Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Rachel Cooke writes smartly, at length, about Philip Larkin’s posthumous reputation. (“Beyond noting that his private utterances were in marked contrast to his public behaviour, which was ever polite, Larkin’s racism is uncomfortable and indefensible, even when you put it in the context of his times. The charges of misogyny, though, are about to start looking a whole lot more flimsy.”) . . . The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest asks participants to write the worst opening sentence to an imaginary novel. The 2010 winner has been announced. . . . David Grossman’s new novel
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Mary Gaitskill walks around a bookstore, filmed by the folks at Stacked Up. She’s very candid and charming. And she gets big points from me for lifting up a copy of DeLillo’s White Noise and saying: “Actually, I didn’t like it so much. I feel free to say that because it’s like shooting spitballs at a tank.” She also praises what she’s currently reading, “one of the best things I’ve read in the last decade.” [OK, a reader took issue with my teasing Gaitskill's pick rather than naming it: The book she loves is Agaat
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Bloomsday is a week from today, and that means fans of James Joyce’s Ulysses are planning their celebrations to mark the event. Tablet Magazine is hosting a night at Solas, a very nice bar in New York’s East Village, to celebrate Leopold Bloom’s Jewishness. Novelists Ben Greenman and Joshua Cohen will read, actors from the New Yiddish Repertory Theater will perform a scene from the novel that they have translated into Yiddish, and “Ulysses in Five Minutes” will sum things up for those who haven’t read the book. (Like, somewhat embarrassingly, me.) . . . And WBAI in New York will broadcast a night of readings from the book, featuring Alec Baldwin, Paul Muldoon, Bob Odenkirk, and many others. . . . Nicholas Carr answers a few questions about his new book, and about his writing life in general: “My dream is to disappear for ten years and then reappear, in sandals and a beard, with a strange and wondrous thousand-page manuscript written in longhand. Something tells me that’s not going to happen.” . . . John Eklund advises not to be fooled by the title of The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, which Yale has just republished: “Lurking beneath the bland, academic sounding title is one of the wisest, slyest, wittiest pieces of writing on books and readers I’ve ever encountered.” . . . Austin Ratner considers how and why historical fiction can work: “What matters is not whether a novel or story’s setting precedes the date of writing, but whether the writer’s research into setting has upset the balance of narrative elements so that structure, character, etcetera become subordinate to large hair balls of superfluous detail . . .” . . . Inspired by a book by Henry Houdini, the Caustic Cover Critic went looking for more and found “a number of funky old books intended to draw back the veil and expose the craft [of magic] to the general public.”
Friday, May 28th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Columbia University Press plans to publish David Foster Wallace’s undergraduate thesis, “a brilliant philosophical critique of Richard Taylor’s argument for fatalism.” The book will include contextual essays by other philosophers, and an introduction by James Ryerson, a friend to this site. . . . John Gall unearths some great photographs of models posing for book illustrations. . . . John Self interviews David Mitchell at Asylum: “[M]y ideal would be that, in a blindfold test (shades of the Pepsi Challenge here), prose from two of my books could not be identifiable as having been written by the same person.” . . . I really wanted to attend (and report on) an event last weekend about Robert Walser’s “microscripts,” but couldn’t make it. At the Book Bench, Deirdre Foley-Mendelssohn writes about these “letters from a lost civilization—amazingly archaic, runes of a remarkable mind.” . . . At the Daily Beast, Sarah Weinman talks to Charles Yu, whose forthcoming novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
The Caustic Cover Critic admires the “big, bold” work of Andy Smith, who designed the UK cover for Brady Udall’s latest (which I reviewed here). . . . Omnivoracious interviews my old buddy and soccer fanatic David Hirshey about his new book previewing the World Cup. . . . John Crace gives Christopher Hitchens’ new memoir the Digested Read treatment: “At the age of three I entered a dialogue with TS Eliot on his misuse of myth, so it was a shock to arrive at Balliol and hear from my esteemed friend, James Fenton, that I was only the second cleverest person in the world.” . . . At the New Yorker’s Book Bench, Macy Halford and Jon Michaud exchange ideas about the role of love in Amy Bloom’s new collection of stories, whether it’s a conqueror/destroyer or an “amoral force.” . . . A friend of this site, Jim Hanas, has a story (with a cover designed by Patrick Borelli, another friend) being auctioned off to benefit the literary mag One Story. . . . Mark Athitakis takes up the issue of why (and whether) American novelists don’t devote themselves to exploring one place anymore, and he cites a remarkable statistic: 37% of respondents to a poll say they’ve never lived outside their hometown. . . . The real-life pendulum featured in Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum has been “irreparably damaged” by a crash to the floor. . . . John Eklund previews some fall book releases with a quiz. Sample question: “What did Shelley describe as ‘profuse strains of unpremeditated art?’” . . . I came across this a little while ago, but I was just reminded of it: Where’s Waldo? as read by Warner Herzog. One of the funniest things I’ve recently seen.
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
We start with a clip of Flannery O’Connor at 5 years old, with her chickens. She’s only on screen for a couple of seconds, but it’s a great glimpse — and the narration of the entire clip is hilariously terrific. (Via Maud Newton and Terry Teachout.) . . . Speaking of Maud, she reflects on eight years (!) of blogging, and kindly mentions The Second Pass among recommendations of several other sites. . . . Ariel Levy selects the latest book for The New Yorker’s Book Bench book club, and, not to give anything away, but the Bench also interviews Amy Bloom. . . . Michael Cho’s cover design and illustration for this year’s edition of the always beautiful Best American Comics is pretty great. . . . As Laura Bush’s memoir hits bookstores, Craig Fehrman unearths an old ad in McCall’s for Eleanor Roosevelt’s reminiscences. . . . Dedi Felman reports from a panel about translating books into films at the PEN World Voices Festival, and finds a gap between the American participants, like Richard Price, and the French, like Philippe Djian. “When asked what was lost and what was gained by the cinematic translation of his work, Djian responds, ‘All was lost.’ ” . . . The May issue of Open Letters is up, and the site has also published a book of “the best from our first three years.” . . . A very sad event in Oregon: a fire that destroyed a used-book store. . . . Neglected Books Page says that Gene Lees, “one of the finest jazz writers ever,” who recently passed away, was wise to give up fiction after a couple of early novels.
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Matt Kish, a librarian in Ohio, is illustrating one passage from each page of his copy of Moby-Dick. The Book Bench has an interview with Kish and a slide show of seven diverse examples. (The home page for the project is here.) . . . Blake Wilson at Paper Cuts writes about a “forgotten hippie novel” in a way that, against all odds, gets me interested: “The story follows the young drug slinger D. R. Davenport (Divine Right) and his girlfriend, Estelle, as they roll across the country. The introduction is written from the perspective of their 1963 Volkswagen microbus, Urge.” . . . I read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s feminist/Gothic classic The Yellow Wallpaper in college. Nancy Mattoon summarizes the book’s history, including this terse rejection letter from the editor of The Atlantic Monthly: “Mr. Howells has handed me this story. I could not forgive myself if I made others as miserable as I have made myself.” . . . Simon Akam examined secondhand book tables on the streets of New York to determine which titles and authors popped up most often. Stephen King and Ian McEwan were #2 and #3 on the author list, respectively. Who topped them? Go here. . . . Nina MacLaughlin was underwhelmed by Rabbit, Run, an opinion I have to admit I share. . . . Alan Sillitoe, a prolific writer best known for two books that were turned into movies, died earlier this week at 82. . . . Ian Wolcott wonders how to teach a child about the Holocaust, and figures you could do worse than Charlie Chaplin. “We want to protect our children from damaging knowledge. We also want them to understand the kind of world they live in.”
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
To celebrate Penguin’s 75th anniversary, Douglas Coupland designs some funny imaginary books for a “speaking to the past” series. . . . Penguin also redesigns some of its vintage books by decade. Here’s the 1960s, with links to the others on the same page. . . . Tom Nissley asks for help remembering the books that took up entire issues of The New Yorker, a la John Hersey’s Hiroshima. And he asks David Remnick why it never really happens anymore. . . . Forbes profiles the great New York Review of Books imprint. One reader calls being a fan of the series, “almost like a fraternity or sorority for folks who hate the idea of fraternities.” . . . Five Chapters is running a lengthy five-part excerpt of Julie Orringer’s forthcoming novel, The Invisible Bridge
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
This post about a new book starring Lyle the Crocodile sent me zooming back in time, to the library in my Oceanside, New York, elementary school, where I would sit near the large windows and read Lyle’s adventures. I can’t believe he’s still around. Made my day. . . . I didn’t notice it at the time, but NYRB posted a passage from Robert Walser to mark spring. . . . Lorin Stein, recently minted editor of The Paris Review, admits to never having finished a John Updike novel. And he either loves Merle Haggard, or loves joking about Merle Haggard. Maybe a little of both. . . . Ned Beauman says novelists should be paying more attention to waste: “The age of compulsory recycling, plastic bag taxes, and shrinkwrapped cucumbers has not yet found its poet.” . . . Stephen Gertz points out that an anarchist book fair scheduled for this Saturday in New York is maybe not in keeping with the anarchic spirit. . . . Stefan Beck really doesn’t like William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch: “[It] is one of those regrettable works that must be defended on the grounds that it does well what it set out to do, with no consideration given to whether what it set out to do is worth doing.” . . . Speaking of Burroughs, he appears (duh) on this chart of who was on what when they wrote what. . . . The fascinating career of Nina Bourne, a publishing executive who recently died at 93. She was a great champion of Catch-22. When she wrote to Evelyn Waugh seeking a blurb for it, Waugh wrote back: “I am sorry that the book fascinates you so much. It has many passages quite unsuitable to a lady’s reading.”
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
John Gall shares a slew of great “anonymous photos, usually found at flea markets, garage sales, on ebay, etc.” He was going to collect them in a book, but thinks the market is now “flooded with similar material.” I don’t know. I’d still buy it. . . . Roger Lathbury tells the riveting story of how he almost published a book by J. D. Salinger in the mid-1990s. (“There was never talk of an advance, and although he did not want the book aggressively priced, he had told his agent, generously, to let me make some money on it.”) . . . Caustic Cover Critic previews four books, brief histories of various literary genres. They sound interesting, but it sounds like their publisher isn’t reliable about hitting announced release dates. . . . Also via the CCC, this terrific cover, which follows in the footsteps of this terrific cover. . . . Keith Richards owns thousands of books, thinks about organizing them by the Dewey Decimal system, and wants to be a librarian. I’m not kidding. . . . Speaking of thousands of books, this thought from Augustine Birrell: “To be proud of having two thousand books would be absurd. You might as well be proud of having two top-coats. After your first two thousand difficulty begins, but until you have ten thousand volumes the less you say about your library the better. Then you may begin to speak.” . . . Elijah Jenkins at Flatmancrooked recommends 10 indie publishers (and 10 books by them).
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Andrew Adler remembers the writer Robert Bingham, who died 10 years ago at the age of 33. . . . Andrew W.K.’s performance as a judge (in the semifinals, no less) in the Tournament of Books has the event’s readers up in arms, or at least scratching their heads, and I can’t say I blame them. . . . Lorrie Moore has made the latest book-club choice for the New Yorker’s Book Bench. She calls her selection a “stunning novel-in-stories,” in which the writing is “informed by both the empirical and the lyrical, is heart-wrenching and gorgeous and its several voices are done indelibly and with unwavering authority.” . . . Creative Nonfiction gathers some memorable opening lines. (“The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’ ” –In Cold Blood) . . . At The Valve, Adam Roberts reads Podvig by Nabokov. (”The novel as a whole makes a salutary counterexample to those who think Nabokov’s schtick was an ‘aesthetics of cruelty’; for it is a novel about goodness, and beauty…”) . . . A belated happy seventh birthday to The Millions. Seven years on the Internet is a long time. . . . Open Letters has added another blog to its family: Novel Readings, written by Rohan Maitzen, an English professor in Nova Scotia. . . . Terry Teachout shares 10 books that influenced him. . . . A new book causes Gregory Cowles to wonder: “[I]f a brilliant and prominent novelist — a Nobel laureate, say — were to record his thoughts and observations in a blog, might it amount to literature?”
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Michael Chabon writes about the music of Big Star. (“Power pop is a prayer offered by atheists to a God who exists but doesn’t hear.”) . . . The six finalists for Oddest Book Title of the Year have been announced. I’m betting on Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots. . . . This list of reviewer clichés (in the form of a Bingo card) has been making the rounds. I’m sure I’ve been guilty of some, but I would never, ever use the word “unputdownable.” That is awful. I’ve probably used “readable” a couple of times, but I hate that, too. Doesn’t it just mean “capable of being read”? It’s like those beer ads that trumpet “drinkability.” I would hope the stuff is drinkable, as a bare minimum. . . . Laurie Abraham discusses the year she spent watching couples in therapy as research for her new book. (“[T]here are aspects of our culture that make it seem like marriage is the only way to find emotional sustenance in life.”) . . . The most beautiful bookstore in the world? . . . 10 books to help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. . . . C. Max Magee judges between Lorrie Moore and Marlon James at the Tournament of Books, and the (always entertaining) peanut gallery reflects on the contest.
Friday, March 12th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Cy Fox spent 50 years building a collection of work by writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. He then donated it all to the University of Victoria in British Columbia. A look at the collection and the renewed interest in Lewis. (Via Books, Inq.) . . . The top 13 novels about drugs. Commenters at HTML Giant rightly point out that Jesus’ Son is missing; though it might just be that it doesn’t qualify as a novel. . . . In a world of Dancing with the Stars and Jersey Shore, it’s worth remembering that some people are deservedly famous, and Michael Lewis is one of them. Robert Birnbaum praises his “unerring sense of story, his investigative skills, and clear, concise reportorial prose,” and recommends his latest, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
J. D. Salinger didn’t care for Raiders of the Lost Ark. . . . I agree with almost every word of Levi Asher’s take on the e-books “revolution,” and whether it will ever happen in full. A small piece: “The sensory/physical equation of music listening is really very different from that of reading. An MP3 player disappears when you’re listening to music. But a book does not disappear—not in the digital or the print realm.” . . . The web has already covered this news thoroughly, as the web tends to do, but let me add my congratulations to Lorin Stein for being named editor of The Paris Review. Smart choice by a smart magazine. . . . A database of 337 20th-century bestsellers, with “an extremely detailed description of the book’s history; a mini-essay on its reception; images of covers, page layouts, and even some ads; and more.” (Via The Millions) . . . The first match of the Tournament of Books is in the, er, books, and we’ll have to wait for our first upset. . . . Peter Straub writes at length about the genre wars, including this: (continues)
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
In 1975, a woman named P. M. Doucé, believing a psychic who told her she was “the conduit for the posthumous creations of none other than T. S. Eliot,” self-published a book of poems called Incredible Alliance. . . . The Rumpus interviews Sam Lipsyte on the publication date of his new novel, The Ask. (Second Pass review coming soon-ish.) Find out about whom Lipsyte hilariously says, “He’s doing groundbreaking blurb work.” . . . Meredith Blake summarizes the history of opinions about Eva Braun, Hitler’s boo, and looks at a new book that “tackles some of the more persistent Braun myths head-on.” . . . The Believer has announced the list of finalists for its annual book award. . . . An art student designed four lovely covers for Jules Verne novels. . . . The book world’s version of March Madness, the Morning News’ Tournament of Books, is right around the corner. (My choice for best first-round matchup: Wells Tower vs. Nicholson Baker.) To get us ready, Andrew Seal crunches some stats from past tourneys for clues to this year’s possible results. . . . The Los Angeles Times is granted a rare visit with John McPhee. . . . This has nothing to do with books, but it seems worth noting that the recent earthquake in Chile may have shortened the average day on Earth by 1.26 milliseconds.
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
As always, Dan Wagstaff provides endlessly rewarding links—this time, to 10 great Flickr groups for book design and inspiration. . . . These rules for writing fiction by luminaries have been making the rounds. Many are entertaining, though maybe only this one by P. D. James strikes me as universally applicable: “Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.” . . . The Millions interviews John Banville. (“There’s no message. I constantly say one of my absolute mottos is from Kafka, where he says the artist is the man who has nothing to say. I have nothing to say.”) . . . The New Statesman interviews Clive James. (“They say the first person who’ll live to 150 is already alive, but I’ve got a feeling it’s probably not going to be me.”) . . . Independent publishers crow about some of their upcoming spring releases. . . . The Los Angeles Times has announced the nominees for its annual book prizes. . . . Elif Batuman says the latest literary mash-up, Android Karenina, isn’t as far from Tolstoy’s original intentions as you may think. . . . Alex Ross has unveiled the cover for his next book, out in September. . . . David Alpaugh laments the surfeit of poetry these days.
Friday, February 19th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Jeff VanderMeer highly recommends a new graphic novel about imaginary beasts, influenced by Bruegel and Bosch. (“With names like the Long Necked Lotus Loris, Northern BaronBeest, and Spangled Swamp Horse we should be well into dangerous ‘whiimsy’ territory, but somehow even the floating creatures seem fully grounded in something real.”) . . . The more I read about David Shields’ new book, the more I want to read it, to see if it could possibly annoy me as much as I think it will. . . . In 1978, Nicola Nikolov, a writer who had fled communist Bulgaria to come to the U.S., wrote letters to John Cheever, J. D. Salinger, Ray Bradbury, and Kurt Vonnegut asking them to evaluate some of his work. He kept their responses. . . . If you’re in the market for the worst novel ever written, be patient: I believe it’s on its way. . . . Peter Terzian looks at the thriving art of painting book covers and some of the top practitioners. (“It’s surely no coincidence that artists are choosing the book as a subject in this era of new reading technologies. But these paintings are too joyous and affectionate to be memento mori for the printed word.”) . . . Chad Post writes about eight Latin American novels that deserve to benefit from “Bolañomania.” . . . To mark Presidents’ Day, the Daily Beast ranks the 19 best-read presidents. Millard Fillmore is No. 12. I won’t spoil any more than that. . . . Sarah Weinman rounds up reaction to the death of Dick Francis.
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
John Gall shares a few selections from a “huge and varied archive of Philip K. Dick covers.” . . . Book Lovers Never Go to Bed Alone, a blog devoted to photos of people’s bookshelves. . . . Levi Stahl is coping with shelves that are unusually bare. . . . Someone has a bookcase in the form of Pac-Man. . . . I’m always happy to be reminded of David Brent’s reading of John Betjeman. . . . Mark Sarvas recently helped judge a prize for first novels, and he came away from the experience with several tips for writers. . . . Speaking of debut novels, this week Lit Drift is giving away a copy of The Children’s Day by Michiel Heyns, about a South African boy’s coming of age in the 1960s. . . . Later this month, bookmark collectors are holding their first convention. It’s being staged online, which seems a bit odd for such a tactile pursuit. . . . Mark Athitakis says it’s only time to panic about the waning influence of book reviews “if you figure this is something new—or if you figure that getting readers to buy books is the reviewer’s job.”
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Joanna Smith Rakoff remembers her time answering J. D. Salinger’s fan mail. . . . John Seabrook once went to Salinger’s house to watch a movie. . . . And editor Tim Bates recounts communicating with Salinger in the 1990s when his books were being repackaged in the UK. . . . Lord, how I love Jill Lepore. (“I suspect that reading A People’s History at fourteen is a bit like reading The Catcher in the Rye at the same age.”) Some commenters take umbrage, but I think they’re (slightly) twisting Lepore’s point in order to take umbrage. . . . Abe Books gathers its top ten books about drink. Some priceless covers in the batch. . . . John Scalzi writes a scathing, very funny post about being on the author end of the Amazon-Macmillan dustup. (“Hey, you want to know how to piss off an author? It’s easy: Keep people from buying their books. You want to know how to really piss them off? Keep people from buying their books for reasons that have nothing to do with them.”) . . . On the same subject, Caleb Crain with a customarily thoughtful look at the possible future of book publishing. . . . Jessa Crispin writes about “spinster fear” and defends the books of Elizabeth Gilbert. . . . Charles McGrath profiles Don DeLillo, and elicits this quote, which both confirms DeLillo’s humorlessness and cements his lifetime ban from any parties I throw: “I only smile when I’m alone.” . . . A new blog interviews designer Carin Goldberg. (Via Casual Optimist)
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
If you haven’t bookmarked the site Letters of Note, you should. This recent entry by Mark Twain was written to a salesman who had attempted to sell Twain bogus medicine. It includes this line: “The person who wrote the advertisements is without doubt the most ignorant person now alive on the planet; also without doubt he is an idiot, an idiot of the 33rd degree, and scion of an ancestral procession of idiots stretching back to the Missing Link.” . . . A 1973 book of photos of New York City graffiti (with an essay by Norman Mailer) is being reissued. . . . It takes six people to lift the world’s biggest book, and it will be on display this summer at the British Library. . . . Maud Newton has opened a comments thread to ask writers what they did before they wrote, or while they wrote, or what they would like to do if they didn’t write. (Newton herself has an idea for a private eye firm with the TV-series-ready name of Grasso & Neutron.) . . . Lawrence Lessig on “Google, copyright, and our future.” . . . Flavorwire lists five good sites for book-related videos. . . . Mark Athitakis investigates the long-standing notion of a “typical New Yorker short story.” . . . A very creepy, but very effective book cover (via Casual Optimist).
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
Robert B. Parker, best known for a series of novels starring Boston private eye Spenser, has died at 77. Sarah Weinman has quickly gathered an excellent list of relevant links. . . . M.A. Orthofer reacts to the recent and widely-linked-to Wall Street Journal piece about the “death of the slush pile.” . . . How would you like to be a famous author in the early 20th century named Winston Churchill? Bummer. . . . Book Patrol unearths a book about the sex lives of Civil War soldiers, a side of their lives “that they and their families tried to hide from posterity and Ken Burns.” . . . In 1967, Leonard Woolf was sounding a pre-Hitchens note. . . . I’ve been meaning to see An Education for a long time now. After reading Maud Newton’s description, I’d also like to read the book on which it was based. . . . Blake Morrison on the art of the first sentence. (Via Books, Inq.) . . . Illustrations from French children’s books, 1900-1949. (Via Bookslut) . . . Garth Risk Hallberg wonders if there are too many literary prizes.
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
The Caustic Cover Critic’s hilarious series of posts about Tutis, a publisher that takes public-domain works and puts ridiculously inappropriate covers on them. Lots of laughs. . . . Daily Design Discoveries has a slide show of a prettier bunch. . . . Elvis would have been 75 last week. To mark the anniversary, John Gall posts a whole mess of book covers featuring The King, including Invasion of the Elvis Zombies. . . . Sadly, the Book Design Review has gone on “indefinite hiatus.” A good excuse to look through its archives. . . . A ship that had been “carrying affordable books to ports throughout the world” since 1978 has been grounded by a new law. . . . Peter Ginna, now at Bloomsbury Press, once received a manuscript along with a pair of shoes he had ordered from Land’s End. . . . Surely, we can’t do worse than Android Karenina, so now this nonsense can stop, right? Right?
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
In the Ether (The Blog)
In considering Katie Roiphe’s recent essay about how young male American writers have “repudiated the aggressive virility of their predecessors,” Mark Athitakis offers several sharp points, and wonders what Roiphe would make of Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe, one of many characters who complicate the picture. . . . Speaking of aggressive virility, in his soon-to-be-published book about Warren Beatty, Peter Biskind estimates how many women the leading man has taken to bed. Even assuming a generous margin of error, it’s a startling number. . . . James Mustich starts 2010 eagerly awaiting 20 books. . . . The Millions also previews the year in books. . . . And Chad Post of Open Letter points to compelling translations being published in the next three months. . . . James Morrison (aka the Caustic Cover Critic) starts the year “with some sleaze.” . . . In soliciting choices for hated books, Joseph Sullivan says of his: “When done, I immediately went out and bought two hamsters and a cage so that something could rip that book apart and pee on it.” . . . The site Odd Books is updated far too infrequently for my taste, but it’s always worth the wait.
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Robert Birnbaum didn’t let his bafflement keep him from enjoying cartoonist Hans Rickheit’s The Squirrel Machine. (“Let me know if you figure out what it’s about, though not knowing made it no less fun for me.”) . . . Norm Geras has posted a Boxing Day literary quiz on his web site. Twenty-five clues lead you to 50 writers. Send in your answers for a possible prize. From a quick look, I think it’s fairly tough — best of luck. . . . John Self discusses his year in reading, including a book that “at first seems ridiculous and laughable – and then seems ridiculous and laughable, but also clever and mesmerizing.” . . . Another book-related goal of mine in 2010 is to begin reading Robert Walser. . . . Maud Newton solicits support for what sounds like a very worthy cause, Girls Write Now, “a nonprofit organization that pairs at-risk teen girls with professional writers who support them. The pairs meet regularly, alone and in groups, and the girls who finish the program all go on to college.”
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Sarah Larson interviews Douglas Rogers about his new book, which chronicles his parents’ extraordinary life in Zimbabwe. (“It was only in around 2005, when I found out about the brothel, the marijuana crop, the fact that their land had become a safe haven for all these white farmers, that it dawned on me that my parents were in fact the opposite of sad and tragic. I came to see them as heroic. And outrageously funny.”) . . . The PEN American Center is asking for support in bringing attention to the case of Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese critic and intellectual recently indicted for “inciting subversion of state power.” To learn more, go here. And to speak out, go here. . . . Martin Amis believes writers get worse in old age. Clive James disagrees. . . . Blake Butler’s list of the 25 “most important” books of the past decade leans heavily toward experimental and semi-experimental and experiment-influenced fiction, whatever those terms are worth. So, it’s limited, but still interesting. . . . Craig Finn, lead singer of The Hold Steady, talks about adapting Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City for the screen. . . . Lit Drift is giving away a novel by Pasha Malla. All you have to do to enter the competition for it is leave a comment (there, not here). . . . As so many others look back at the year in books that was, D. G. Myers looks ahead to the year that will be.
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Chris Hedges discusses two approaches to war writing; he “detests” one of them, and thinks the other, represented by Vasily Grossman’s novel Life and Fate
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
A look at various covers over the years for 16 sci-fi classics. One commenter: “I’m really digging the War of the Worlds that just straight-up stole the Enterprise for the cover.” (Via Casual Optimist) . . . A village in England has opened a lending library in a phone booth. . . . Aleksandar Hemon is interviewed about a new anthology of European fiction that he edited. (“The project depends on scouts and translators, which I think is great: we have people in the field. Translation requires networks — much like spy networks.”) . . . The Millions introduces its “Year in Reading” series for 2009, and posts the first entry, by Hari Kunzru. . . . Nigel Beale considers getting into the rare books game, and wonders where he should put his money. . . . Scott Esposito understandably snoozes at the New York Times’ list of 100 notable books from 2009. . . . The Bad Sex Award has been given to Jonathan Littell. . . . The BBC asks why writing about sex is such a dicey proposition, and elicits this great quote from reviewer Melissa Katsoulis: “When you have a dream about someone you fancy, it’s because they sat down next to you on the bus or something, not because you were at it, hammer and tongs.”
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Second Pass contributor Carlene Bauer discusses her memoir, Not That Kind of Girl
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Lord Byron inspired Jim Holt at the London Review of Books blog to dig up this 1993 New York Times piece about author photos (“In short, author photos are awful. Is there something going on here beyond bad taste?”), and I’m glad he did. . . . Carolyn Kellogg interviews Marcel Theroux, the author of Far North, the National Book Award-nominated novel about a woman who might be the last living person in an arctic world until she finds “shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere.” (Theroux: “It’s only now that we feel like we’re living at a cutting edge, and we feel that life is naturally linked to progress. But there’s nothing natural about that, if you look at history.”) . . . Friend of this site Jim Hanas has combined the pleasures of publishing technology with the pleasures of music nostalgia by releasing a collection of stories as an e-book and calling it Cassingle. . . . Maud Newton continues to write smartly and movingly about her family, this time with a look at a 1977 newspaper article about her great-great aunt Maude. . . . Try this thought on for size: “[I]t doesn’t much matter what the sun is made of. Actually, it is about a billion billion billion tonnes of mostly hydrogen gas. But if you were to put a billion billion billion tonnes of microwave ovens in one place - or a billion billion billion tonnes of bananas – then you’d get something equally hot that looked pretty much like the sun.” . . . I’d be willing to bet Bookdwarf has read more books than you have this year. . . . A squirrel was called an aquerne once upon a time. That and more satisfying word geekery in an entertaining post at Like Fire.
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Photographer Michael Lavine’s book, Grunge
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
A slide show of sketches from a new book illustrating the views from New York apartments. . . . John Sutherland writes about the London Review of Books’ 30th anniversary. Scroll to the bottom for a funny P.S. about the times he’s been name-checked in the paper’s famous personal ads. . . . The very long list of nominees for this year’s International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and Lisa Peet on why this is the only literary list “that always gets me going.” . . . A post (with helpful links) about Dwight Garner’s new book, which covers, per its subtitle, “A Century of Classic American Book Advertisements.” . . . A blog devoted to 19th century dust jackets, in conjunction with a forthcoming book. (Via BDR) . . . Allen Barra on his favorite World Series-inspired reading (painless registration required). . . . Robert Birnbaum notes the arrival of a new Thelonious Monk biography.
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Instead of trying to come up with a joke about an “Extraordinary Canadians” series (and don’t think I couldn’t), I’ll just say that these books do look quite lovely. . . . Gregory Cowles thinks Padgett Powell’s new novel, composed entirely of questions, is an example of “the Ramones effect.” . . . “Why would our [literary] choices be so different from those of our grandparents?” . . . Edan Lepucki considers the anxieties of the author photo, and particularly the stunning(ly goofy) work of Marion Ettlinger. (“Clearly, the writer is trying to appear thoughtful. Most of the time, though, they look like they’re starring in a pain killer ad.”) . . . The evolution of a book cover design, and a one-sentence summary of the designing job: “I just keep slogging away at it until it stops looking cheesy.” . . . I got a funny press release this morning that I thought about sharing. Well, Stephen Elliott got it, too, and he’s posted it for everyone’s pleasure.
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
John Self interviews Simon Crump, author of, among other things, a recent book of fiction about Michael Jackson. (“Neverland is, and always was intended to be, a sympathetic portrayal of a talented, vulnerable boy called Michael who lived in a big house and was slowly losing his marbles.”) . . . The movie (and book) junkies at Pajiba are kicking off their second annual “Cannonball Read.” This time, they’re challenging people to read 52 books in a year and blog about each one. For everyone who completes the task, the site is donating to a charity in memory of one of its readers/contributors. . . . John Ortved, the author of a new, unauthorized history of The Simpsons (Second Pass review to be posted in the next day or two) is interviewed by the New York Times. . . . The joys of reading Updike backward. . . . I have a good friend who has frequently wondered if we’re reaching a point where more people write than read. This piece about “universal authorship” joins him in wondering. . . . In promoting his new book, Jose Saramago has decided to slam the Bible and religious people generally. . . . If you’re in New York City tomorrow night and care at all about book design and have $35 to spare, I imagine this event will be worth your time.
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Steven Heller writes an appreciation of the “incredibly ground-breaking” covers for the Time Reading Program of the 1960s. The covers “had a huge influence on trade paperback design. Yet the TRP is all but forgotten today, ironically, even by some who created the covers.” His piece is accompanied by a 39-cover slideshow. (Via Casual Optimist) . . . A collection of previously unpublished Kurt Vonnegut stories is being published later this month. I’ll have a review up sometime in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I was going to post something from the book on the blog, but Gregory Cowles has beaten me to it, posting the exact same excerpt I had in mind over at Paper Cuts. . . . Berkeley Breathed is interviewed about the first volume collecting his great comic strip: “Bloom County’s oddness reached out to a lot of disturbed minds, in a way that Beetle Bailey probably didn’t.” . . . The great Odd Books looks at a 1939 volume of astrological predictions about Hitler. . . . Nina Sankovitch has been reading (and reviewing) a book a day for one year. Not to be outdone, Jack Pendarvis has started reading a book flap every day.
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
A new book collects 2,964 synonyms for the word “drunk.” Two of my favorites are irrigated and cashiered (the latter from Shakespeare). . . . Lorrie Moore quips about a new academic book about her work: “I would have liked a better hairdo than the one on the cover, I must say.” And they did go with quite a vintage photo
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
A bounty of lists from the Oxford American: The ten best Southern novels of all time. (One of the respondents to the magazine’s poll, Ada Liana Bidiuc, said, “If a better book than The Moviegoer has been written, I’ll cut off my little toe.”) The five best works of Southern nonfiction. Lengthy “best of the rest” lists for novels and nonfiction. And an “underrated” list, one book from each person polled. . . . Arthur Krystal on why writers often aren’t and “don’t have to be” good conversationalists. . . . A job I would kill for: Blogging the archives of The New Yorker. . . . “A book cover that reaches startling levels of wrongness.” . . . Hilary Mantel discusses her new novel, which will be reviewed here sometime next month. . . . Personally, I don’t look for fiction to “accomplish” anything in an activist sense, but Mark Athitakis shares some interesting thoughts on the subject. . . . Other books that received multiple votes in the best-of-21st-century poll at The Millions. . . . Mark Sarvas is rightfully excited about The Ask
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
A lively, beautifully illustrated interview with Paul Buckley, a creative designer at Penguin. (“I found and purchased an image for a difficult book cover project recently just because I decided to google ‘leucistic squirrel’ after I noticed a few in Prospect Park. I have no idea how we all existed before the internet.”) . . . On her lovely new blog, Like Fire, Lisa Peet marvels at Carl Jung’s unearthed “Red Book.” . . . Translator Natasha Wimmer discusses her work on forthcoming Roberto Bolaño novels. And The Millions offers a Bolaño syllabus. . . . Scott Pack alerts us to an upcoming anthology about atheism, pegged to Christmas. The book includes an essay by Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon about losing his faith. . . . The salvation of books? The death of books? I have a headache. You decide. . . . The great New York Review of Books Classics line is celebrating its 10th anniversary with events now through November. . . . The MacArthur Foundation has announced its annual “genius grants.” This year’s writers are Edwidge Danticat, Deborah Eisenberg and poet Heather McHugh.
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Sarah Weinman shares a piece of an “impolite” 1961 interview with Shel Silverstein. The whole interview is worth a read. (Q: “You used to sell hot dogs when the Chicago Cubs were playing, and the White Sox. What did you learn about people from this experience?” A: “I learned they like mustard. . . .”) . . . I don’t know much (of any depth) about Jim Carroll, who died last week, but I was transfixed by this clip of him talking about his youthful basketball career and basketball generally. . . . A gift idea for the book-loving baseball fans in your life: author jerseys. I particularly like Bartleby and Poe (with the raven on front, not the heart). I might have to make it out to the launch party at Freebird Books in Brooklyn on Sunday to get my hands on one. Paper Cuts likes the shirts, too. . . . I learned about John Gall because the various book-design sites I visit would often write about his work. Now, Gall has his own blog, which I’ve added to the Links page. . . . Tonight in New York, the European Book Club discusses a novel that includes these lines: “I’m aware, I really am fully aware that it’s impossible, in my case especially it’s impossible, to live a long and happy life when you drink. But how can you live a long and happy life if you don’t drink?”
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Two new trailers for movies adapted from books: Walter Kirn’s Up in the Air, made by Jason Reitman (Juno and Thank You for Smoking), and David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, helmed by John Krasinski of The Office fame. The Up in the Air trailer is very artfully done, though the organizing conceit is pretty goofy. Brief Interviews would seem awfully tough to adapt, but we’ll see. . . . Jacket Copy interviews the proprietor of a blog called Slaughterhouse 90210, which matches photos from bad TV with favorite quotes from literature. . . . Shelfari begins a feature showcasing author’s bookshelves with Neil Gaiman’s enviable library. . . . Granta is previewing its forthcoming “Chicago” issue, which includes a great cover by Chris Ware, by sharing some advance praise. . . . Here’s a list of used bookstores all around the world. This will come in handy when I win the lottery and spend the rest of my days checking them off one by one. (Note to self: Start playing the lottery.) . . . Scott Pack alerts us that a London bookshop is asking for a list of your five favorite books. In return, you’re entered in a competition that could win you 20 free books. . . . In case you missed it on one of the other thousand blogs that posted it, the Booker shortlist has been announced.
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Despite once having lived in Texas for 12 years, I’m sorry to say I hadn’t heard of Elmer Kelton, who fellow Western writers voted the genre’s best of all time. Macy Halford remembers Kelton here, and recommends that if you haven’t read him, you should start with The Time It Never Rained
