouts. Please feel free to let me know which ones I’ve overlooked in the comments!