3.31.2010
3.27.2010
Obama pays cash at Prairie Lights
Awesome video of Obama buying kids' books at Prairie Lights. I used to work that register, thank you very much! The venerable Paul Ingram makes a funny cameo at the end.
3.10.2010
3.04.2010
3.03.2010
Geoff Dyer Rules
The Guardian Online recently posted a compilation of ten rules for writing from a couple dozen writers. Geoff Dyer's are my favorites, principally because of number seven:
"Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something."
"Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something."
Reading 3/14
1. Apologies for talking about myself here. I was gently told to 'promote' via the interweb, and other than emailing myself, this is my only way to do that.
2. I'm (randomly) doing a reading on Sunday, 3/14, at Hue-Man Bookstore, 3pm. That's in Harlem, 2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd Between 124th and 125th Streets. I'm not sure any of you lives out there, but cool if anyone can make it. (Drinks after? Of course drinks after.)
2. I'm (randomly) doing a reading on Sunday, 3/14, at Hue-Man Bookstore, 3pm. That's in Harlem, 2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd Between 124th and 125th Streets. I'm not sure any of you lives out there, but cool if anyone can make it. (Drinks after? Of course drinks after.)
2.24.2010
New EG book club pick?
Any interest in joining me for David Mitchell's first novel, Ghostwritten? I'm on page 5 and already being swept away...
2.23.2010
2.18.2010
1.21.2010
Personal finance Twitter?
You've got to be kidding me. This will never ever take off. They really don't get it at all!
1.18.2010
Hard Rain Falling
If you can catch up with me on Hard Rain Failling, I'd love to have a conversation on it. This is a very good book.
This NYRB Classics Series is the future, I think, or part of it. Here are all these out-of-print wonders. Here is a strong name for separating the wheat from the chaff. Put the two together and you've got a business model.
This NYRB Classics Series is the future, I think, or part of it. Here are all these out-of-print wonders. Here is a strong name for separating the wheat from the chaff. Put the two together and you've got a business model.
1.14.2010
Monkeytalk
Perhaps it's a recent rewatching of Galaxy Quest or the recent release of The Invention of Lying (which I haven't seen yet), but it struck me when reading about deciphering the language of chimps that scientists figure out vocabulary from long, hard observation, but test usage mainly by telling whoppers--"Look! A cheetah!" It won't be long before Campbell's monkeys develop a new suffix that means, "according to the jerk."
1.11.2010
Overview of upcoming books
Millions article does in ten minutes what it would take you days to cobble together on your own...
1.08.2010
Workshop reunion?
Somehow my newsletter got misplaced. Could someone post the details of this here? When, where, etc. Anks.
1.07.2010
1.05.2010
12.18.2009
Another one of those loathsome in-character reviews
God, I really, really, really, really, really hate it when reviewers do this. Should I read the book? Well, I'll have to make that decision based on information from somewhere else.
Await Your Reply
Is it time yet? Can we start talking about the book? I doubt I'll get very deep, as that's not how I felt about the book. I felt the book was a kind of surface, somehow, ranging horizontally across space rather than vertically through levels of consciousness. I read the thing in three days. One night it kept me up till 4 in the morning. Long time since a book's done that, but I don't read a lot of whodunits or thrillers. Maybe they all do it.
I really liked the almost freakishly calm style of describing creepy events, and I appreciated the plain cleanliness of that style. This was a book all about character and story -- no fancy stuff, as Frank would say. I thought it was cool how the three storylines ever so gradually approached each other, and I thought even more of Chaon when I read later in an interview that at first he had no idea how the stories were connected, that they began as images, and he just followed them all, trusting that his subconscious would do the work, until he figured it all out toward the end of the writing (and as his wife was dying).
Miles was the most attractive to me in his self-conscious but helpless obsession, and Hayden was all the more vivid for appearing off-page (or apparently so) for so long. And I sympathized with Lucy in her better-than-it-was-but-wtf attitude. Looked forward to her sections, and my favorite part of the book was her feeling her way through Africa. I didn't care for Ryan for some reason. He was too weak for me -- weak in an annoying way, as opposed to Miles' endearing weakness.
That said -- and I'm quoting now from someone's comments on a workshop story of mine -- I'm not sure what it all added up to. What was my "takeaway," what did it reveal about human nature? Nothing I hadn't already thought about. What surprised me? Not a lot. I must have picked up the exact right clues along the way, and I'm usually not that good at solving mysteries. What did it teach me about writing? It reinforced "trust the reader" by being so spare but so precise in detail. And it demonstrated that atmosphere and background really do color a book -- his descriptions of landscapes (especially Nebraska), I thought, were effective and truly enhanced whatever mood was on offer at the time. But the book hasn't stayed with me that much. I haven't found myself re-caught in its language or visuals, as happens with a lot of other books. And here's my test: If someone asked whether I'd recommend it, I see myself shrugging...
I really liked the almost freakishly calm style of describing creepy events, and I appreciated the plain cleanliness of that style. This was a book all about character and story -- no fancy stuff, as Frank would say. I thought it was cool how the three storylines ever so gradually approached each other, and I thought even more of Chaon when I read later in an interview that at first he had no idea how the stories were connected, that they began as images, and he just followed them all, trusting that his subconscious would do the work, until he figured it all out toward the end of the writing (and as his wife was dying).
Miles was the most attractive to me in his self-conscious but helpless obsession, and Hayden was all the more vivid for appearing off-page (or apparently so) for so long. And I sympathized with Lucy in her better-than-it-was-but-wtf attitude. Looked forward to her sections, and my favorite part of the book was her feeling her way through Africa. I didn't care for Ryan for some reason. He was too weak for me -- weak in an annoying way, as opposed to Miles' endearing weakness.
That said -- and I'm quoting now from someone's comments on a workshop story of mine -- I'm not sure what it all added up to. What was my "takeaway," what did it reveal about human nature? Nothing I hadn't already thought about. What surprised me? Not a lot. I must have picked up the exact right clues along the way, and I'm usually not that good at solving mysteries. What did it teach me about writing? It reinforced "trust the reader" by being so spare but so precise in detail. And it demonstrated that atmosphere and background really do color a book -- his descriptions of landscapes (especially Nebraska), I thought, were effective and truly enhanced whatever mood was on offer at the time. But the book hasn't stayed with me that much. I haven't found myself re-caught in its language or visuals, as happens with a lot of other books. And here's my test: If someone asked whether I'd recommend it, I see myself shrugging...
12.15.2009
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