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
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Here are about a billion cover designs for Lolita from around the world. At least one blogger finds that “many of them are merely absurd, or banal or a laughable combination of both.” So this same blogger is running a contest, offering $350 for the best cover design for the novel. . . . Carlene Bauer “offer[s] up a multimedia sampling of what an average Christian kid consumed in the days before the Left Behind novels and the Fray.” And at Paper Cuts, she writes of a “recovering evangelical’s hymnbook,” which includes U2, the Replacements and Iggy Pop. . . . To quote Liz Lemon, “I want to go to there.” . . . Veteran lit blog The Millions has undergone a redesign. The site’s editor, C. Max Magee, explains. . . . The Collagist has republished a short story by Gordon Lish. . . . Not too long ago, a friend recommended Richard Poirier’s Poetry and Pragmatism, which I put on my to-read list. Poirier has passed away at the age of 83.
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Start to finish, this is the funniest thing I’ve seen this week. . . . Two TV-centered book covers, along with some commentary from Homer Simpson. . . . A profile of Mexican novelist Mario Bellatin, and an excerpt from his latest work. . . . A disturbing syllabus: Books about the Manson Family. . . . In February, Nigel Beale had posted a lengthy list of “critical works which exemplify outstanding commentary, and guidance; which explain what we have read and what it means, and tell us what we should read, and why.” Now, he points out a shorter list drawn up by Walter Allen. . . . Two quick updates on previous posts: It is Pynchon’s voice, and they’re going to change the cover.
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
D. G. Myers makes the case for Richard Russo’s Empire Falls as a great Catholic novel, and says that, “Few other American writers, living or dead, have believed as strongly as Richard Russo that the ordinary things of this world, perceived in their ordinariness, are worthy of close attention and perhaps even redemptive.” (A review of Russo’s new novel will be up on The Second Pass on Thursday.) . . . The L. A. Times unearths an obituary from 1899 of a reader who committed suicide: “I read books every day. They act on me as a narcotic. I dope myself with them. They make me forget for a moment, for there is a continual struggle going on — to be or not to be…. I have tried to get opium but failed.” . . . Bookdwarf asks if this is the best book cover ever. If it’s not, I want to see what beats it. . . . Robert Birnbaum expresses his “vexation at the declining attention paid to the study of history” and recommends three recent books on the subject, all of them quite short. . . . The protagonist of Ian McEwan’s next novel is a “Nobel prize-winning physicist who faces media attacks after he suggests that men outnumber women at the top of his profession because of inherent differences in their brains.” McEwan also “admitted to increasing frustration about climate change deniers as he researched the book.” I like McEwan, but we’ll see; this doesn’t sound like promising material for a novel.
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
A closer look at the beautiful design for a book about a New York gang war in the 1960s. . . . Apparently, Ambrose Bierce didn’t have much time for Oscar Wilde, calling him, among other things, a “gawky gowk” and a “dunghill he-hen.” Ouch? . . . Julie Peakman writes about the 18th century, and “how prostitutes, courtesans and ladies with injured reputations took up the pen in retaliation.” . . . The Booker prize has announced this year’s longlist of 13 finalists. . . . A Q&A with Stephen Elliott about his upcoming book The Adderall Diaries
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
When I saw the UK cover for Alain de Botton’s latest book (at left), I thought: I won’t see another cover that ugly for a while. Then I saw the UK cover for his previous book. . . . Paper Cuts posts some choice excerpts from a new collection of Hunter S. Thompson interviews. . . . At the blog about former National Book Award winners (which I first wrote about here), they recently covered the 1962 champ, Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer. Sara Zarr writes that the book “(like so much good writing) reads like a letter to a friend that already knows him just well enough.” Among other finalists that Percy beat out that year were Catch-22 and Revolutionary Road. . . . At Bookslut, Jessa Crispin points to a piece from last year in the American Scholar about a group that meets at a pub every week to read and parse a page or two of Finnegans Wake. The longest-standing members have been at it since 1997. (“Like some old Mafioso, the Wake has been cloistered away partly just by its reputation. It yields nuggets of information to which, among a group of know-it-alls, no one can believably respond, ‘I knew that.’ It has a difficulty that is objective, a prissy intellectualism rendered macho by extremity. It’s a bit of an introvert’s Everest.”) . . . A brief discussion about ways to organize your books. The real fun is in the comments section, like so:
I used to work in a library, so by force of habit I alphabetise everything. However, this does cause problems when you have a row of small paperbacks thrown together with an oversized hardback, so I’m considering having one alphabetised section for regular sized books, and a second alphabetised oversized section.
It is possible that I need help.
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Tin House has started a blog. The magazine and book publisher admits that for an office “teeming with Luddites,” they’re “stepping out of [their] comfort zone.” And in fact, the first proper post, by novelist Jim Krusoe (at left), is more a full essay than a blog post. Krusoe returned to his hometown of Cleveland for a reading and shares his impressions: “The neighborhood, that always had the look of a slightly feral cat, now looks like a feral cat that has been savaged by one or two feral dogs: alive, but barely.” . . . An interview with writer/illustrator/graphic novelist Seth. . . . Morgan Meis identified with Holden Caulfield, but he understands why today’s teenagers might not. (“The fact is I’m willing to throw Holden under the bus.”) . . . Superstar designer Chip Kidd shares some of his favorite 21st-century book covers with Newsweek. . . . Blog post title of the week: “Because Sometimes You Just Need to See a Lot of Demented Books with Gorillas on the Cover.”
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
FaceOut Books interviews designer Michael Fusco about his striking redesign of Harlem-set noir mysteries by Chester Himes. . . . The Book Design Review rightfully praises the work of Gregg Kulick. (More of Kulick’s work here; click on a black dot to see a cover.) . . . In the market for a gift for someone who has everything? How about a coffee table book that goes for $1,000 and might contain “a chip of extremely rare moon meteorite”? . . . Elizabeth Bachner writes at length about “reader’s block,” her most recent reading habits and Doritos. . . . At the Virginia Quarterly Review, Jacob Silverman notes that a staggering 275,000 or so new titles were published last year, and wonders how we should decide which books get reviewed. He’s pretty sure that Lauren Conrad’s L.A. Candy deserves to be ignored. Yet Salon recently reviewed it, only to call it “one of the most bizarrely meta projects in recent memory: a novel partly inspired by the events of a partly scripted reality show, purportedly written by one of its stars but more likely ghost-written by a novelist pretending to be her.”
Friday, June 19th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Scott Pack writes about a screening of the TV and film work of experimental writer B.S. Johnson (pictured at left). The night was hosted by Jonathan Coe, a terrific writer himself, and the author of Like A Fiery Elephant
Monday, June 8th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Joseph Sullivan gives a well-deserved rave to the cover art for Philip Roth’s forthcoming The Humbling
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
I feel like the delays in release (not to mention the austerity of the source material) don’t bode well for the movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
An early candidate for the 2009 Pulitzer in fiction: the 100-page Shatnerquake
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
A bit about E.L. Doctorow’s next novel, out this fall. . . . Also coming this fall: an unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye. Though, how serious an enterprise it is remains an open question. . . . An Australian book cover to treasure. . . . Leslie Gelb with a dispatch from a book tour, about, among other things, the commercial benefits to being wrong. . . . You’ve probably heard already, but the first Must-Miss book of next year has been signed up.
Friday, May 8th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
Speaking of Denis Johnson, the Book Design Review points out that his new novel has a couple of hidden treats. . . . UK blogger (and book publisher) Scott Pack has been reviewing a series of short books called the Great Little Reads series — “dinky paperbacks designed to be read in just one or two sittings.” He makes this one sound pretty good. . . . Here’s a real wormhole for design fans: A large gallery of Penguin’s classic science fiction designs. But that’s not all. There’s also a series of 16 essays about them, including a feature that allows you to see how a book’s design changed over the course of several editions. . . . Malcolm Pryce lists his 10 best expatriate books; part of the Guardian’s Top 10s series, which is worth a dig through the archives.
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
(Ed. Note: From now on, In the Ether will link to anything but reviews of books in other publications. Reviews will have their own round-up post, as yet untitled.)
Speaking of Geoff Dyer, an interview with him. “I’m really not interested in entertaining the troops and can’t imagine anything worse than being a so-called comic novelist. I never read comic novels: I almost never find them funny because they’re always holding up this tacit sign saying ‘LAUGH NOW’ so one sits there, grim-faced.” . . . How an unrequited high school crush put Cristina Henriquez on the path to becoming a writer. . . . Jessa Crispin of Bookslut fame is packing up and moving away from Chicago. She writes: “I think that maybe I treat cities like relationships, and one day I just wake up and realize it’s over.” To find out her landing place, click here. . . . The Caustic Cover Critic assesses a new line of redesigned classics. I’m partial to the look for In Cold Blood.
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
The Second Pass gets a mention in this lengthy, smart look at the future of books coverage. . . . A book is returned to a library, and a fine of more than $52,000 is waived. . . . “I am for progress to a degree but as yet have not become used to automobiles. I still prefer horses, say nothing about travelling in space ships.” A funny look at a crazy book. . . . A fascinating profile of novelist Hilary Mantel. . . . Mantel herself reviews a four-volume history of women. . . . Louis Begley reviews Franz Kafka: The Office Writings.
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
A consideration of William Maxwell’s The Château. . . . A friend of this site recommends a charming, recently republished children’s book. . . . An interview with an author who has done 16 book signings in D.C. airports over the last year and a half. (”I get fewer multiple sales. More people ignore me. More people don’t speak English.” He also discusses the upside.) . . . The Reading Experience isn’t overly thrilled with Andrew (A to Z), but still wonders why a bigger publisher wasn’t interested.
Monday, April 13th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
I’ll have more about this when it’s published in the U.S. this summer, but for now, the UK is reacting to Nick Laird’s new novel, Glover’s Mistake. . . . “When the Flock Changed,” an excerpt from Maud Newton’s novel-in-progress. . . . A review of Joe Queenan’s new memoir, Closing Time
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
In the Ether (The Blog)
John Lanchester, always worth reading, considers Google Street View, and Google’s other ventures, all “poised on the margin between utopian and dystopian.” . . . I’ve had Vladimir Sorokin’s The Queue
