Books blogPoetryRefreshing breaks: how fragmented stories can be fulfilling readingAnne Carson’s new poems make extensive use of broken snatches of writing, a modernist technique that presents readers with difficult – but liberating – challenges “Reading can be freefall,” runs the blurb on the back of Anne Carson’s new poetry collection, one of several recently published books to offer readers a more interactive way to engage with the printed word. Historically, fragmentation has been used as a troubling effect, or to indicate a subject under stress.

Joe BidenBiden says he faced off gang leader armed with a razor blade in 1962 – a former state president of the NAACP supports his yarn The year was 1962, and Joe Biden, a swimming pool security guard in his early 20s, had a problem. A tough guy by the name of CornPop, leader of a Delaware gang called “the Romans”, was waiting for him outside the pool. In Biden’s telling, CornPop was a “bad dude” who “ran a bunch of bad boys”, was armed with a straight-razor and backed by other gang members.

Zoolander No.2 film poster. Photograph: Universal Pictures InternationalZoolander No.2 film poster. Photograph: Universal Pictures InternationalStylewatchFashionZoolander 2: Derek reminds the world that he invented the selfie faceHead tilted down, lips pursed, cheeks sucked in: the Blue Steel look is the template for a zillion Instagram poses Once upon a time it was all about the quality of your ambi-turn. Now, the most important weapon in a model’s arsenal is the ability to take a flattering selfie – and here Derek Zoolander and Hansel show the world that they certainly have the goods.

Pop and rockWith a voice adored by Bob Dylan, Robert Plant and millions across the Arab world, Umm Kulthum rejected gender norms with her powerful, political music. But can her 90-minute songs work in a new stage musical? You hear the Umm Kulthum cafe before you see it. Violins swoon and a monumental voice surges from a doorway in Cairo’s Tawfiqia neighbourhood. Outside, couples smoke shisha on plastic chairs, dwarfed by two immense golden busts depicting the singer known variously as “the star of the east”, “mother of the Arabs” and “Egypt’s fourth pyramid”.

Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. Photograph: Sarah Maria GriffinSuper Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. Photograph: Sarah Maria GriffinGamesWhether you enter the big green pipe to Super Nintendo World, or want to rummage through rare games in Tokyo’s Electric Town, Japan is a video game paradise The experience of travelling in Japan is simultaneously overwhelming and freeing. The world feels bigger out there, gilded by how mainstream video game culture is in comparison with the west.