The Armchair Reader

Book Beast

2009-02-22T07:27:00.003-05:00

This summer I became a big fan of the political website The Daily Beast. More recently they've revealed that their bookishness comes from more than just taking their name from an Evelyn Waugh novel. They've added a new section Book Beast devoted to book coverage, and it's not reviews. It's literary controversies, and examinations of what specific people are reading. They've just run a segment of book recommendations from the Oscar Nominated Director of Doubt John Patrick Shanley. I'm very excited by this turn of events, first because I think that celebrities are in a unique position to foster literacy, since so many people are fascinated by them to begin with, and second because it bodes well for the kind of interesting book related tidbits that can be expected in the future from Tina Brown's new website.

Rushdie Comes to Brooklyn!

2009-01-22T18:24:00.002-05:00

From the good folks over at Brooklyn Heights Blog, I have learned that Salman Rushdie will be giving an as yet undescribed lecture in Brooklyn this March. I can't wait!

Top 10 of 2008

2009-01-05T08:53:00.005-05:00

I've decided to list, with a brief explanation, my personal top 10 books of 2008. These are books that I read in 2008, but they could have been published at any time. I list them in the order that I read them, from first to last, this doesn't imply that one was better than another.

Donald Hall's Father's Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on Sport [Mostly Baseball]
This book really surprised me, more poets should write about sports. His essays on baseball, and his own life were really wonderful. If you enjoy professional sports, you will find in these essays someone who really understands their appeal, and if you don't enjoy professional sports, this may help you to understand why others do. I liked this so much that I went out and read one of his poetry collections too, which was excellent.

Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers translated by Richard Pevear
I've been a Dumas fan since I first read a translation of The Three Musketeers in Elementary school and I've read a number of his other books since. This was by far the best translation I've read of his work.

Junot Diaz' The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
I think this made a lot of people's lists for 2008, and absolutely worthy of the Pulitzer. I was a bit of a nerd in High School and College myself, which may have helped me get some of the nerdier references. Some people have complained that all of the Spanish that Diaz mixes in makes it hard to follow, but I wasn't bothered by it, though I did look up the odd word. The story is heartbreaking and powerful. I also love interesting narrators, and Yunior is excellent.

Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union
I'd wanted to read this from the moment that I first heard of it. I loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and I'm also a big fan of hard boiled detective fiction like Chandler and Hammett (more Hammett). Chabon's creation of a believable Jewish state in Alaska was an impressive achievement, and I enjoyed exploring that world, the strange, apocalyptic plot was also exciting and poignant.

Hugh Nissenson's The Days of Awe
I have had to read this since I saw it on a bookstore shelf. Nissenson lives in the neighborhood where I grew up, and as a result this book about Upper West Siders in the lead up to, and then following September 11th, was very poignant for me. I really liked his writing style, and the combination of religion, secularism, and mythology that pervades the lives of the characters.

Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States 1492-Present
To say that I loved this book would be overstating it, but it was one of the more important books that I read this year. I particularly valued the sheer depth of material covered. This book is an excellent accompaniment to any study of American history as Zinn provides a perspective that is often missing. While I am a big fan of non-traditional uses of Graphic storytelling, Zinn's comic book A People's History of American Empire is not an effective substitute for this book, though it can be a fun gloss.

George Simenon's The Man Who Watched Trains Go By
This is partly to symbolize my discovery of Simenon in 2008. He has quickly become one of my favorite authors, and I read a half dozen of his books. This is one of what Simenon referred to as his romans durs, which are deeply psychological novels. The cold detachment with which he shows one man's transition from bored upstanding middle class business man to wanted murderer is spectacularly effective.

A.M. Homes' This Book Will Save Your Life
This book didn't save my life, but I really enjoyed it. The story of a man slowly rediscovering his own life was a lot of fun. Richard Novak seemed to be almost as unfamiliar with his life as the reader, and as a result, we discovered it with him.

Mark Kurlansky's 1968: The Year That Rocked the World
When I read Kurlansky, he's virtually guaranteed to end up on my year end best list. This is the most political and contemporary book of his that I've read, and I loved it. He has the excellent ability to explain history in a readable and memorable fashion. I can't help but feel that this book colored my appreciation of Zinn, leaving me to wish that he wrote a little bit more like Kurlansky. Of course, Kurlansky covered one year, and Zinn covered over 500, so it's a bit of an apples and oranges situation.

Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger
Somehow this year I read the two major literary prize winning books of 2008, between this and Diaz. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why, but it feels right that they both won their awards in the same year. I like untrustworthy first person narrators, and quirky narrators, and Balram Halwai is both. His story of his life is compelling and his view of India is very different from others that I have seen.

Books Read in 2008

2009-01-01T00:44:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!

Below is the list of books that I read in 2008. Not a bad list, and I'll go over it myself after a good nights sleep. I'm always happy to discuss any of the books on this, or any of my previous lists. Expect a top 10 of 2008 post later this week.

F = Fiction
NF = Non-Fiction
B = Biography
P = Poetry
PL = Play
GN = Graphic Novel

1) Ha Jin - In the Pond (F)

2) Saul Bellow - The Actual (F)

3) Donald Hall - Fathers Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on Sport [Mostly Baseball] (NF)

4) Andy Riley - The Bumper Book of Bunny Suicides (GN)

5) Flann O'Brien - The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman and The Brother (F)

6) Alexandre Dumas, trans. Richard Pevear - The Three Musketeers (F) (reread, new translation)

7) Raymond E. Feist - Magician: Apprentice (F) (reread)

8) Raymond E. Feist - Magician: Master (F) (reread)

9) Raymond E. Feist - Silverthorn (F) (reread)

10) Raymond E. Feist - A Darkness at Sethanon (F) (reread)

11) Raymond E. Feist - Prince of the Blood (F) (reread)

12) Raymond E. Feist - The King's Buccaneer (F) (reread)

13) Bill Bryson - The Mother TOngue (NF)

14) Donald Hall - Without (P)

15) Raymond E. Feist - Shadow of a Dark Queen (F) (reread)

16) Jim Butcher - Captain's Fury (F)

17) Raymond E. Feist - Rise of a Merchant Prince (F) (reread)

18) Raymond E. Feist - Rage of a Demon King (F) (reread)

19) Raymond E. Feist - Shards of a Broken Crown (F) (reread)

20) Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts - Daughter of the Empire (F) (reread)

21) Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts - Servants of the Empire (F) (reread)

22) David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day (NF)

23) Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts - Mistress of the Empire (F) (reread)

24) Christopher Woodward - In Ruins: A Journey Through History, Art and Literature (NF)

25) Haruki Murakami, trans. Alfred Birnbaum - A Wild Sheep Chase (F)

26) Albert Camus, trans. Matthew Ward - The Stranger (F)

27) Adrian Tomine - Shortcomings (GN)

28) Rafael Sabatini - Captain Blood (F)

29) Ernest Hemingway - The old Man and the Sea (F)

30) Elaine Dundy - The Dud Avocado (F)

31) Junot Diaz - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (F)

32) Laurence Sterne - A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick (F)

33) Terry Pratchett - Thud! (F) (reread)

34) Terry Pratchett - Carpe Jugulum (F) (reread)

35) Zbigniew Herbert, trans. Alissa Valles - The Collected Poems: 1956-1998 (P)

36) Glen Cook - Cruel Zinc Melodies (F)

37) Michael Farr - Tintin: The Complete Companion (NF)

38) John Maddox Roberts - SPQR: The Princess and the Pirates (F)

39) Rex Stout - The Second Confession (F) (reread)

40) John Maddox Roberts - SPQR: A Point of Law (F)

41) Terry Pratchett - Jingo (F) (reread)

42) Terry Pratchett - The Fifth Elephant (F) (reread)

43) Alasdair Gray, Francesca Lowe - Terminus (F)

44) Italo Calvino, trans. William Weaver - Invisible Cities (F)

45) Graham Greene - The Power and the Glory (F)

46) Simon Rich - Ant Farm (F)

47) Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policeman's Union (F)

48) Georges Simenon, trans. Robert Baldick - Lock 14 (F)

49) G.K. Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday (F)

50) Herman Hesse, trans. Jack Zipes - The Fairytales of Hermann Hesse (F)

51) Alexandre Dumas, trans. Robin Buss - The Women's War (F)

52) John Buchan - Thirty Nine Steps (F)

53) Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards! (F) (reread)

54) Michael Farr - Tintin & Co. (NF)

55) Kingsley Amis - Lucky Jim (F)

56) Graham Greene - Our Man In Havana (F)

57) I.J. Parker - The Hell Screen (F)

58) Rex Stout - Not Quite Dead Enough (F) (reread)

59) Terry Pratchett - Feet of Clay (F) (reread)

60) Vladimir Nabokov trans. Dmitri Nabokov - Invitation to a Beheading (F)

61) Terry Pratchett - Pyramids (F) (reread)

62) George MacDonald Fraser - Flashman (F)

63) Isaac Bashevis Singer, trans. various - Gimpel the Fool: And Other Stories (F)

64) Terry Pratchett - Men at Arms (F) (reread)

65) Edmund White - The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris (NF)

66) Rex Stout - The Silent Speaker (F) (reread)

67) Steven Brust - Jhegaala (F)

68) Hugh Nissenson - The Days of Awe (F)

69) Rex Stout - In the Best Families (F) (reread)

70) Rex Stout - Before Midnight (F) (reread)

71) Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons - Watchmen (GN) (reread)

72) David Green - 101 Reasons to Love the Mets (NF)

73) Primo Levi, trans. William Weaver - The Monkey's Wrench (F)

74) Rex Stout - Gambit (F) (reread)

75) Howard Zinn - A People's History of the United States 1492-Present (NF)

76) Omar Khayyam, trans./adapt. Edward Fitzgerald - The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (P)

77) Georges Simenon, trans. Marc Romano & D. Thin - The Man Who Watched Trains Go By (F)

78) Rex Stout - Plot It Yourself (F) (reread)

79) Rex Stout - The Black Mountain (F) (reread)

80) Rex Stout - Three at Wolfe's Door (F) (reread)

81) Rex Stout - And Four to Go (F) (reread)

82) Dave Eggers, ed. - McSweeney's Issue 27 (F)

83) Georges Simenon, trans. David Watson - The Bar on the Seine (F)

84) Rex Stout - A Right to Die (F) (reread)

85) Georges Simenon, trans. Geoffrey Sainsbury - A Man's Head (F)

86) Allen Ginsberg - Kaddish and Other Poems: 1958-1960 (P)

87) Rabih Alameddine - The Hakawati (F)

88) A.M. Homes - This Book Will Save Your Life (F)

89) Ryszard Kapuscinski, trans. Klara Glowczewska - Travels with Herodotus (NF)

90) Rex Stout - The Father Hunt (F) (reread)

91) trans. Ciaran Carson - The Tain (F)

92) Georges Simenon, trans. Linda Asher - The Yellow Dog (F)

93) Spain Rodriguez - Che: A Graphic Biography (B/GN)

94) Micheal macLiammoir - The Importance of Being Oscar (PL)

95) Rex Stout - The Rubber Band (F) (reread)

96) Rex Stout - The Mother Hunt (F) (reread)

97) Rex Stout - Might As Well Be Dead (F) (reread)

98) Graham Greene - The Quiet American (F)

99) Rex Stout - The Golden Spiders (F) (reread)

100) Czeslaw Milosz, trans. with Robert Hass - A Treatise on Poetry (P)

101) James Hamilton-Paterson - Cooking with Fernet Branca (F)

102) Rex Stout - Champagne for One (F) (reread)

103) Richard D. Polenberg - The Era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945: A Brief History with Documents (NF)

104) Mike Carey & Leonardo Manco - Hellblazer: All His Engines (GN)

105) Guy Delisle - Albert and the Others (GN)

106) Saul Bellow - The Adventures of Augie March (F)

107) Joseph Moncure March, illus. Art Spiegelman - The Wild Party (P)

108) Honore de Balzac, trans. Richard Howard - The Unknown Masterpiece (F)

109) Georges Simenon, trans. Geoffrey Sainsbury - The Madman of Bergerac (F)

110) Mark Kurlansky - 1968: The Year That Rocked the World (NF)

111) Aravind Adiga - The White Tiger (F)

112) Ryszard Kapuscinski, trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones - The Other (NF)

113) Muriel Barbery, trans. Alison Anderson - The Elegance of the Hedgehog (F)

114) Alison Bechdel - Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (B/GN)

115) Georges Simenon, trans. Anna Moschovakis - The Engagement (F)

116) George Soros - On Globalization (NF)

117) Harold Pinter - Death Etc. (P, Pl, NF)

118) Euripides, Wole Soyinka - The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite (Pl)

119) Howard Zinn, illus. Paul Buhle - A People's History of American Empire (GN)

120) Dave Gibbons with Chip Kidd & Mike Essl - Watching the Watchmen (NF)

121) Sholem Aleichem, trans. Hannah Berman - Stempenyu: A Jewish Romance (F)

Remainders of the Day

2008-12-17T21:31:00.002-05:00

Some time ago I read a post on Alison Bechdel's blog where she referenced the Clive James poem 'The Book of my Enemy has Been Remaindered.' It's a great poem, a lot of fun. I tried to find the post on her blog, but my 1337 search skills failed.

This is on my mind because today I finally picked up a copy of Bechdel's memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. The paperback has just come out, so the hardcover was remaindered. The result was that I picked it up for an exceedingly affordable amount at Shakespeare & Co. my favorite local bookstore chain. It's proving to be just as good as I thought.

I'm happy to have my hardcover copy, because graphic novels are strangely the one type of book that I really prefer in hardcover. It's probably not really that strange. Still, my best wishes for Alison that the paperbacks sell astonishingly well.

Interview with Alaa Al Aswany

2008-12-15T09:22:00.002-05:00

Salon has posted an excellent brief interview with Alaa Al Aswany explaining something of his craft, and his life as a writer in the Arab world. It's not very long, and very much worth a glimpse. Also, if you haven't read The Yacoubian Building, you should.

Driving Mr. Paterniti

2008-12-13T19:11:00.002-05:00

Michael Paterniti, the strange man who decided to drive across country with Einstein's brain, does a brief interview with the NYTimes Book Blog. In it he mentions that he's working on a new book about a small village in Spain that seems to be about cheese and murder. I'm looking forward to it. You should to, also you should read Driving Mr. Albert, his book about driving cross country with Einstein's brain. That book was the first thing that made me really want to drive across country.

Late to the Party: Man Booker Edition

2008-12-12T08:24:00.004-05:00

I just finished The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, the winner of this year's Man Booker Prize. I really enjoyed it, despite the fact that, when the prize was announced, I recall seeing a great deal of anger and disapproval of the choice. Perhaps, for those who read all of the books on the short list, there were other, better books. Still, The White Tiger was a powerful and fascinating story.

I've previously mentioned my fondness for first person narration, and the narrator of this book is an excellent example. He is not entirely trustworthy, but at the same time his story contains enough elements to point this out, while he insists otherwise. I'm also a fan of epistolography, or in smaller words, the study of letters. I got into this by reading Ancient Roman Letters, particularly Cicero, Pliny the Younger, and Fronto. Fronto is the best, he mainly writes letters about how his stomach is bothering him, but he's writing these letters to a Roman Emperor. Hilarious.

Anyway, the narration in The White Tiger takes the form of letters being written to the Premier of China, to teach him about India and entrepreneurship. The didactic, self-important tone brings the narrator immediately to life.

This was the first Booker winner that I've read, and I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I hadn't heard of it through it's nomination for the prize. I've read other books by Booker-winners, but not the books of theirs that won. This makes me hesitant to say too much about the prize as a whole, and Adiga's place within it. I do have The Siege of Krishnapur sitting on my shelf waiting for me though. Once I've read a few more maybe I'll change my mind about Adiga's relative merit, but I doubt it.

Holiday Reading

2008-12-08T21:56:00.002-05:00

I've seen a few lists out there for holiday specific reading. It's a strange idea to me. I don't really pick what I read based around the holiday season, I don't really do summer specific reading either.

Does anyone out there do holiday specific reading? What kind?

December Reading

2008-12-01T22:38:00.004-05:00

As someone who maintains yearly lists of what he reads, December is an interesting month. You notice how many you've read so far (a career low 108), and think about how many you feel you need to read to reach an acceptable total. 2006 is my lowest total so far, at 118, and I feel a strong desire to at least match that, which means that I would have to finish the two books that I am currently reading as I write this, and read 8 others, to tie 2006. I think I can do that at least, but we'll see.

Of course, I've only been keeping track of what I read in such a detailed manner since 2005, so I'm sure there were years when I read less. Physics isn't the only place were the act of observation changes the nature of the thing being observed.

Being this close to the end of the year though causes me to really anticipate one of my favorite recent New Years Day traditions, looking through my most recent book list to remember what was going on in my life that lead me from book to book, and generally noticing what my reading habits were like at the time. Then I compare it to the earlier lists. It may not be your idea of a great time, but I enjoy it.

I also like remembering books. For example, in just skimming the 2005 list, I'm reminded that I promised myself I would read more Plimpton after I read The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair, I still have to get on that. Of course, there are hundreds of things I have told myself I'd read, and still need to get to. Still, it's nice to stroll down memory lane.

Also from 2005, I have a wonderful memory of sitting at my desk on a particularly sunny day, reading A Room With A View and remembering my own experience in Italy.

Another great thing about December, and books, is contemplating books as presents. The one thing I like better than getting books from people, is giving people the right book. I have some shopping to do.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T07:00:00.001-05:00

Well, it's now officially Thanksgiving day, and I hope all of you Americans out there are going to have a great one, all of you Canadians had a great one, and all of the rest of you out there enjoy hearing about our quaint North American celebrations. Alternatively, you could give thanks too, it's not a bad idea to take a moment to think about the positive things you're grateful for in the past year.

I have one thing I'm particularly thankful for every year, and I thought I'd share it with you.

Everyone has their little traditions, mine is listening to Arlo Guthrie every year around this time.

The Year of Readers

2008-11-25T08:35:00.004-05:00

There's a great idea over at The Year of Readers. Reading for charity, specifically you get people to sponsor your reading, and the money goes to a reading related charity. This sounds like a great idea to me, so I've signed up with them. Now I just need to pick my charity. I have some thoughts, but I'll want to write about it in more detail later. This is just a basic statement of intent.

Readability

2008-11-20T12:03:00.004-05:00

I'm in the middle of some complicated writing, which is taking up some of my blogging time and a lot of my blogging brain. That being said, I encountered this widget and wanted to share.

Movie Reviews

Apparently I write at a high level of difficulty, although it is possible that run on sentences have confused the analyzer. It's not clear how it works.

Still, I should try to avoid that. If I remember correctl, the ideal for readability is supposed to be something like a fourth or fifth grade reading level. I'll try to simplify my language a bit.

A Mood Captured

2008-11-10T22:31:00.002-05:00

At present, one of the books that I'm reading is The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. There was a passage that I just had to share. He perfectly captures the mood and physical sensation, of lazing in the sun on a bench in the right kind of summer weather, with or without a book.

"The benches were white iron, roomy enough for three or four old gaffers to snooze on in the swamp-tasting sweet warmth that made the redwing blackbirds fierce and quick, and the flowers frill, but other living things slow and lazy-blooded. I soaked in the heavy nourishing air and this befriending atmosphere like rich life-cake, the kind that encourages love and brings on a mild pain of emotions. A state that lets you rest in your own specific gravity, and where you are not subject matter but sit in your own nature, tasting original tastes as good as the first man, and are outside of the busy human tamper, left free even of your own habits. Which only lie on your illusory in the sunshine, in the usual relation of your feet or fingers or the knot of your shoestrings and are without power. No more than the comb or shadow of your hair has power on your brain."

And a side note. Read that passage thinking about your 6th grade English class, and think about how many things he does that your teacher told you you couldn't do. Don't think about being the smart mouthed little kid who points out to them that Bellow did it, and he won a Nobel Prize. All they'd have done is say to you "Well, when you win the Nobel Prize, you can do it too." Unless they were really good, then they might have told you that you have to learn the rules before you can break them.

Read like Ike!

2008-11-10T09:33:00.002-05:00

In the course of surfing the web this morning, I came across the following quote from the great folks over at The Big Read.

“Don’t join the book burners. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book.”
–Dwight D. Eisenhower

It's a great quote, and it's always nice to see such encouragement coming from a former President of the United States (or POTUS, as the cool kids say).

It got me thinking though, that it addresses a real fear. We, as a society, seem to be afraid of reading books with which we disagree, because they might convince us. This despite the fact that anyone who has gotten involved in a flame war of one kind or another on the internet should well know that the written word isn't very convincing when you're confident in your opinion. Heck, even indisputable facts can be easily ignored by those who have adopted a philosophy that contradicts them. Even when we're not afraid of a books effect on us, we are still often concerned about their effect on others. Often wrongfully. Certainly, there is room for concern about books being age appropriate for children, but beyond that, I think we should encourage ourselves, and others to read books that we don't necessarily agree with. An opinion unchallenged is hardly a strong opinion, however, if you have examined the idea, looking at it from different sides, you can be much more confident in your view. Nothing forces us to think about our ideas, why we hold them, and what they are exactly, than reading something we disagree with. A book you agree with is safe, you don't have to confront yourself, the author is doing all of the hard work. When you read something further from your attitudes, it's more work. Certainly, you can just toss the book away and call it stupid, but if you read it through and try to argue it out with the wall of text in front of you, it tightens your opinions. It can also show you were you may 'know' something, but you don't have the facts to prove it. This can result in sending you off on tangents of excellent research, learning more about the things you already agree with.

The point being, I agree with Ike. Don't be afraid. I would add, be fierce, read aggressively.

Where History Comes From

2008-11-07T14:32:00.002-05:00

The NY Times had a really interesting article on the use of Special Collections libraries in teaching. The author followed John Pollack, UPenn Rare Book Specialist, as he taught a class using 500 year old books. He explains that this kind of teaching is a growing trend, and I think fairly effectively explains why it's important.

Still, I wanted to add my two cents. I took a couple of classes like this in college, and it really is a moving experience. It's also more than that, as John Pollack says "these materials also are wonderful teaching tools that pose questions about how we know what we know." When I first had the opportunity to really viscerally interact with a book printed by the Gutenberg Press, the tenuousness of some of our knowledge about the past really hit home. There are great classical authors whose works we have only because of one surviving book, or even less than that. Further the awareness that this information comes from real people, with just as many foibles, mistakes, and biases as people have today, really hits home. We live in a world where we are too likely to give instant credence to the authority of the written (or typed) word, and any lesson that reminds us that the authors were only human, is a good one.

Beyond that, there is also just something beautiful about the immediate connection to the world of generations ago. To hold a book in your hands, and see the notes in the margins made by someone else 400 years before you were born, can be an intimidating experience. Humanity really isn't the neatly organized succession of eras and periods that history often makes it out to be. Instead it's one long continuous stream, constantly reacting to what has come before it, and what it thinks is coming up ahead.

Election Over

2008-11-06T16:05:00.000-05:00

So as you might have noticed, we had an election recently in the United States. I was off volunteering for the past few days, and while I got back yesterday afternoon, I almost immediately went to sleep. I'm not going to go into it too much, because this blog isn't about politics. However, I will say this, if there is a political race that matters to you, volunteering for it is an incredibly fulfilling experience. We have a participatory democracy, and there is nothing like participating in it. I brought books with me to read, but spent all of my time either working or sleeping. I finally got an hours worth of reading done today, it was refreshing.

Wislawa Szymborska

2008-10-31T10:13:00.004-04:00

Over at Paper Cuts, Barry Gewen's post 'A Poem for the Pentagon' reminded me of one of my favorite poets, Wislawa Szymborska.

He mentions comparing notes with a friend, and finding they both loved Szymborska's work. I'm not going to go into his comment about contemporary poetry in general, because entire books could be written defending or criticizing his statement, and I want to focus on Szymborska.

It was interesting to me that she was the poet that came up with the conversation, because the same thing has happened to me several times. I am an inveterate bookshelf examiner, when I go somewhere with a bookshelf, I will look to see what is on it. One or another of Szymborska's books appeared surprisingly frequently on my friends shelves. This is hardly scientific evidence of her popularity, but I think among the group of people likely to read poetry, her popularity is pretty real. I've had great conversations with a number of my friends about our fondness for Szymborska's work. Even more surprising to me was the number of people I know who all independently acquired a love not only of her poetry, but also of her truly marvelous collection of short essays Nonrequired Reading. At the same time, I was speaking to a Polish woman who's mother taught Polish Literature in Poland, and she was quite surprised at my fondness for Szymborska. Not because she didn't like her, but because she didn't expect Americans to like her. This was partly from having seen the typical American lack of interest in writing from other countries.

Somehow or other, I have ended up with a bookshelf full of Polish poets, at present the collections outnumber the American poetry books on my shelf. This is partly because I have so many books by Zbigniew Herbert. Still, it's a lot. Polish poets were one of my earliest claims to reading things that weren't originally written in English. While Herbert is my hands down favorite, I think that if I were to recommend any one poet as an introduction to the beauty of Polish poetry, it would probably be Szymborska. Further, in Polish poetry we seem to be blessed with some particularly excellent translators. Even the much criticized Alissa Valles translation of Herbert's poems still allows the beauty of his poetry to really shine. I quite like the fact too that with these poets, from collection to collection they've been translated by one or the other of this small group of excellent translators. Reading the different translators work gives a great opportunity for those of us who don't read Polish, to try to observe where the difference between the poets and the different translators are.

Election Reading

2008-10-28T13:43:00.002-04:00

So, as the election for US President gets closer, and boy is it getting close, I'm finding my reading of books going down, and my consumption of news, which is generally pretty high, going up very high. In an average day I probably couldn't tell you the number of times I visit the following sites, in no particular order:

The Daily Beast (which gets to be first because it's a literary reference too)
The New York Times
CNN (more on TV than on their rather shallow website)
MSNBC (ditto to CNN.)
The Daily Kos
Politico (fast becoming my favorite)
Talkleft
MyDD
Salon (
Openleft
The Albany Project
and of course, Metsblog, because never mind who might run the country, I want to know who's going to be playing for the Mets.

So I think I may have revealed a bit of a bias in my choice of reading. The bigger bias is of course that I can't wait for election day, and books just don't carry any recent news and opinion about the election, and I want to know what's happening now now now, because I want the election to happen now now now. So my book reading has suffered, but I'm probably reading more in general than usual.

What about you, are you following the election closely? What's your election news source of choice? Beyond that, are you doing anything about it? I am, and I highly recommend volunteering for your candidate, it's a really rewarding experience.

Translation Revisited

2008-10-24T14:16:00.002-04:00

I mentioned Daniel Hahn's translation blog in an earlier post. I sent him some questions about translation, and he has thoughtfully answered my, and some other readers', questions in his most recent post.

Editing is good

2008-10-20T14:17:00.003-04:00

Perhaps you are familiar with the concept of editing. This is the idea where, after something has been written, it is gone over to improve the grammar. If done well it improves the content. Arguments and ideas are clarified, extraneous ideas, sentences, and words are removed with surgical precision.

Sometimes it seems that the value placed on editing is decreasing. I was reminded of this with the latest, hilarious vloging by Sam of Audience of Two. He's reading a book on camera, which is very exciting. It's Jack Kerouac's On The Road which I have no trouble with. I read it, and enjoyed it a couple of years ago, though I don't think I would put him all that high on my list, it was a good book, and certainly is an important one. However, it looks like Sam was reading the "Original Scroll" version. This would be the version that is, according to Amazon.com taken from the 'first full draft' that Kerouac was happy with. It is notable for being apparently raunchier, with "heightened linguistic virtuosity". I don't want to meet the person who used the term 'heightened linguistic virtuosity,' but based on their own 'word choice' I don't think I would trust their opinion. It's hard to imagine Kerouac saying "Hey man, you should read the original scroll, rather than my final published version, because it has heightened linguistic virtuosity!"

This is probably a very useful work for academics, or for huge Kerouac fans, but I think it does a disservice to those who want to read On the Road because of its wide spread influence on our language and culture. The 'Original Scroll' isn't the book that shocked America, it's not the book that a million young idealists read while traveling across country, and it's not the book that inspired everyone else who read and reacted to the book in the last fifty years. I suspect it's a good book, and it is worth reading, but I don't think it should replace what I call 'the original published work'. I also would suggest reading the book before you read the scroll, it may be too late for Sam, but it's not too late for you. It's like when in museums they have a great painting, and what is called the 'study' for that painting. You may even like the 'study' better, but you should look at the finished work too.

Also, anyone in NYC on November 6 should go to the People's Improv Theater to support Sam and his contubernal Ben, of Audience of Two, in the 2nd Annual Sketchprov festival. Tickets and information can be found here.

Public Intellectuals

2008-10-17T16:41:00.002-04:00

Reading Norman Mailer's Presidential Papers, I've been thinking about the role of intellectuals in public life. It certainly seems clear that Mailer was a public intellectual, and I was thinking that his was really the last generation to produce them. Most Americans who are referred to as public intellectuals, are really political pundits of one flavor of another whose careers are focused around politics.

Before picking up this book, my opinion on this lack had been largely negative. I felt, and still feel, that it would be a positive to have a few well-known intellectuals from outside political circles who are looked to for opinions on public affairs. The closest we have now are comedians and late-night hosts, who do a pretty good job at commenting on current events. However, they are forced by nature of their professions, to be funny. Funny is great, I love a good laugh, but it would be nice to have a few people who take it seriously but don't spend all of their time in that world.

Of course, after reading most of Mailer's book (I'm still reading it), my opinion has changed slightly. I still think it would be good to have more public intellectuals, but I can't say my passion is as strong. I recognize that Mailer's attitudes are partly a matter of his time, but I find myself spending a great deal of time admiring his prose, and disliking his ideas. Obviously, anyone who knows Mailer at all, knows about his problems with women, including stabbing his wife, but it is amazing and often disturbing to see it in action. The lowest point so far is his article on Jackie Kennedy. The complicated melange of negative attitudes towards women that exist in Mailer's mind is surprising. There are so many of them that they actually seem to compete with each other.

Now, he's also a brilliant writer, that is very clear from his powerful prose. He has some very interesting ideas about the structure of society, and the underlying attitudes that drive the public, but they are always mixed up with his ambivalent, and occasionally hostile feelings. It is really hard to find a subject for him to discuss where a bubbling stew of mixed emotions doesn't make itself evident. At the same time, his ability to make that evident is remarkable.

He is really at his best when he simply describes events, or explains himself, rather than when he tries to talk about larger ideas, or explain others. There is too much of him in his mind for him to successfully describe another person's motivations.

I have described some of my issues with him, but I cannot say enough too about my respect for his ability. Superman Comes to the Supermarket truly is a remarkable piece of reporting, and we are very lucky that the entire article is available on Esquire Magazine's website. So here it is.

Translation

2008-10-09T10:56:00.007-04:00

Today, I spotted this blog post by Lindesay Irvine over at the Guardian, on translation. He asks the excellent question "Can you even remember the name of the translator of the last foreign language book you read?" Now, I couldn't do so, but I knew where to check, and it wasn't by finding the book and looking it up. I keep a list. So I looked it up, and felt silly because I should have remembered it. It was Robert Haas, who worked with Czeslaw Milosz to translate Milosz' Treatise on Poetry which is an excellent poem in itself. I may not remember the name of every translator I read, but I do try to keep track of them, and I particularly try to remember when I find a translator who's taste seems to run with mine. For example, I have read a number of works translated from Italian by William Weaver. Now, if I see that he has translated something, it becomes a point in that works favor. I don't actively seek out his translations, but if I'm trying to decide on a book, and it has been translated by him, that's a point in its favor.

I mentioned in my last post my desire to read more works from different countries, and originally written in different languages. This necessitates reading works in translation, something which seems to be a difficult subject for many people.

I suppose there is a sense that there is something dishonest about reading work in translation, because it's not quite the original. Certainly it's not quite the original, but that doesn't mean it's not worth reading. I am fluent in English, and can muddle my way through a newspaper in French, usually pulling enough detail to follow what's being said, I also studied Latin and Ancient Greek in college, and could at the time read them well enough to explore works in the original, albeit slowly, with a dictionary, a grammar book, and a good commentary. However, I have to accept that there are many other languages out there, in which important writing appears, that I will not be able to learn. I studied just enough Sanskrit to get a sense of the unbelievable elegance of that language,and I've seen Beowulf performed in the original language (with superscript translations so that I could follow the story).

All of this has made me very aware of what we miss in translation. English is a wonderful language, but it's not the only one. Each language has its strengths and its weaknesses, and it's almost untranslatable words and concepts. Some, like Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, have very different types of sentence structure, because the words tell you how they relate to each other. In English we rely largely on the order of the words to structure our sentences. This isn't the case in all other languages. When I first picked up Latin the decreased importance of word order on the direct meaning of a sentence was an incredibly alien concept to me. The ability to use a more flexible word order to create stress and nuance remains one of the most beautiful things about that language. It can make proper translation difficult, especially of poetry. There are levels of symmetry and interconnectedness that are very difficult to replicate in English. But that's not to say one shouldn't try.

Even if you can't read Greek, Homer is still a worthwhile read. The poet Catullus can seem more familiar than many of today's academic poets. Of course, when translated badly, Homer can be one of the most boring and unpleasant experiences available to a reader, and Victorians were so uncomfortable with Catullus, that they basically translated him out of his own work. Heck, if Catullus was reading his poetry aloud on CD, it would have one of those big scary 'M's on it, warning parents that he was only for mature audiences. That would probably boost his sales.

I would love to speak about translation of contemporary works, but I've never tried that, so I can only show the conclusions about translation that my slight familiarity with ancient works has given me.

First, translating is hard work. It's a lot harder than simply being able to read and appreciate the other language. There are many tough questions to ask oneself. I would try to frame them myself, but fortunately, Lindesay Irvine's blog post at the Guardian gives me a little help. He links to Booktrust Translated Fiction, where translator Daniel Hahn is blogging the process of his latest translation. Daniel Hahn has a great statement on the big questions a translator needs to consider.

"And there are more macro-scale linguistic issues too, broad questions of tone, of cadence, of how the sentences read in English, how the whole things will be made to feel like a piece of writing in English – and yet still attached to its former self in Portuguese – and not some odd hybrid… Getting that quite right is always tricky (and particularly hard to define and describe), always a worry and potentially a problem. On the whole I find Agualusa’s sentences sit very well in English, but is that because I’m venturing too far away from the original cadences, and creating a piece of English writing no longer properly moored to its original?"

That gives you a taste, but go read the rest of it.

Second, translations are important, and can be beautiful. I like reading in translation, even as I long to be able to read the original.

Third, translations are alive. What do I mean by this? Well, it's the curse of the Victorians for those who study antiquity. Victorian language, to us, typically seems old-fashioned, and most of these old English translators of the classics translated them into even more archaic speech, so one has Romans and Greeks using 'Thee' and 'Thou' and other bits of silly Arthurian language. Maybe this was okay for them, they liked it, but to modern readers it feels stilted, and unnecessarily so.

The great Classic writers weren't writing in archaic English, they were writing in what was for them, very modern Latin or Greek. Just like Shakespeare did for English, many of them coined fresh new words. As a result, the older the translation, by and large, the less useful it is for a modern audience. Alexander Pope's translations of Homer are of far more use now to those studying Pope than those who wish to be familiar with Homer. What this means, for me, is that there is a constant market for more translators, and for updated translations. Dorothy Sayers wrote great detective stories, and made important contributions to the scholarship of Dante, but I don't think that her translations of his work are the best option for a contemporary audience. Certainly, when I decided to read Dante, and consulted a former professor of mine for a recommendation, I was told to go with Mark Musa. It was a good choice, and I recommend his editions.

Fourth, their are many different ways to translate the same work. From Classics, I've seen what I would call two major schools, literal translation, and poetic translation. This represents the constant struggle between translating every word, and attempting to capture the 'feel' of the original. Ideally, there should be some balance between the two, but it can be a good idea to determine which end of the pendulum you put more priority on, and to look for translators who agree with you.

Now, the problem with these ideas of mine is that they come from probably the only type of literature where many classic works have multiple translations some contemporaneous, and some not. Homer is the king of that hill, because he's so important, but even many lesser known classical authors have two or three translations available. The more recent a work is, the greater the possibility that there will be only one translation available.

What this means though, is that when one finds a work in translation that really resonates, not only might you want to read more by that author, but you should look at the translator. I mentioned William Weaver for me, but he's a really easy one, I would say that a sizable percentage of the works translated from Italian and available in book stores, have been translated by him. I wouldn't say most, but certainly many. Apparently many people agree with me about the quality of his work.

So there's my two cents on the value of translation (HIGH). Any particular favorite works in translation that you want to share with me? or countries from which you like to read translations?

Reading Sisyphus

2008-10-08T17:07:00.006-04:00

So here it is, October, I'm recovered from my illness, and completed enough of the things that were taking up time in my life that I can once again blog regularly.

I was reading the travails of Joe, the new literary publicity guy at Penguin.co.uk, and feeling a great deal of sympathy. Under the fully appropriate title, "How does everyone here read so quickly?" he writes of his struggles to keep up with how well read everyone at Penguin is.

It often feels like a Sisyphean task, trying to be well read. It sounds that way for Joe, and it certainly seems that way for me. It's not quite like Sisyphus of course, he would reach the top of his mountain, and the boulder would roll right down to the bottom again for him to push it back up. My boulder only goes up, but the top of the mountain is climbing a lot faster than I am.

I type about as quickly as if I were simply speaking quickly, and I read a bit faster than that, but I'm not the fastest reader out there. I am diligent, but not in that I sit down for three hours and push my way through a single book. That happens, but when it does, it's a matter of the book, more than of me. Some books will pull me through them so fast that I have to force myself to read every paragraph, others, that I like just as much, I read so slowly it's like I'm crawling physically across the page. One of the reasons that I read more than one book at a time is to capitalize on momentum. At different times I have different moods as a reader, and different books suck me in.

For example, for the past few weeks, I have been reading The Era of Franklin D. Roosevelt by Richard D. Polenberg, a really wonderful examination of F.D.R's presidency, largely through the lens of contemporary documents, at the same time though, I've read and completed about ten other books. Some of these books I've read in just one or two sittings (for example, I've already mentioned my terrible Nero Wolfe habit), and others have been read in and around those, like James Hamilton-Paterson's excellent Cooking with Fernet Branca from Europa Editions. Reading like this can be a bit chaotic I suppose, but it works for me.

Still, no matter how often I set specific goals, saying, "oh, when I read X, I will have climbed a step higher in being well-read" I get there, and it seems I've hardly moved, or worse, I've moved backwards.

There are a couple of directions I'm always trying to move in from the most focused, there is movement within an author's work, when I was young, if I liked an author, I read everything of theirs that I could get my hands on. Now, as I've gotten older, this happens less often, still, if I really like an author, I try to make it a point to read more than one of their books, and work my way to a complete set later.

The second direction is the list of authors of whom I've heard, but haven't read. I have a list as long as my arm of authors like that, and I try to find at least one of their books to read. Sometimes this moves them into the above mentioned category, sometimes not. Right now for example I'm also reading The Presidential Papers of Norman Mailer (Is there a theme in my current reading? maybe a little...), I may decide that this meets the initial criteria of having read some Mailer, I might not though, as it seems to be out of print and lesser known.

The third direction is the most vague, being for larger categories in which I would like to have read. This includes my desire to read one book by an author of each country out there. Almost certainly an impossible task, but a worthy direction. There is also my desire to read works of different periods or stylistic movements, modern, post-modern, Victorian, etc. Many of these categories expand the more I learn. As a tangent to reading from different countries in general, I also want to read more contemporary international fiction. (nota bene: I came to this desire before the permanent secretary of the Nobel Prize for Literature went off on his high horse.) I've been helped in this goal by the discovery of Europa Editions, who make it their goal to provide good English translations of contemporary European fiction.

It's so commonly discussed, that the observation is almost trite, but I strongly agree with the statement that the more one knows, the more one knows that one doesn't know. It's been said a million times, in many different ways, and it's still true. Every time I learn something knew, it opens up new realms of things that I should know, and I really enjoy that. I don't think ignorance is half as blissful as the opening up of new realms for discovery.

Watch this space

2008-09-24T11:17:00.003-04:00

Due to illness and busyness, it seems unlikely that I will have the time to post properly until October. But don't go away, because I will return.

Until then, here are a few interesting links.

The 'Real Reason' that Rushdie was snubbed for the Booker short list.

The MAGIC of Alan Carr

Bookmarks on FIRE!

Congrats Tony Kushner!

2008-09-17T23:48:00.001-04:00

This is just a note to say
that Tony Kushner won the inaugural
Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award.

It couldn't have happened to a better playwright.

The Brooklyn Book Festival

2008-09-15T09:02:00.004-04:00

I had a great time wandering around the Brooklyn Book Festival yesterday. I would have had an even better time if it had not been hellishly hot and humid. I do not sunburn easily, and I picked up my first real sunburn of 2008.

The talks were interesting, but I found it difficult, with the heat to sit in one place, in direct sunlight, for very long. Still, I did catch a sizable chunk of the conversation between Adrian Tomine and John Wray. I hadn't heard of Wray before, but am interested in reading some of his work after hearing him talk. I already knew that I liked Tomine's work. It was a great conversation, full of interesting information about international influences, particularly in comics.

My favorite part of the festival was all of the representation by small publishers. I found some interesting things and people over at the Verso Books table. They will soon be publishing a graphic novel biography of Che Guevara, written and drawn by Spain Rodriguez, and I got my hands on a copy. It's excellent, and I'm enjoying watching graphic novels expand in the direction of history and biography of historical figures.

On the subject of books as beautiful objects, I loved the booth for Chin Music Press, who describe themselves quite accurately as 'publishers of beautiful and engaging books and media.'

Both of these publishers, and a number of other groups, had information on upcoming readings and events, and I have to sort through them all, because I want to go to all of them and many occur at the same time in disparate parts of the city.

Also, in a bit of silliness, I wore this shirt. It clearly proved to be the right choice, and helped start a number of interesting conversations. If you're in the area next year, I highly recommend the Brooklyn Book Festival.

David Foster Wallace

2008-09-15T09:00:00.001-04:00

I've never read any of his books, but his loss still seems quite sad. One day I plan to read Infinite Jest, which sounds like something I'd enjoy. To learn more about Wallace, try just about any newspaper book section, and at least half of the links on my Blog Roll.

Brooklyn Book Festival

2008-09-12T08:42:00.002-04:00

This Sunday in Brooklyn Borough Hall, is the Brooklyn Book Festival. I'm really looking forward to it.

As a quick preview, Gothamist has a great interview with one of the organizers, Johnny Temple, reader, publisher, and bassist in the band Girls Against Boys.

Beyond the Cover

2008-09-12T08:02:00.001-04:00

I'm all for liking books as physical objects as well as containers of stories and information, but dressing to match your book? That seems a little much to me.

Should They Stay, or Should They Go?

2008-09-10T07:20:00.000-04:00

Your old books that is.

If they stay, there will be trouble (you'll drown in books), if they go it will be double (you might run out of things to read).

I think I'll stop committing crimes against the Clash now. What I'm really asking is, what do you do with books when you're done with them.

Aside from books you take out from the library, if you're a heavy library user then good for you!

I'm talking about the books you own. Do you hang on to everything you've enjoyed, or just a few that are extra special? And what do you do with the ones you don't save?

I hang on to far too many books, and need to start getting rid of them. I have a sizable pile of books to get rid of, but they've been there for months. I've gotten rid of a few by offering them to friends. They'll go through them, consider a few, and then decide they don't want them. I don't blame them, I didn't want them either.

When I lived closer to a used book store, the answer was easy, I would periodically bag up a bunch of books and take them over. I ended up with store credit, but store credit at a bookstore is useful for me. Now I have to take a real trip if I want to take these books to the used book store, I can't do it on a whim, I need to carefully plan a part of my day around it. Maybe I'll do it this weekend, but I've said that before.

Closing Tabs

2008-09-05T10:05:00.004-04:00

I have way too many tabs open right now. Very interesting things that I wanted to post about. Instead I'm just going to list them all here.

Tyler Bender Book Co. are the makers of the coolest notebooks out there. Each one is unique because they're made from old hardcover books.

Poets.org has an incredible range of poetry available. One of the best parts is all of the audio recordings. I listened to Langston Hughes talk about and then read The Negro Speaks of Rivers, and was thrilled.

Driving across the country to promote reading sounds like a lot of fun, and a great idea. David Kipen of The Big Read, is doing it, and blogging about it.

Books are more than just entertainment

2008-09-04T12:41:00.005-04:00

To quote Richard Wright, "books are weapons." I really need to read some of his books.

I think that we as a culture know this. It can lead us to love books, or to fear them. Books can help us fight against injustice, and remind us that we are not alone when we struggle. They can educate us and give us the tools we need to advance ourselves and our ideas. They also enable authors like Richard Wright to be heard long after they're physical presence is gone.

In that regard, there are two links I wanted to pass on.

First, is this brief tribute to Richard Wright, who would be 100 years old today.

Second is this longer article about Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, publisher of 'The Little Blue Books.' Haldeman-Julius believed strongly in making books available and affordable to everyone. He was referred to as the Henry Ford of literature, and like Henry Ford, he was fairly eccentric, though not in the same ways.

Literary Coincidence

2008-09-02T14:34:00.005-04:00

It's interesting how once you become aware of something, it keeps popping up. At the moment, I'm referring to The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa. Here's the little chain that's brought up what seems to be a fairly obscure (for English speakers) Portuguese novel.

As you know, I've been reading The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine. Last night I finished it. Tonight or tomorrow I will begin to write my review of it for the VQR contest.

Early this afternoon, I discovered The Drawbridge, which looks like a very interesting literary journal. In browsing the current issue, I saw Rabih Alameddine had written an article for them, so I read it. In it he told me yet another story, the beautiful intricacy that is Fernando Pessoa. I'll let him tell you, since I couldn't do it justice.

Then, just now, I learned that Philip Pullman has provided a list of 40 favorite books to the Timesonline for the Waterstone's Writer's Table. We already know that I'm fond of book lists, so I went over his. I haven't read that many items on it, but I agree with him on the ones I have read. What else did I see on his list, but Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet. That's two recommendations in one day. And from authors I like. So that has decided me, I want to read this book. Now I just have to find a copy, I hope to fit it into my to read pile sometime next year.

Nearing the Finish Line

2008-09-01T23:14:00.004-04:00

About 50 pages left to go in The Hakawati. I finally realized why it's been taking me so long. It's so good that I don't want it to end. This happens to me occasionally, though only with certain really good books. I have to become really fond of the characters, in addition to really enjoying the story.

I've also become completely obsessed with Georges Simenon. I've read four of his books so far in the last month or two, and I want more. Fortunately, there are a lot more out there, unfortunately, books cost money. I know, it's a terrible and complicated formula. There are two types of Simenon books out there at the moment, both excellent, though different. The Inspector Maigret mysteries, being published by Penguin in cute, oddly shaped little books. And the New York Review of Books is republishing a lot of his excellent, more literary character studies. Both make for attractive books.

Any new author obsessions out there for you?

UPDATE: Apparently, an interest in Simenon is particularly appropriate on Labor Day weekend. David L. Ulin explains over at the LA Times.

Inspiring Readers

2008-08-29T20:11:00.002-04:00

One person can make a huge difference in the lives of others. When it comes to fostering reading in children, a good librarian can make a huge difference. Queens librarian Sueli Zaqem is a good librarian. She inspired the kids in her summer reading program to read more than twice the number of books this summer as last summer, and donated her hair to Locks of Love. It's always nice to see a situation where everyone wins. The kids read more, and some sick kids will get to have hair. Also, the library gets some positive press in the news, which will hopefully encourage other parents to involve their children in their local libraries summer reading program.

An Experiment in Literacy

2008-08-27T09:49:00.003-04:00

A small group of NYC public schools are embarking on an experiment in developing early literacy, the New York City Core Knowledge Early Literacy Project. This NYTimes article describes it.

I'm curious. I'm deeply concerned with encouraging literacy, and this idea sounds good to me from the rough description given in the article. Of course, the current program 'balanced literacy' also appeals to me. On a philosophical basis, 'balanced literacy' appeals to me more.

But I'm not the target audience. I've been a lifelong passionate reader, and I can thank my parents for that. I don't instinctively know how to make reading appeal to someone who is resistant to it, or struggling with it. Also, my understanding of 'cultural literacy,' that there are some things in our culture that one should know, and this will make it easier to function within our culture, makes sense to me. Certain common experiences are an important part of our culture, and they make our language richer, but if you don't have them, they can leave you confused. I really like how the Core Knowledge Foundation explains the theory in their FAQ.

"There is no incompatibility between teaching a core curriculum and adapting instruction to the needs of individual students. Moreover, even as we look to teachers to bring out the best in each child as a learner, we also ask them to recognize the needs of each child as part of a larger community. All communities require some common ground. The community of the classroom requires, in particular, that its members share some common knowledge, because this knowledge makes communication and progress in learning possible."

Still, I'm nervous about trying a new tack like this. If it's a success, then it's great for the kids who are doing it, but what if it's not? Those children will be further hampered in developing their reading skills. There are many people, from teachers and parents, up to principals and the schools chancellor, people far more qualified than I am on the subject, who will be devoting themselves to making sure that it works. I admire them. The risks are there, minimized, but if it works... If it works the benefits could be outstanding.

Author Labels, take 2

2008-08-26T12:31:00.003-04:00

After my earlier post on what it means to label authors based on one aspect of who they are, I found this excellent post on the Guardian Book Blog, by 'lesbian author' Josey Henley-Einion.

She very effectively sums up the complex issues behind labeling authors. She is both a lesbian, and an author, so she says she will accept being labeled a 'lesbian author.' She backs it up with an excellent principle.

I won't be shoved into a box, shelved on a section, categorised and pinned to a board like a dead moth. I will flit and fly and occasionally land on a flower or a carcass. I will disguise myself as a butterfly and then trick you by coming out at night to hang around your lamp and disturb you with my fluttering. I am a flowing river marking the divide between two states in this split society of ours, a tsunami crashing through your preconceptions and obliterating the gender/genre notices in the bookshop. OK, maybe that last one was a bit much, but you get the picture. I am a lesbian author but I am so much more. In the words of the main character of my novel: I am not a cardboard cutout.

Of course, it does help get books published, and an argument can be made that it helps to sell them too. Almost anything else I could say about her post would simply be quoting her, so just go and read it.

Cairo meets Chicago

2008-08-25T13:41:00.000-04:00

I have previously mentioned Alaa Al Aswany, author of The Yacoubian Building. Now I am pleased to learn that he has a new book coming out September 1, Chicago, about members of the Egyptian community in Chicago. It's all described in this interview in The Guardian. It's a great interview, and I can't wait to read the new book.

Hardcore Writers

2008-08-25T08:45:00.001-04:00

Gerrit over at the 2log, has challenged me to blog about the Guys Lit Wire post about the five most hardcore writers. And of course, I will.

First though, I wanted to mention the blog Guys Lit Wire. I had never heard of it before, and I am grateful to Gerrit for linking me to it, because it is a great blog. One of my concerns, as a guy who reads, is how rare that seems to be among my peers, particularly as I get older. Here I'll quote their excellent mission statement.

Guys Lit Wire exists solely to bring literary news and reviews to the attention of teenage boys and the people who care about them. We are more than happy to welcome female readers - but our main goal is to bring the attention of good books to guys who might have missed them. The titles will be new or old and on every subject imaginable. We guarantee new posts every Monday through Friday and have a list of twenty-three individual scheduled contributors plus several additional occasional posters all of whom have different literary likes and dislikes. We hope to provide something for everyone and will strive to accomplish that goal.

That is definitely admirable, and what's more they succeed. I read through a number of their short reviews, and they've been excellent. If you need to find a good book recommendation for a teenage boy, I think they should be one of your first stops.

Now to the top five list. I like lists of five, it's a good criteria to create discussion. It will almost never be accurate, there's too many excellent and terrible authors out there to ever be able to get a universally agreed upon top five on any subject.

It's even better when you throw in the term 'hardcore'. Check out those definitions. Do any of them capture the current colloquial use of the word? Not really. You don't say, "Hemingway went all over the world reporting on war and hunting animals, that dude is unswervingly committed!" Ok, you can, but it doesn't mean the same thing.

The Urban Dictionary is better. Their definitions are closer. I particularly like #2. Most of their definitions are about the hardcore music scene, which I would argue is the origin of the usage we're looking at. The desire to say that something is 'hardcore' in similar situations to words like 'kick ass,' 'bad ass,' definitely comes from the musical genre which, for long, is known as 'hardcore punk rock and roll.' Boy that's a mouthful isn't it? That's because 'rock and roll' gets shortened to 'rock' when attached to 'punk' and gets chopped off when attached to 'hardcore punk', and then 'hardcore punk' is so hardcore that it chopped its 'punk' off, and became just 'hardcore.' Of course, 'punk' also was so punk that it chopped its 'rock' off, and 'rock' ditched 'and roll' because extra syllables are lame. But enough about that.

Right, so 'hardcore' writers. I've been writing for seven paragraphs, and I haven't made any suggestions of my own. I found the Guys Lit Wire list pretty interesting, but I can't say I agreed with any of their suggestions. I'm sure Hemingway would make a lot of people's lists, but not mine. I find him kind of sad. He's a great writer, but that doesn't make his life particularly admirable, and I'm not a fan of big game hunting. I don't think that killing animals for the fun of it makes you cool or tough. Though I do think that driving an ambulance, in or out of war, does.

Xenophon was an interesting choice, but I think when you get to classical authors, the question becomes, compared to what? Almost all of them are more hardcore than any of us. Xenophon was pretty tough, but I think Julius Caesar has him beat. This guy everyone thought of in his youth as a bit of a pansy, became governor of southern Gaul, where he shared the same hardships as his soldiers, and conquered what amounts to all of modern France, as well as Switzerland, parts of Germany, and England. For the technology they had then, that's pretty good. He then went home and conquered Italy, fighting the guy who was supposedly the greatest military mind of the day. Oh yeah, and he wrote about it all, in the third person, because that was more modest.

There's also Thucydides. He was, as far as I can tell, Zbigniew Herbert's pick for most hardcore. I'll let Herbert argue it for me with his poem, Why the Classics?*.

1
In the fourth book of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides tells among other things
the story of his unsuccessful expedition

among long speeches of chiefs
battles sieges plague
dense net of intrigues of political endeavours
the episode is like a pin
in a forest

the Greek colony Amphipolis
fell into the hands of Brasidos
because Thucydides was late with relief

for this he paid his native city
with lifelong exile

exiles of all times
know what price that is

2
generals of the most recent wars
if a similar affair happens to them
whine on their knees before posterity
praise their heroism and innocence

they accuse their subordinates
envious colleagues
unfavourable winds

Thucydides says only
that he had seven ships
it was winter
and he sailed quickly

3
if art for its subject
will have a broken jar
a small broken soul
with a great self pity

what will remain after us
will be like lovers’ weeping
in a small dirty hotel
when wall-paper dawns

Hardcore, right? Herbert is one of my favorite poets, and that is my favorite poem of his.

Now if we're looking at the military as hardcore, then we're talking B.H. Liddell Hart, the military theorist/historian, and author of Strategy among others. To understand just how many people died because of who had and hadn't read this book, I will give you one quote.

The British would have been able to prevent the greatest parts of their defeats if they had paid attention to the modern theories expounded by Liddell Hart before the war.

Which war? and who said that? That would be WWII and the speaker? Field Marshall Rommell. Basically, after WWI, Liddell Hart, having witnessed the shocking capabilities of the new technology (tanks, planes, etc.) wrote a number of books trying to warn his country of what could be done, and what they would have to do. The British didn't read it. The Germans did. I consider this to be a great tragedy, and can only imagine how it affected Liddell Hart when Rommell admitted it. Still, I believe that qualifies Liddell Hart as hardcore.

I think Liddell Hart is hardcore partly because he failed. If the right people had listened to him, we might not have noticed him. I've read the book, and some other writings, and he's also a good read.

So I'm at three right? Julius Caesar, Thucydides, and B.H. Liddell Hart. Let's try to be a little less old dead guy, huh? Well, maybe one more.

Surviving against impossible odds is pretty hardcore, don't you think? For that I would recommend author and holocaust survivor, Primo Levi. Levi wrote all sorts of books, in addition to his survival of the holocaust. To my mind that's the most hardcore thing about him. He's really a stand-in for all holocaust survivors here. They made their way through one of the most horrific experiences in known history, such that no adjective can do it justice, saw the things they saw, and came out of it. Most like Levi managed to hold on to their compassion and humanity, if anything they became more human, and more humane. How do you do that? That is hardcore.

And one to go. I'm not ranking these authors within my five, so this one isn't any more or less than any of the others.

Salman Rushdie. One word, fatwa. Seriously, that is some mind destroying stuff. A powerful religious group, with fanatical followers has demanded your death, and some of your translators and publishers have actually been killed. He not only doesn't give up, he continues to say what he believes. That's pretty hardcore.

*from Selected Poems by Zbigniew Herbert, trans. Czeslaw Milosz, and Peter Dale Scott.

Kindling

2008-08-21T08:47:00.004-04:00

Perhaps you have already encountered Amazon's Kindle. I have, and I'm distinctly ambivalent about it. While I read a tremendous amount on the internet, I like books as physical objects, and the experience of reading a book is one that I doubt I could do without.

My ideal use of the kindle would be as a research tool. I think that there are very few academics who would turn down a small device that contained up to 200 different books relevant to their work. It would certainly make it easier to go to the coffee shop to write a paper, if you don't have to carry 15 books with you, let alone 200.

I don't like the idea of reading for fun on the thing. There was an article, ages ago now, about how the Kindle will only succeed when it can do all the things a book can do, including survive being ripped in half or accidentally dipped in the bathtub. Books can survive that, but the pages will get a little wrinkly, and it's best if you get at them with a hair dryer almost immediately. No, of course I'm not speaking from experience. I would add a few other problems. I like to read on the subway, and occasionally walking down the street. This is easy to do with a book. Few people are liable to attempt to grab the book out of my hand and run off. Books rarely have particularly high resale values. On the other hand, grabbing a Kindle would approach the profit margin of grabbing an iPhone.

But now there's an additional host of things to worry about the Kindle thanks to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I remember the early days of the MP3 revolution, and while I am content to purchase music in CD form and upload it, or purchase the odd track from iTunes, I certainly agree that the music industry did not, and still has not, handled the whole thing well.

Should the eBook movement takes over, I'll probably stick with real books. Even if it means I become like those guys who still buy their music on vinyl. "It just sounds better," they say. "It just looks better," I'll say. And kids everywhere will think we're all crazy.

Our Continuing Story

2008-08-18T22:07:00.005-04:00

I haven't disappeared, just been reading. I meant to advance write some posts this weekend, but have fallen to the deadly blogger's block.*

The Hakawati is definitely proving to be an interesting book, and I look forward to writing a review when I've finished it. I'll put some of my thoughts here too. I'm currently about 250 pages into it, and would probably have finished it already but for a few things. One, since I want to write a review for the VQR competition, I'm only reading it when I can REALLY focus on it, and take notes as needed. Two, it's an enormous hardcover book, so I'm not carrying it around with me. I'm only reading it at home. The unwieldiness has long been my problem with hardcovers, and this one is the size of a small dictionary. Not too small a dictionary though, still a pretty big one. It's about the size of the Cryptonomicon hardcover, for those of you familiar with Neal Stephenson.

This has resulted in a slight variation on my typical, two-four books at once reading habit. Right now I have a traveling book, and the home book. There have been several traveling books, all slim paperback volumes suitable for tucking into a pocket and whipping out when the situation calls for words in a line. There's also the half-finished poetry book sitting on my coffee table, staring at me, and the recently started short story collection telling me that if I finish it, or am seen reading it in public, I will be magically transformed into a PBR drinking hipster (yuck!). Still, I can't resist its siren song because of my deep and abiding love for anything written/drawn by Art Spiegelman. I saw him speak in 2002 and will never forget it. My eternal regret is that: one, I didn't talk to him personally and two, I did not have anything on me for him to sign.

*Note: Blogger's block should not be confused with Tetris. I've only played a little bit of Tetris this week.

Go Out and See Something

2008-08-14T18:31:00.003-04:00

No one can live on books alone, I have friends in the performing arts and as a result their are two different live performances that I recommend you go see.

First, Sam and Ben of Audience of Two fame will be performing their sketch comedy show Fantasy Airlines at The Peoples Improv Theater(the Pit). Tickets can be purchased here. I saw the first performance of this show and it is hilarious. Sam and Ben are an excellent comedy team.
There are only two performances left, August 23, and August 30th, so buy your tickets before they run out.

Second, and just as important, my friends at Theatre of the Expendable(TotE) have a play in the 12th Annual New York City International Fringe Festival. The play is called Mare Cognitum and I saw it last night. It is a superb play by young playwright David McGee. David has a way with language that makes listening to his characters converse a distinctly rewarding experience. It's a fun, wacky, and moving piece of theater, but I'm not a theater reviewer, so I'm not going to go into too much detail, just check it out. All of the information you need about the show can be found at the TotE website. Because it's the fringe festival, the number of performances are limited, with four remaining.

And of course, if you arrive early for either of these shows you can always be that cool person sitting in the corner with a book until the show starts. I know I was.

Bored at Work

2008-08-13T08:21:00.000-04:00

Try Read At Work, from the NZ Book Council.

It's a fake window's desk top that lets you look at "PowerPoint" slide shows that are actually poems and stories.

Finding Forster

2008-08-12T13:27:00.003-04:00

I was going to write about reviews today, but that will have to wait. My attention has been drawn in a different direction.

I fell for Forster's writing in the first summer after college when I read Maurice and A Room of One's Own. I'd read and enjoyed A Passage to India in school, and liked it, but it fostered no great passion for him. Someday I plan to reread it.

When I develop a passion for an author, I always like to know that there is a lot out there to read. With Forster, that's not really the case. There are a number of books out there, but it's not a vast quantity. Because of this, I am even more excited that a new book of his writings has been released. The BBC Talks of E.M. Forster, 1929–1960 which is reviewed here by Zadie Smith for the New York Review of Books.

It is of course the NYRB that makes me a hypocrite, and timing that helps me avoid hypocrisy. I was going to write about my general dislike and disinterest in reviews. For books and movies, I do not go to published reviews for my recommendations. However, here I am, having read a review and very enthusiastic about acquiring the book. Thank god I didn't use particularly harsh language to criticize reviews, a good inspiration just at the time when I am planning on writing one myself.

But back to Forster. Here is Zadie Smith's explanation of him.

He didn't lean rightward with the years, or allow nostalgia to morph into misanthropy; he never knelt for the Pope or the Queen, nor did he flirt (ideologically speaking) with Hitler, Stalin, or Mao; he never believed the novel was dead or the hills alive, continued to read contemporary fiction after the age of fifty, harbored no special hatred for the generation below or above him, did not come to feel that England had gone to hell in a hand-basket, that its language was doomed, that lunatics were running the asylum, or foreigners swamping the cities.

I don't know about you, but I was struck by how rare and admirable this makes him even today. The flaws he lacked are still very common.

I was also struck by his goals for his radio show, which strongly resemble mine for this blog. Of course as he is Forster, I can't pounce upon a single, quotable marching cry. Of course, there is an easy way to get the sense of it. You can scroll back up and read the article. I recommend it.

The Orwell Diaries

2008-08-11T06:40:00.000-04:00

For those who don't already know, The Orwell Prize is publishing George Orwell's diaries as a blog, each entry posted 70 years to the day after it was written. Similar to the Pepys blog I mentioned earlier.

I'm going to be following along, and thought you might like to as well. If you've never read anything by Orwell, I highly recommend him. Animal Farm and 1984 are the ones everyone reads in school, but there are lots of others. I recommend Down and Out in Paris and London which comes with the Anthony Bourdain seal of approval.

VQR Young Reviewer Contest, Part the First

2008-08-08T18:58:00.005-04:00

I mentioned the VQR Young Reviewer Contest in my post Old Fashioned Novels. I've decided both to enter the contest, and to track my progress on this blog.

First step was to pick a book to read and review. I went to the excellent independent book store, BookCourt. Unfortunately I was distracted by their 'buy 2 get one free' sale on NYRB books. I left with more books, but not a qualifying book.

Still, I have high hopes that I will enjoy the books I got.

Anyway, finding a book to review, take two.

I was trying to pass some time near Lincoln Center earlier today, and went into the B&N to browse. I prefer independent book stores, but in a pinch any book store will do. I went to their extensive new fiction selection, and almost immediately (or, after 15 minutes of careful browsing) I found it.

The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine!

It drew me in immediately. I have previously mentioned that, up to a point, I am willing to judge a book by it's cover, and this one is great. Also when I opened it up to read the description on the inside flap of the dust jacket I saw strong praise from Junot Diaz. Diaz' recommendation certainly means a lot.

I'd also previously blogged about first lines, and I think I have a new favorite of the moment. It's not really a first sentence but a first paragraph that would drown inside the first sentence of Tristram Shandy.

Listen. Allow me to be your god. Let me take you on a journey beyond imagining. Let me tell you a story.

I had failed to mention, in my post about opening lines, my love of the openings of epic poetry, like The Aeneid's "Arma Viremque Cano."*

I love when authors reference this style and open with some similar exhortation to the gods, the muses, or the readers. Alameddine's is perfect.

*I will not here discuss my desire to persuade Yankees Second Baseman Robinson Cano to name a child 'Arma Viremque'. That would be undignified, and he certainly wouldn't do it.**

**Still, it would be awesome...

Reading Passions

2008-08-07T15:36:00.003-04:00

I like non-fiction, although, unlike most men out of college, I read more fiction than non-fiction.

One of the things that I like about non-fiction is when someone is really passionate about their subject matter. When they really care, it comes through. In Ta-Nehisi Coates' playlist on Papercuts, I have found that. I'm far from an expert in rap music, though I like a lot of what I've heard. His descriptions of the ten songs he selected really makes me want to go out and listen to those songs, and read his book.

This is the first of their playlist series that I've really enjoyed, and it's specifically because of Coates' passionate, and deeply personal relationship with these songs.

NYRB Sale

2008-08-07T00:00:00.002-04:00

As I have mentioned previously, I am a big fan of the New York Review of Books Classics. Every book I've read that's been published by them has ranged from enjoyable to excellent, an honor shared only with Hesperus Press and The Dalkey Archive. Maybe it's a small press thing.

But here's the important news, and another example of why I shouldn't visit their site. They are having a summer sale. They've put together a number of different collections with some fairly impressive discounts.

Old Fashioned Novels

2008-08-06T18:06:00.009-04:00

"I have a theory about Mr. Kates. He talks the way people talked before he was born, therefore he must read old-fashioned novels."
Phoebe Gunther, in The Silent Speaker by Rex Stout

That's always been one of those quotes that stuck with me. All of my life, but particularly as a teenager, others have commented on the way I speak. Whether it was the kid in my history class asking how long it had been since I came to NYC from the south, or the random people who have thought I was English. This despite the fact that I am a native New Yorker. They didn't ask me these things because I had the accent for one place or the other, but because I used words, and methods of speech that seemed unusual to them. The strange becomes the foreign. And I do speak differently than a lot of people. I use big words, often anachronistic ones, and I use old fashioned turns of phrase.

I have this on my mind because I recently learned about the Virginia Quarterly Review young reviewer contest. I was tempted by it, and I thought I might try to write up a quick review. This in spite of the fact that I don't really like book reviews. Then I ran into a snag. They require that the book have been published after January 1, 2008. I have finished 72 books so far this year, and I am currently reading four more. None of them meets that qualification.

Even so, I have been making an effort to bring myself more up-to-date with my reading choice. I've been reading Murakami, Chabon, Junot Diaz, and Ha Jin. All of whom have written fairly recently, but I've not read anything by them that qualifies. I'm handicapped by my dislike of carrying bulky hardbacks around. I prefer trades. I was excited about Yiddish Policeman's Union from the moment that I first learned about it, but I only read it this year, because I waited for it to come out in paperback.

Of course, I've also backslid into my comfort zone, I've read a bunch of Graham Greene, with G.K. Chesterton, John Buchan, and Isaac Bashevis Singer mixed in*. Not to mention reread a number of Rex Stout novels, including the one quoted above.

Realizing that I haven't even read anything that qualifies for this contest, I'm now determined to do so. The question is, what will I read?

This is made even more difficult by the further stipulation in the contest rules:

Please keep in mind the readership of VQR and the type of reviews we publish. We will be looking not only to see if the style of the writing will appeal to our readers but also whether the book reviewed will appeal.

So now I've skimmed the descriptions of the last few issues, this seems even tougher. I shall have to do some real bookstore browsing to come up with something good. Any recommendations?

*one of these things is not like the other...

I'm Reading on a Jet Plane

2008-08-05T23:02:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I'm not actually reading on a plane. But I was, in July. I meant to post about how much I enjoy reading on planes before I left on my trip, but with all of the things I had to do to prepare for my trip, I didn't have time. Of course one of the things I had to do was decide which books to travel with. I changed my mind on that one constantly, right up to the moment that I got in the car to the airport.

Still, now that reading on a plane is fresh in my mind, I can say a few things about it. First off, I love reading while traveling. Planes, buses, trains and the like are all excellent places to fit in a few hours of reading. I only wish I could read in cars, and I often try to, but eventually I start to get a little bit carsick, and stop. Buses are fine, but cars get to me.

Before my flight I'd been thinking that planes were the best place for intensive reading, if just because they take the longest, by and large this is true, but having just flown, I think that trains are the best. This has to do largely with space and light.

Other than riding the subway, or piling too many people into a friends' car, planes are the most cramped method of travel. Being too cramped can make things quite difficult. The other problem is light. At a certain point on most international flights, they decide to create an enforced nighttime, you can use your seat light, but all the other lights go dark. Some seat lights are better than others, but this can be quite difficult if you didn't bring a book light. Even if you did one it can be hard to shake the feeling that you are keeping your fellow passengers awake.

Trains on the other hand, and here I don't mean subway cars, but trains where everyone sits down, are usually much less full, and even when they are, there is more room. Also while it can get dark, it's not the same encouraged bedtime kind of dark that you get on planes. Also, because the travel time is shorter, they are less fatiguing, which is also a real positive.

As far as the comforts of reading go, trains are one of my real favorites. But my reading agenda for the summer includes one simple requirement, a hammock. Before the summer is out I intend to spend at least one day reading in a hammock in the shade.

Favorite Opening Line

2008-07-31T10:09:00.000-04:00

Over at the Telegraph's book blog, James Higgs, spurred on by a colleague, creates what I think is one of the best potential memes out there. Favorite opening line to a novel.

His comes from Anthony Burgess' Earthly Powers a book that I now need to read.

Mine is a tough call. Rex Stout is always good for a quick, evocative opening line, like this one from If Death Ever Slept:

It would not be strictly true to say that Wolfe and I were not speaking that Monday morning in May.

He's got a number of good ones like that, but I can't say any one of them is my favorite. Of course, mystery writers are almost required to have enticing opening sentences, it's a genre thing.

Then there's Camus' famous opening to The Stranger:

Maman died today.

Although perhaps that needs the whole opening paragraph to really qualify.

Either way, my favorite of the moment is probably from Tristram Shandy:

I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly consider'd how much depended upon what they were then doing;-that not only the production of a rational Being was concern'd in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;-and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost:- Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,-I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that, in which the reader is likely to see me.

Technically, that is one sentence, and I love it. Yes, I like my language a tad more Ciceronian than most people these days. However, it's not just the achievement of that monstrous sentence. It's also hilarious. Shandy lets his readers know precisely what they are in for, a long, digressive, bawdy piece of narration, all concerned in the history and origins of his main character.

So that's my favorite, what are yours?

Cover story

2008-07-30T13:07:00.001-04:00

Books are trying to find their audience. Anyone who works in publishing knows that 'you can't judge a book by its cover' is not all that widely followed. If anything, you can take a good shot at judging a book by its cover. Covers after all are designed with an audience in mind. This is why 'Chick Lit' which doesn't ever seem to have a section in book stores, unless it's the table labeled 'Beach Reads', always has covers that are virtually interchangeable. They contain some bright pink, a part of, but rarely all of, a woman's body in silhouette, and perhaps a cocktail. Don't tell me that this is designed to be picked up by the hipster guy who's got a used copy of Naked Lunch conspicuously sticking out of his back pocket. This is just the most blatant example. Everyone knows it who buys many books. I know that I can often stand in front of a bookshelf at random, eyes unfocused, and from color, shape, and pattern, pick out a book that I have either read, or would like to read.

Now, I'm not protesting against this. It can be very helpful. It can also be very wrong. One of my favorite authors is Terry Pratchett, but as I've gotten older I've become less and less fond of the covers of his books, the same holds true for a lot of Speculative Fiction. In England, they had a great idea. For certain authors, with a wider following, they do different covers. You can by Harry Potter with the 'juvenile' or 'adult' covers. The 'adult' covers are a little more elegant, a little less colorful and cartoon-y. The same is true for Terry Pratchett. When I was in Scotland, one of the first things I did was purchase a few of these adult cover Pratchett's, I love his writing, and reread one or another of his books almost every year, now I have a few that I also think look pretty good on my shelf. I encourage American publishers to follow the Brits' lead.

It's also important to remember that sometimes, unthinkable as it seems, the publishers get the audience completely wrong. Every so often it doesn't hurt to pick up a book who's cover doesn't thrill you, and actually look at the writing. You might end up finding something special that would otherwise have escaped you.

Update: I'm not the only one talking about book covers today. For a much more in depth examination of 'Chick Lit' covers, check out Diane Shipley's latest piece at The Guardian.

Author Labels

2008-07-29T16:31:00.002-04:00

I've been doing some thinking about author labels. By this I mean the terms used to describe authors as being within a subgroup, like 'Gay Author, Jewish Author, African American Author."

This started when I was reading The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris by Edmund White. White discusses this labeling while talking about the history of American authors from minority groups coming to Paris to write. He described how they, and certain gay, French authors, avoided being labeled in this fashion, and objected to the idea of being so labeled. He doesn't agree with this and proudly labels himself as a 'gay author'.

Before I read his thesis, I was firmly on the side against such labeling. I saw it as a means of limiting an author's audience, relegating their work to a small specialty shelf in the corner of the book store or library, where it won't encounter those not already interested in that community. Further, it has a history of being used to intentionally limit those books to a specific audience. The shelf I see most in bookstores is the 'African American Literature' section. How many white people do you see browsing that section? How many great books are hiding in there, waiting for a wider audience? A very few, and a lot.

White softened my view but I don't think he quite changed it. I liked The Flaneur a lot, and his pride in his identity helped to create the book. If all being labeled a 'gay author' meant was that he was not hiding the fact that he was gay, then I'm all for it. But I don't think that's what it means. It means he has given them an excuse to put his book in the special interest section, 'gay literature' or 'queer literature' or whatever label a bookstore uses to indicate that a book is for people who are interested in the genre. And then, people who are interested in, let's say Paris, the main subject of the book, won't find it.

In this interview, Tony Kushner handles the problem in an interesting way. He identifies as an 'American author' a 'Jewish author' and a 'gay author'. I like this. No one is just one thing. In my opinion Kushner is also a 'moved-to-New-York-and-it-will-always-be-with-him author' but that doesn't work well when typed.

By encouraging several different labels, Kushner makes it harder to relegate him to the specialty shelves. Kushner also points out that, when writers like Roth and Bellow were avoiding the label 'Jewish author', they were doing so because prejudice at the time was stronger, and to be a 'Jewish author' or some other author with a qualification applied to 'author' made them less of an 'American author' and thus to be taken less seriously. Perhaps it's still true, though I think less so.

The real problem these days isn't the authors labeling themselves. That's fine and positive. The problem is when the genre gets printed on the book, on the spine or near the bar code, and then the author gets stuck in their special section. Edmund White would respond that the author shouldn't try to hide who they are on account of this, and I agree. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Authors should describe themselves however they want, and the more authors produce quality writing within a given 'section' the more their work will stand out. In this day and age, with bookstores struggling, it's hard to tell the bookstores to take a step away from a practice that has long helped them stay profitable, but it'd be nice if they let the 'specialty' books out to play more often.

The New York Review of Books, plus Yeats

2008-07-25T10:38:00.005-04:00

Well, after a longish trip to Scotland (leaving me with the desire to write a post about reading and traveling, after all, EVERYONE else is doing it), I'm back.

This is just a quick note to self, and a caution for the rest of you. If you feel that there are already too many books that you want to read, stay away from the New York Review of Books blog. Every time I look at their site, my list expands.

They only make it harder by publishing books that are physically quite appealing. So far, I have not picked up a book of theirs that I didn't like, or love.

Also, while I'm linking things. Bookslut comments on a NYTimes article about the Yeats exhibit at The National Library of Ireland. I saw that exhibit earlier this year, and it was wonderful. Everyone should take Bookslut up on their suggestion, and listen to the free readings online. I'm excited about the possibility of this exhibition traveling to the US, here's hoping they come to NYC.

Becoming a Reader

2008-06-28T08:32:00.003-04:00

Alison Bechdel, the author of the graphic novel, Fun Home, a Family Tragicomic put together a great short piece on how she developed as a reader. It's a lot of fun.

Bechdel has been on my list of authors whose books I need to get my hands on for some time.

In this story she includes the advice that, if you really want your kids to read something, the best way to do it is to hide it on the higher shelves, and not tell them about it. I'm not sure this works for all kids, but for the more voracious reader it makes some sense.

This tails in nicely with the debate that's been going on in England over the age-stamping of books. Someone suggested that no one knows what book is most appropriate for any given kid more than the kid themselves, and that typically they won't read the books they're not ready for. This worked pretty well for me.

The question lies in what one does if their child is not already a reader. How do you then determine if a book is right for them before you make them read it?

There's a problem in that question. Can you see it?

Yeah, MAKE. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. Trite, but true. The same is equally true for people of all ages and books. If you want to suggest a book to your child, but you're not sure if it will be appropriate, read it!

If you won't take the time to read a book, why should your child?

Of course, I don't know any guaranteed way to turn a kid into a reader, but if their parents don't read, and yet they try to make their kid read... well, it doesn't sound very successful does it.

I don't mind general age stamping. Children's, Young Adult (YA), and the like, but I don't think they need to be more carefully defined than that. As an early teen I read a mix of adult novels and more YA fiction, and as an adult, I know people who still read a sizable amount of YA fiction. If you're reading for pleasure, read what you enjoy. But for kids, well, they will already have the books they have to read, that's what school is for. For parents, you don't need to make your child read important works, just make sure they're comfortable reading. If they enjoy it, their reading will sort itself out. You're never going to be able to force them to like a specific type of literature, any more than you can force them to like the same music as you.

That just gave me a great image. A parent forcing a preteen to sit down and really contemplate Rubber Soul. It doesn't seem like the best way to produce a fan of the Beatles.

Candidates Read

2008-06-19T10:14:00.004-04:00

I'm late in learning about this, but apparently presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee, Barack Obama, was spotted holding a book. And not just holding it, he was carrying it with one finger between the pages marking his place, indicating that...

Hang on, this is just tough to say about a politician...

...indicating that he was ACTUALLY reading it!

I'm so used to the occasional press release from the current occupant, in which he describes himself as a 'reader' or a list of his summer reading without any opinion, that I'm not sure how to take it.

Oh wait, I am sure. It's awesome!

Anyway, you can see for yourself here.

Apparently he's reading Fareed Zakaria. I've never read him myself, but I've enjoyed his Daily Show appearances.

Plimpton

2008-06-16T10:52:00.002-04:00

I've been a fan of George Plimpton for a long time, and this seems a truly fitting tribute to him.

If you haven't read any of his writings, you should, I recommend The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair as a good start. It worked well for me.

As the essay I linked to states, he was well known for his cameos. And I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

If you are in your twenties or younger, then the chances are pretty good that you saw him on The Simpsons, playing himself as the host of the Spellympics. This episode is filled with great lines, and a number of them were delivered by Plimpton, such as "You remind me of me, when I was a white-haired little boy."

More special to me, was his work in the second season of the phenomenal Nero Wolfe series run on A&E. As a small part of the ensemble cast, Plimpton played a chef, an elderly lawyer, and others, all wonderfully. For me, Nero Wolfe is a long-loved treasure, I have read almost every one of the books, and am always looking for the last few. I also loved the series. Plimpton, as a successful writer, certainly never needed to take acting work for money, which means he took the job for love. And his love of the Nero Wolfe stories is as evident as that of everyone else involved in making that show. It was special.

I don't recall seeing Plimpton in anything else, but that doesn't mean he wasn't there. Any favorite Plimpton sightings that you want to share?

Author/Humanitarian

2008-06-14T12:45:00.002-04:00

I've never felt much interest in reading Nick Sparks' books, and I haven't seen the movie of The Notebook but this article about what he's done for local athletes in his hometown is really impressive. I always admire when people who are successful give back. Sure it's nice when they give money to charity, but when they give time too, the way Sparks has, it's much more special.

Read a Book!

2008-06-12T21:46:00.001-04:00

It's a hot lazy Thursday afternoon, but I have a youtube message for you, brought by those great advocates of reading, Handy and the Human Ton!

I aitn't dead!

2008-06-10T11:36:00.002-04:00

Sorry that I disappeared for a while, a combination of extreme business and frequent lack of internet access, left me without the time to post.

Billy Collins, poet-extraordinaire, former poet laureate of these United States, and for some reason that remains unclear to me, the motivation behind the brief-lived anti-poet laureate position, has written a sonnet that is currently posted on the Guardian's book site.

Enjoy!

Evil Books

2008-05-12T18:28:00.003-04:00

Over at the NY Times, I have just learned that all of societies ills can be blamed on 10 books, plus 5 books that get partial destructive credit. If you want the list you can click over there.

My first thought upon reading this list, was that I should read those books. Except Mein Kampf, which might be useful as a historical document, but I won't be reading it.

This got me thinking about the banned book list that make the rounds every year. There seems to be a strong appeal for some people in declaring one book or another to be dangerous in some way. Personally, I'm more of a freedom of the press guy. Ideas can be dangerous, but you don't stop them by hiding them.

Friday Five is Alive!

2008-05-09T17:15:00.004-04:00

There's a rumor going around that they will remake the Short Circuit movie. Quake with fear!

Now for the Friday Five.

- R.A. Lafferty's Nine Hundred Grandmothers. It is well-known that the best golden and silver age science fiction came in the form of short stories. Lafferty is one of the masters, his strange, tripy, and humorous stories make for excellent reading.

- Colette's The Vagabond. If you haven't read any Colette, go fix that right now. The Vagabond is about a woman's struggle between control of her life, and romantic attachment. There are some things the French just do better, and existential struggles certainly seem to be among them.

- Gustav Meyrink's The Golem. This book has everything, creepiness, a gem cutter, Prague! Seriously, if there were a better surreal story of a Jewish gem cutter in the ghettos of Old Prague who becomes deeply involved with mysterious cursed imagery and the legend of the golem, then I don't know what it is.

- Saul Bellow's Dangling Man. This is the book that launched my abiding fondness for Saul Bellow (can you call it that when you've only read two of someone's oeuvre? I know, I know, I need to read more of them). The strange beast that is one man's life during the year that he waits to be drafted to fight in World War II.

- Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris. Surprised I haven't done this one yet? Me too. She's got a new book out that I need to read also. These are essays about being a reader and lover of books. It's a good cozy collection for anyone who likes books.

Quick Question: Future Readers

2008-05-06T10:29:00.002-04:00

So here's a quick question as I continue to recuperate from my plague.

For the parents out there, are there any books that you feel a strong need to pass on to your children to read, or have given to your children to read?

If you don't have kids, then if/when, are there any books that you feel it will be important to share?

EXTRA BONUS QUESTION: Parents who have already done this? Did it work out like you hoped?

Friday Five: Sick-as-a-Dog edition

2008-05-02T12:54:00.002-04:00

I haven't been posting with the same frequency as I usually do, and that is because I've spent the latter half of this week with some kind of hell-plague.

Anyway, here's your friday five, made up of the books that I can reach on my shelf without moving too much.

-Lenny Bruce's How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Lenny Bruce is a very funny man, who also became very paranoid. There's the old joke, "is it still paranoia if they are all out to get you?" Sadly, the answer is yes, because paranoia involves a break from the rational, and if he kept it together he might have won. This isn't a judgment on him though. He kept it together longer than I think most people could.

-David Eddings' Belgariad. Ok, This isn't a book, it's a series of five books, but really the five books make up one story. This was my favorite series when I was about 12, and it has stuck with me and everyone else I know who read it around then. If you're an adult you might not want to read it right now, I still enjoyed it when I reread it a couple of years ago, but the flaws in his writing were much more clear. However, if you have a younger person in your life, you should definitely get them this series. Also great fun to read aloud.

-Brian Jacques' Redwall. On the subject of great fun to read aloud, it's hard to top Brian Jacques, he writes many vivid characters with distinctive accents, and there lots of fun to read aloud. Another great book to give the young person in your life.

-Adam Zagajewski's Without End. So far, I have yet to come across a Polish poet that I didn't like. Zagajewski is part of the 'younger' generation of Polish poets, which means he's not currently deceased or in his 90's. Excellent poetry.

-Alan Alda's Never Have Your Dog Stuffed. I'm not typically one to recommend celebrity autobiographies, most of them are only 'as told to' anyway. Alda clearly wrote this though, and it's done well enough that he's got a second coming. He's led a very interesting life. Even though I loved MASH, I love that he spends almost no time talking about the show in this. It's kind of an intentional swipe at the celebrity autobiography market. There's a lot that's very personal, a lot about his father and the burlesque world he grew up in.

Readers' Choice

2008-04-30T16:38:00.004-04:00

I've previously mentioned my fondness for Goodreads (which, spell-check informs me, is not a word). One of the great features is that you can look over the most recently posted reviews, and select it to show you just the most recent reviews of the books you've read. I really enjoy this feature, I'm curious to see what other people have read.

The first thing I learned is that I'm not the only person to have read and enjoyed Harry Potter. I know, I'm surprised too.

The second thing I learned is that there are a lot of people who are made incredibly uncomfortable by the graphic, sexually explicit nature of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I was quite confused by this, had we read the same book? Then one reviewer clarified it for me. The presence of a gay character upset them. Well, you live and learn.

The third, and most disappointing thing that I learned is that a lot of people who read books aren't too bright. They told me so outright. And I don't mean that their typos and poor use of language was as good as telling me, I mean they tell you so.

It is really depressing how many people explain that they didn't like a book because they were too stupid. If we, as a culture, have failed in creating readers, this is one of the biggest ways. People, even readers, who enjoy reading enough to join a web community focused on books and reading, are taught to feel stupid when they don't appreciate the 'right' literature, and embarrassed when they like the wrong books.

We have few enough readers in our society to criticize any of them, and the people who continue reading the 'right' literature after finishing school are a small minority. Most of the people in our society, including those measurable as they smartest (by whatever flawed measurement you use), don't continue to read Dostoevsky and Joyce. They might pick up the latest Pulitzer winner, or Nobel laureate, but they're probably more likely to read Harry Potter, or Jason Bourne.

The argument could be that we've got to make students read as many major works of classical literature as possible, since they won't continue, but I don't think that's it.

As much as I'd love to blame teachers, I can't do that either. Yes we all come away from school with some author aversions, but so what?

Teachers are paid incredibly poorly to do very hard work. It's important work too, collectively, they're guiding the future (Que singing of I believe the children are our future).

It's on all of us as a society, but parents most of all. Children of readers are much more likely to be readers themselves. Here's my manifesto for parents (because no one knows better what parents should do than people without children).

1. Read to your child.
2. Let your child see you reading on your own as well.
3. When your child is too old to be read to (if that ever really happens), be curious about their reading. If they are really moved by a book read it too, then discuss it.
4. Do not discourage them from reading, just because you think they're reading something too silly. The child who starts with Daniel Pinkwater (he's a lot of fun, btw), could end up reading just about anything. Let the teachers teach the classics, you teach the love of reading.

Ok, that's my little list. Any thoughts?

Quick Links

2008-04-30T08:41:00.003-04:00

First, if you're in New York anytime between yesterday (woops, sorry!) and this Sunday, you should try to check out the PEN World Voices Festival. I haven't made it to any part yet, but I hope to soon. I'm disappointed because the most exciting thing, to me, will be taking place in Rochester, and I just can't go that far on short notice, even to see Umberto Eco and Salman Rushdie together.

Second, as described at Paper Cuts, it is now possible to follow Samuel Pepys through the past as if he were blogging it right now. I've wanted to read Pepys' diary, ever since I read Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Now I can!

Friday Five

2008-04-25T11:59:00.004-04:00

It's time once again for the Friday Five.

- Ha Jin's War Trash - This is a fictional memoir of the Korean War, told by an old Chinese man as he prepares to go to the USA for the first time to visit his family. It's an amazing work. You get a very different perspective on the Korean War than the American one. Particularly as our main source of perspective is M*A*S*H, both the movie and the show. I read this in 2006 and since then Ha Jin has become one of my favorite authors.

- Orson Scott Card's The Worthing Saga - So, like most Americans, you probably read Ender's Game sometime in your teens, then you picked up some of the Ender books, and the drop off in quality from one to the next knocked your socks off. That's ok, it happens to everyone. There used to be a time when he wrote in worlds other than that of Ender's Game, and he didn't go and rehash the same story over and over again, each time damaging the credibility of the more successful book he wrote before. It's hard to believe, but it's true. This is one of the prime examples, halfway between a collection of short stories on a single theme and a novel, this book is about world building, and attempts to understand what would happen to humanity if we really did have colonies on other planets.

- Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett wrote some of the best American detective fiction, in my opinion even better than Raymond Chandler, and this is one of his best. It's not quite as grim as some of the others, like The Maltese Falcon, which is also superb, but it's a lot of fun. It also resulted in some of the best movies ever, the William Powell and Myrna Loy Thin Man movies, though the first movie borrows the plot from the book, they are otherwise quite different in feel from the book. Still both are good. Read the book, then watch the movies and come back and tell me I'm wrong (or that I'm right, which would be preferable).

- Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America - First, Shorto is an excellent choice to have written this, history, even history as fascinating as that of my beloved New York City, can be very dry, and Shorto does an excellent job keeping the reader interested. Also, New York City is a fascinating place, and Shorto's thesis that the culture of the city is connected to it's early Dutch roots is very interesting. It's filled with engaging descriptions of New Amsterdam, tiny frontier settlement, frustrated democracy, and haven to pirates.

- William Logan's Macbeth in Venice. Read poetry! It tastes great and it's good for you! William Logan is somewhat better known as a viciously acerbic poetry critic. He also, in my opinion, writes poetry well enough to give him some pretty firm ground from which to be acerbic. I'm just going to repeat that word because I like it, acerbic. Not that the poetry is particularly harsh, it's just beautiful.

Celebrities Read: Mario Batali

2008-04-25T11:36:00.005-04:00

In keeping with my theory that, if well publicized, celebrities reading preferences might lead their fans to pick up a book, we have Mario Batali.

In an interview with the good folks at Powell's he talks about both an author he thinks people should read, Jim Harrison, and a list of what he sees as five 'great American' books.

The Autobiography of Ben Franklin

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Post Office by Charles Bukowski

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

Now these five books seem a little bit like that list politicians will give out. With the possible exception of Brett Easton Ellis, who also wrote American Psycho, they are all 'safe' books whose worth is well established, and whether or not they fall under Mark Twain's definition of a 'Classic' certainly have that feel.

But what he has to say about Jim Harrison is great. It reads like the kind of passionate recommendation of an author that you expect from someone who has really read and loved the author's work. Score one for Batali, as I'll certainly remember what he said the next time I see one of Jim Harrison's books in a store.

Update: Of course, Bukowski wouldn't be a safe choice for a politician, but for a celebrity chef from New York with the reputation Batali has, it's almost mandatory that someone like Bukowski appear. Frankly, I'm just happy it wasn't Burroughs.

Stairway to Heaven

2008-04-24T16:52:00.002-04:00

I've always wanted a real library, but never had the space to devote a room solely to the keeping of books. The result has been that I've always devoted a certain part of every room to the keeping of books. All I have though are prosaic bookshelves, and of course, prosaic piles of loose books that get in the way.

Now, I have a craving. I want this. Stairs that are also an enormous bookshelf, the risk would be that I might never leave the stairs.

Celebrities can Read Books

2008-04-23T16:39:00.005-04:00

Ok, so I know that your first thought, looking at the title of this post, is to scoff sarcastically. Well good for you, scoffing is an important skill, and doing it sarcastically takes effort. However, I am serious. There are celebrities out there who can read, some of them even choose to do so.

I come to you with proof of this. The website Poll the People has started up the ambitious attempt to create an unscientifically produced polled series of international lists about books, albums, and movies (or as they call them, films). This part is boring, go ahead and be bored by it.

Are you done? Good, cause there's actually something interesting too. It could get more interesting if people outside of England join them.

Poll the People is encouraging celebrities to contribute top 5 lists. Why are you excited by this, Matt? I hear you ask. After all, who cares what celebrities think, most of them aren't so bright, and in the States we best know them for saying dumb things around election time. This is true.

But hang on, you see the secret with celebrities, and I know I'm dropping a bomb on you here with this revelation, is that they are popular. It is highly likely that the Rolling Stones are more popular than literacy in America. So if they lend their fame to a support of literacy maybe more people will read. I know, I know, it's a fantasy, but it couldn't hurt.

The bad news is, the Rolling Stones are not, as far as I know at present, throwing their considerable weight behind the whole reading thing. Instead, right now we have a bunch of obscure British celebrities who have contributed their top five lists.

Among them is Nick Hornby, the author. We can rest assured he's not bringing anyone new to books. He did his share when people were told that that Cusack movie they liked was once a book.

Still, there's some hope. Tim Rice-Oxley, of the British band Keane, and Tom Simpson, of the band Snow Patrol, have both contributed lists. Now I will admit, I've barely heard of these bands, but if I've barely heard of them, they're probably pretty big. If their fans pick up any of the books they've listed, then we're in the black. So that's pretty cool. Now we just need A-Rod to announce that he loves to curl up in the dugout with his well-thumbed copy of Gormenghast and America will enter a reading frenzy.

One Less Lost Book!

2008-04-22T07:36:00.002-04:00

If you've ever studied Greek and Roman literature, one of the first things you learn is that we have at best 10% of the writing they produced, and there is no guarantee that it is the best 10%. If you want to learn about books that have been lost to us from the ancient times through to the present then this book will help you.

But if you want to learn about a book that will not be lost to us after all, go here.

The short of it. Nabokov, before his death, ordered his son to burn his last novel The Original of Laura. His son has been wrestling with the moral dilemma, obey his father or allow the world to have what he believes is his father's greatest work. He finally decided. The ghost of Nabokov appeared to him and gave him permission to publish.

So thank you ghost of Nabokov, thanks for making the right financial decision for your son, and incidentally allowing us to view your last work.

Nerds are Cool!

2008-04-21T22:25:00.004-04:00

This seems to be what the Pulitzer Committee is telling me. First, in 2001, a novel about comic book writers, among other things, and now, a novel about a Dominican nerd.

Now obviously, the first of those two should still have largely universal appeal. Unless you have trouble with the existence of comic books, are the depiction of homosexuals as normal people. The second though, has stunned me. I'm not done with it yet, but the references delve pretty far into the depths of nerdliness.

Junot Diaz may be the only Pulitzer Prize winner to be familiar with Champions. I have some serious nerd credentials and I had to recall conversations with people far nerdier than I in order to get all of his references. This has left me surprised that this book has achieved so much positive critical and monetary attention. Don't all of these dorky references alienate his audience?

I know that books about outsiders don't. Everyone feels alienated at some point in their lives, so we can all identify with alienated characters, but Oscar Wao isn't just alienated. He's a clear member of the nerdiest of nerds, I can picture him because I've met him, I've met dozens of him. People may like the alienated, but these same people had the things they mocked. A kid who ponders Dejah Thoris, plays Champions, and sulks in his room painting his D&D miniatures, hardly seems like someone most people can identify with.

I'm glad I'm wrong. Of course, readers of literature, even (or 'especially', depending on how you look at it) PULITZER PRIZE winning literature, are not most people, so it just means a larger small subset of humanity.

Anyway, everyone clearly has to go out there and read Edgar Rice Burroughs, play D&D, and watch Star Trek, because apparently it can win you a Pulitzer. Junot Diaz, thank you for showing that nerds can be cool!

Friday Five

2008-04-18T17:56:00.002-04:00

It's time once again for the Friday Five! As I stated last time, points of no actual value will be awarded to any who have actually read any of the books listed.

- Don Marquis' The Annotated Archie and Mehitabel. This was a well known part of Don Marquis' legendary newspaper column in the 20s. Archie who is a freeverse poet in the body of a cockroach, and Mehitabel the cat who was Cleopatra in a past life, find their way to Don Marquis' typewriter when he leaves the office at night, making strange and intriguing additions to his column. Archie the cockroach is one of the greats.

- Sara Bader's Strange Red Cow. This book managed to very effectively travel under the radar, and deserved more attention. Bader researched historical classified ads, and uses them to give an interesting view of early American life. More interesting than it sounds, and it sounds pretty darn interesting, at least to me. But then, I've also read a book devoted to the history of Obituaries.

- Upton Sinclair's Worlds End. That's right, it's not The Jungle! He wrote other books! It's even likely that, with the success of the movie There Will Be Blood, based on his novel Oil!, that publishers will start to release more of his back catalogue. World's End is the first book in Sinclair's epic series of historical novels following Lanville 'Lanny' Budd, and his travels through Europe. Lanny is the son of an American arms dealer, and he ends up closely connected with many of the major events leading up to and following the First Wold War. It's fascinating for both the detail of it's history and Sinclair's very complicated take on the war.

- Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado. I'm cheating here. I'm recommending a book that I haven't finished yet. I'm about half-way through. This is a phenomenal book, written in 1958, it has apparently been one of those books that gets forgotten and rediscovered with some frequency. It's the story of an American girl abroad in Paris, and it deals with the insular society of young American ex-pats living in France. Sally Gorce gets mixed up with many different strange characters, and they're all well-rounded and hilarious.

- Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. This is one of my favorite SF books. A new planet is colonized with a world run by the people who held onto the technology, for a large population of people with no access to it. They have modeled their world's culture on the Hindo religion, which they have warped in order to maintain their control of the society. One of their number rebels and seeks to restore equality, he does so by creating a rebellious religion based on Buddhism. Cunning, thoughtful and really enjoyable, it also contains one of the most gratuitous puns of all time, set up over the course of about 10 pages, and with absolutely no warning at all that it is coming.

And that's the Friday Five! What books do you think I should read?

Have a great weekend!

Quick Question: Who will you not read?

2008-04-17T08:12:00.004-04:00

I touched on author aversions here, and I want to see where you stand on them.

Are there any authors you will not read, or will not read more of? Particularly, an author that you feel a lot of people love, or regard as a classic?

For example, I'm highly unlikely to ever read anything by Austen or a Bronte. I know a lot of people who love them, but they just don't appeal to me.

Another example, I know a few people who refuse to read Harry Potter. Not for a moral reason, or because they don't like wizards, but because so many other people have told them how great the books are. I had this attitude, in mild form, towards Haruki Murakami, but I got over it, and I now love his books.

How Do You Take Yours?

2008-04-17T07:50:00.002-04:00

Paperback? Trade Paperback? Hardcover? eBook? Audio Book?

This question is prompted by this impassioned article in support of the endangered hardcover. My first thought is of course, that I am not particularly concerned with the fate of the hardcover, I wouldn't be particularly sad to see it go. Of course, this has to do with reading style, and I understand that publishers have determined that all of these different formats appeal to different people, the markets are just different. They make judgements about whether a book will sell in paperback or trade paperback. Sometimes they determine it will sell well in both, so they release it in both at the same time. What they don't do that with is hardcover, and that's why I don't like them. I'm not a hardcover reader, I like to carry at least one book around with me at all times, because, as far as reading is concerned, the day is full of moments (there would be a link here to a Penny Arcade comic, but their archives are down). Hardcovers are too big for this. If you have the time, it could be really nice to curl up in an armchair with a good hardcover, but I do my reading when I can, which is usually on the go.

Also, if you really love a book, it has a high chance of surviving longer in your library than if it is a paperback. So I do see the benefits. What I don't see is why those of us who don't typically want to read a book in hardcover have to wait until the publisher decides that the market for the hardcover has slowed down before they release the book in other formats. Wait. I do see. It's because it costs more. This is why I enjoyed Damien Walter's post about hardcovers or, as he calls them, hardbacks. I like the idea of an independent company publishing attractive hardcover volumes. I've purchased a few books in hardcover that I initially had in paperback because I loved them and wanted to have them for a long time.

On the other hand, I don't want to pay hardcover price because there's a new hot book out there that I'm curious to read, and it's only available in hardcover. What I do then is decide to wait until the book comes out in paperback, then as often as not, I forget about the book. Goodreads helps with that. I find it very useful to be able to keep a 'to read' list. It's made me less likely to forget those books I wanted to remember, and more likely to be truly aware of the Sisyphean task that is reading everything I want to read.

RIP Reading

2008-04-15T16:39:00.004-04:00

There seems to be a lot of talk going around about the death of reading, or of the book. I even have a book on my shelf about the future, or lack thereof, of books.

Of course, that book is itself now so old as to be laughably out of date. It never even had a chance to gloat at the creation of the Kindle, or frown contritely at the overall lack of reaction the Kindle garnered.

Reading isn't dead, and I don't think it ever will be. The internet is largely a written media, and is hugely successful. If looked at that way, more people are reading now than ever before. Of course, the problem is that they're not reading what the bloviators want them to. This is always the problem. You can find an article from almost anytime and find out that reading is in some form of danger, right up until you get to Plato, when the worry is rather that reading is endangering memory. Of course, no one remembers that, since as readers we can't remember anything.

It's currently being focused on for a couple of reasons. One, newspapers are dying. Since they know people aren't reading them, they now worry about reading. The other is that there does seem to be a decrease in the size of the literary fiction market. There's also the decrease in the literary fiction market, which is leading to some literary fiction authors talking about the increasing illiteracy of our society.

Looking at the numbers, they seem to be right. Literacy is decreasing, and flaws in our education system likely deserve a part of that blame. Of course, it doesn't help that readers of specific types of writing look down on each other.

Nonfiction fans look down on fiction fans, lit fiction fans look down on those who read anything else, romance fans are often just embarrassed. And then there are fans of science fiction and fantasy, who rightly or wrongly, often feel isolated and looked down upon. This is one of the richest literate societies we have, but they feel alienated. The works they love, be they Grand Masters, like Asimov and Clarke, or space opera like Bujold, are often seen as less in some way, than the books which appear on the general fiction shelf. Kurt Vonnegut stands as the shining example that, if an SF author earns enough attention, they don't bring prestige to the genre, rather, they get to leave the SF ghetto, and enter the regular fiction section in the bookstore.

So is it a quality judgement? It often seems to be. I'm the first to say that there is a lot of terrible SF out there. I mean really terrible, execrable. But there are a lot of really terrible books on the regular fiction shelves, too. Frankly, it's about even.

There's an easy way we should look at it. Don't look down on what people read, let them read it. You might get them hooked on reading, then, when they're hooked, you can get them hooked on the hard stuff.

Be careful about getting them on the hard stuff though, you have to do it right. It was done wrong for me once. I had an English teacher I really liked and admired in Junior High, and at graduation, he gave everyone a graduation gift. I got Moby Dick. I didn't want it. Inside he had written to me that he hoped that I would enjoy this tale of great adventures on the high seas. My alienated early teen alarm went off like a gong. I'd seen the same after school specials he'd seen.

The nerdy kid, who reads comic books, or SF, or something similar, and then his wise teacher gave him a copy of Moby Dick, the great American novel. It changed his life, the kid read that, and it changed his life. His glasses morphed into cool glasses, his spider man t-shirt into a polo shirt, and his voice deepened. He also started reading Kerouac and Hemingway. He always thought so fondly about the teacher who had changed his life.

I put the book on the shelf when I got home. It's still on the shelf in my parents house now. I may read it one day, I may not. Now I really liked this teacher, and I still do. I know he meant well, but it didn't work. And I'm a reader, these days I read about as much literary fiction as anything else. This same teacher also shares the credit for my current fondness for literature. He taught me Homer, and Shakespeare, two authors for whom I have a life-long affection. He taught the Odyssey superbly, complete with his own hand-made charts of the inter-relationships of all of the different figures in Greek myth.

Everyone comes out of high school with a list of authors whom they hate. They may never have even read them, but they know they don't like them. I think the attitude of looking down on the books that people enjoy fosters this. There's plenty to enjoy across the broad spectrum of books. Let them read what they enjoy, teach them to enjoy reading first, then expose them to books across the spectrum to broaden their tastes. If they don't enjoy reading then, when you give them the 'great' books to read, they won't enjoy them.

With that said, I'm curious. What authors did you come out of school with a strong aversion to?

Marking One's Place

2008-04-14T20:25:00.004-04:00

For most of my reading life, I was a page folder. Any book of mine that I have had for more than five years has dog-eared pages. I would occasionally start a book with a bookmark, but by the time I was finished, the dog-ears had returned.

Then, I underwent a mysterious transition. About five years ago, I just stopped dog-earing pages and started using bookmarks. I'd love to tell you that there was a precise reason for it, the desire to protect the book from damage or to copy some role-model, but that is not the case.

Of course, I don't really buy bookmarks. I like the random free ones. My favorite are the bookmarks from independent book stores. I hoard them, and use them as needed. For one bookstore I'm particularly fond of, I have a five year-run of all of the different bookmarks they have gone with, as they've changed logos, color-schemes, and locations. I also have bookmarks from independent bookstores in other cities, because of course I can't go anywhere without going to a bookstore.

This weekend I added to my collection with a bookmark from the Harvard Book Store. This isn't the school store and it's not a Barnes & Noble controlled 'false friend'. It is instead, in their own words, a "locally owned, independently run" bookstore. And I liked it a lot. They had a good and eclectic selection of books, and an extensive staff recommendations section.

I consider staff recommendations vital. Not that I often take their recommendations, but it's a sign that the staff really care about books, and that matters to me.

In addition to my bookmark, and the books I purchased, I came away with another little touch that I admired.

Author pins. At the register, they had a small bin filled with patterned pins bearing the names of specific authors. I bought a Saul Bellow, an author I need to read more of, and a Herodotus, an author I have read in English and, to a lesser extent, Greek. There were more authors I would have liked, but one can only wear so many pins. There were a lot more authors I would have loved to have on pins, but they weren't available.

The point is, these pins are a great idea. If you can wear pins of all of your favorite bands, why not your favorite authors. Reading is fun, and we should have fun with it.

When Dad Goes to War

2008-04-11T16:18:00.003-04:00

I was very moved by this essay that Alison Buckholtz wrote for Salon. For those of you without the time to go read the article, I'll summarize it.

Alison's husband is in the Navy, and left on a 7 month deployment. For that time period she is left alone to care for their 4-year old son, and 2-year old daughter. What she writes about must be a very common problem for any military family, how to explain to the kids why mommy or daddy had to go away.

It's particularly hard when you don't feel comfortable relying on cliches about having to fight bad guys. For most people in this country, that's not what this war is about. I wish I could say what it is about, but the only answer I really have is that it's about 5 years too long and counting.

Alison wanted to find a way to let her children know "that allowed kids to acknowledge their anger or sadness at Dad's absence, even wallow in their bad mood if necessary -- all while transmitting the assurance of a better day."

Being a writer, she looked for books to communicate this. She couldn't find one. The chidren's books all had problems, the wrong political message, or xenophobia, etc.

So she wrote her own. And it worked.

When we think of books, we think of large scale publications, but that's not all they are. You have to know your audience, and hope to reach them. In her case it was two small children, upset by their father's absence. She reached them, there can be no greater success for an author.

I want to encourage increased literacy in this country, it's very important to me. It troubles me that so many people who feel this way are so concerned with encouraging people to read the 'right' books. The right books are the ones that reach us. For some that may be harlequin romances, for others it's Descartes. That's ok. Not everyone needs to read the hard stuff, but the more you read, the better for you.

And when the message you want to convey is as personal as Alison's, the audience can be as small as it needs to be.

Friday Five

2008-04-11T13:05:00.004-04:00

It's time for part one of my weekly series, Friday Five!

That's where I will describe five books that I think are interesting. I'm not saying that you need to read them, but you should consider them.

And if you've read any of them already, you get points. Points can be redeemed for imaginary prizes of no worth.

In no particular order, here they are.

- Alfred Kazin's A Walker in the City. This is an autobiography. Kazin writes about growing up in a Jewish community in Brooklyn before the depression. As a New Yorker, and a lover of New York history, this stood out to me, but I think it really has universal appeal. Kazin is a fascinating man, and his struggles with issues like community and self-identity are easily identifiable.

- Sappho's If Not, Winter, translated by Anne Carson. Sappho is one of the greatest poets out of ancient Greece. Her poems are beautiful, personal, and well structured. They also come down to us largely in fragments. Anne Carson, a phenomenal poet in her own right, has used the fragmentary nature of Sappho's surviving oeuvre to create a translation that is a work of art in itself. Rather than covering the gaps, or marking them in the same tedious way that is often done with other translations of fragmented works, Carson makes the gaps an important part of each piece. This book is not just a good translation of Sappho's poems, it's also a monument to all of the works that we have lost. The organization of her translations provides the reader with a visceral sense of that loss. The title is one of the fragments, all we can do is wonder what the rest of the poem would have been like.

- Alaa Al Aswany's The Yacoubian Building. Curious about the Middle East? Why not read one of the best selling Arabic language books in recent years. This is a novel that forms itself around the lives of the inhabitants of a single old apartment building in Cairo. It deals with the struggles of religion and secularism, east and west, and generations.

- Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds. One of the most brilliant and intricate novels out there. You've heard of James Joyce, but he's not the only great writer from Ireland. Flann O'Brien heads the list of under-appreciated Irish writers. A book about a man writing a book about a man who is writing a book, where the characters of that book begin to take their revenge by writing the life of their own author. If you think that sounds tangled, wait until you read it. It all makes sense in the end, but you'll have to focus. O'Brien had a small resurgence when the creator of Lost said in an interview that another O'Brien novel, The Third Policeman, is one of the biggest influences on the show.

- Connie Willis' Bellwether. Connie Willis is one of the finest living writers of SF. This book, about a social scientist researching trends, is a fascinating examination of how ideas travel through our society. As the title suggests, it also involves a look at the behavior of sheep.

Reading Spots

2008-04-11T11:41:00.006-04:00

I'm going to Boston this weekend, taking Amtrak. While I am looking forward to getting there, I'm also looking forward to the train trip. I like reading on trains. I find it to be a relaxing experience. Planes are good too, but there's just something about long train trips that I find really conducive to reading.

I've packed my bags with clothes, and more importantly reading matter, for the trip. I can't wait.

This has gotten me thinking about great places to read. I know that the one that sticks with me as the strongest visceral memory is sitting on a marble slab in the Grand Palaestra at Pompeii reading H.H. Scullard's From the Gracchi to Nero, which is an excellent and comprehensive history of Rome. I remember feeling like a character in a novel.

Of course, that's not an easily recreated activity. But the best reading experiences often aren't. I love to read and do it a lot, but sometimes the experience transcends where it normally is, and becomes something visceral that you remember as a full sense memory. I remember what I was reading there in Pompeii, but I also remember the feel of the breeze on my skin, the cool shade of the trees after working for days in the hot sun, and the smell of the air. I can remember the tactile feel of that stone slab, it all comes together.

They're not all like that either. No matter how hard I try to convey the wonder of that experience, it can come off a bit sappy. That's fine, I can come off a bit sappy myself.

Here's another visceral memory, a little less sappy. In seventh grade English class, for whatever reason, we had reading time. We were all supposed to bring a book of some kind, and read it to ourselves quietly. There's the key word that got me into trouble, quietly. I was reading, for the first of many times, James Herriot's All Creature's Great and Small, and I started laughing out loud. I got shushed angrily by the teacher, and tried to stifle it.

Ten seconds later, I was laughing again, even harder. Now this teacher was kind of an awkward and unpleasant woman, and she never could quite get a handle on me. She decided that I should be publicly embarrassed, and that the perfect way to teach me not to laugh out loud in class was to make me read it aloud to the whole class.

Have you read All Creature's Great and Small? I credit her by believing that she must not have. It's the autobiography of an English vet, and the work he did in the farm country of the English dales. It's probably one of the best known autobiographies out there. It lead to countless sequels and a successful BBC television series.

I got up there, and I started to read, what had cracked me up. Doing my best performance, in the different accents, I began to read. Dr. Herriot described his struggles with the old, folk remedies still used by many English farmers before WWII. In this case it was a lurid description of how, among other 'cures', the farmer had shoved a pound of raw onions into the horses rectum twice daily for a week, before calling the vet.

This was seventh grade! Needless to say she lost complete control of the class that day as we all fell over each other laughing.

As I write this story I can still feel the pain from grinning and laughing so hard, both in my face, and the muscles in my stomach. I'd love to say that my teacher learned to be a little more cautious of me, but she never did.

Any memories of your own to share?

Movies of Books

2008-04-10T21:20:00.002-04:00

After my recent post about the far distant Tintin movie, Tavis at Powell's Bookstore (also known as the second best reason that I need to go to Portland) has a post about a bunch of books that are being turned into movies. As he says, 'read it before they screen it.'

Quick: Comics are Reading too!

2008-04-10T09:23:00.002-04:00

An important subject, and I plan to write in detail about it sometime, but for now, just a link to an interesting comic short written by Jonathan Ames & Nick Bertozzi.

Enjoy!

Quick Question: What are you Reading?

2008-04-10T08:19:00.003-04:00

So, yesterday, after my struggles with reader's block, I picked up Captain Blood, and I'm enjoying it.

But now the important question, what are you reading?

And also, what led you to it?

Reader's Block

2008-04-09T16:36:00.004-04:00

'Reader's block' is a great term, isn't it? I'd never heard it before but the second that Book Slut's Jessa Crispin used it, I knew what it was. It's even more helpful to me now, because I'm going through it. On paper, as it were, I'm reading three books right now, a poetry collection, and two short story collections. But really, I'm not reading anything. I haven't been since last night, when I finished Camus' The Stranger, and the time it took me to finish that shows that the reader's block was already setting in.

It's an unpleasant experience. For me the symptoms are gazing listlessly at my bookshelves, picking up books, looking at them, maybe opening to the front page, then putting them back on the shelf. I can do it for hours, but I haven't been letting myself. Instead, I check the blogs again, to see if anyone's updated, then I flip the channels on my TV, put on a DVD that I don't watch, and go back to the bookshelf. I know how to get out of it. I should grab some light fiction, possibly a reread. I often work myself out of these by reading a Dick Francis novel, I have a couple that I haven't read yet, but I know I'll run out eventually, and that makes me stingy with them.

As I've written this I've gone over to my shelves three times, and gazed longingly at them a few more than that. I realized how bad it had gotten when I looked at the small pile of books that I want to take to the used book store. By the very nature of being in that pile, I know I don't want to read them again, but then I think, well maybe I put something good in by mistake.

Okay, I checked. There's nothing worth rereading in that pile. I should have trusted me.

Back from the shelves again, I think I've found it. Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood. I loved his Scaramouche, and I enjoyed the movie with Errol Flynn. It passed the first page test too.

So that's me taken care of (crossed-fingers). How do you deal with reader's block? Assuming you've had it.

A Game of Pain

2008-04-08T16:29:00.003-04:00

It's often said that baseball is a game more about losing than winning. This certainly seems to be true for me, as a Mets fan. Of course, even a good hitter gets out more often than they get a hit, and that's what the saying is really about.

Paper Cuts, at the NY Times, had a post not long ago about sports writing where they quoted George Plimpton's saying that 'the smaller the ball, the better the book.' Now as was pointed out in the comments, this could lead to pinball or marbles being the best sports books, and that's not true. So really it's an implied progression from basketball to football to baseball to golf. The only one of these sports I follow is baseball, though I also follow World Cup soccer(or Football if you live anywhere besides North America).

Now, I don't hold with hard and fast rules, but I think that there is something to baseball writing. Of course, I've only read one book devoted to baseball, Donald Hall's Father's Playing Catch with Sons, but I deeply loved it. The pain and loss so typically associated with baseball lends itself well to writing. Everyone knows Casey at the Bat. There's something very literary about the moment it describes, and it happens all the time. I would say that a 'Casey' strikes out in almost every single game. Sometimes it matters more than others.

Of course, as for sports books, I also read and really enjoyed Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, also a book about the bad times in sports as much as the good. So far, I much prefer his nonfiction.

Both books are also about being fans of the game more than they are about the sport. If baseball is a game of pain, it certainly seems that soccer can make a bid, I think all sports can. For every year that your team wins it all, there are a lot more where they don't, even if you're a Yankees fan. And true fans pride themselves more for their loyalty in the bad times than for enjoying the good times. Fair weather fan is not considered a complement.

It makes sense. The true experience includes the pain. If you're not there for that, then you can't truly understand the thrill of victory. I know that ten years from now I will still be talking about last season, and probably wear it like a badge of honor. Because I was there, and I always watched through to the last pitch.

Being a sports fan is also a lot like reading. In the end, we don't hit the home runs or pitch the strike outs anymore than we have a picnic in the ruins of a fortress with the Rochelois attacking. But we feel like we're there. The authors and the athletes share these experiences with us. Most fans begin to develop a special, entirely fictional relationship with their favorite players. Similarly, readers often do the same with their favorite characters, and sometimes their favorite authors too. D'Artagnan and Jose Reyes both feel like friends to me, but I've never met either of them.

Still, if you're a sports fan, even a little bit, there's a book out there for you, and probably a blog, and I recommend both. Then you can combine your love of the sport with your love of reading, and enrich both.

Greener Reading Accross the Pond

2008-04-07T08:21:00.005-04:00

To quote the renowned scholar Cptn. B.F. 'Hawkeye' Pierce, M.D. "I am a life long anglophile. England is still the only country I know where any young man can grow up to be the Queen." Of course, thanks to Freddie Mercury, this statement is more accurate than it was.

Boy, isn't that something? A blog about books and my first quote is from a 30 year old T.V. show. I'm clearly working the educated crowd right now.

Anyway, I was talking about being an anglophile. I am one, of course. Most of the regular readers I know are anglophiles to one degree or another. Why is this? Well, like most nerdy Americans, I grew up on a steady diet of Monty Python, which I mixed up with a healthy dose of Blackadder, and a nigh obsessive devouring of every word ever written by Terry Pratchett, including phone numbers hastily scribbled on napkins. I could go further, it's amazing how many things I love are English in origin (including a nice pint of bitter, or as we call it in the States, ESB because the word 'bitter' is scary to Americans).

However, I did have the disillusioning experience that most anglophiles should have. I met a lot of English people, and worked with them. It is true, that there are a lot of amazing intellectuals to love in that country, and their cultural attitudes towards reading and authors seem vastly superior to ours, but just like us they have their tedious, boorish, narrow-minded people. That's why they're comedy is so funny, they have plenty of examples to work with. The point being, anglophilia is good for us in small doses, but don't take it too far, they are no more perfect than Americans, just different. Some of those differences are truly enviable.

Take for example the interview I referenced in my last post. Though I was frustrated by one part, I also really enjoyed it. The interviewer drew Rushdie out very well, and as an American, it fascinates me to see authors treated as public figures. We just don't do that here. We're much more likely to interview 20 year old actors about the interaction of east and west, than middle aged author's who have lived those differences and published important works of fiction.

The different attitude towards authors and reading in the two countries seems enormous to me. I've already admitted that I suffer from a 'grass is greener' attitude towards reading culture in England, but a glance at the Book sections of the NY Times and the Guardian, show that there's something there. The NY Times is almost exclusively book reviews, while the Guardian covers news about authors, the existence of upcoming books, and interviews with authors, as well as musings of all kinds on reading, books and publishing. And not just the Guardian, check out the Telegraph, too. It'd be great to get that kind of attention in the Times.

Of course, the Times has improved with their interesting, but not updated frequently enough for my tastes, books blog Paper Cuts.

Still, the English can annoy me. I am a huge fan of lists when it comes to books. I maintain lists of every book I read, and I love to check out end of year best of lists, as well as recommended reading lists of all types. That being said, this list of 11o best books, which the Telegraph describes as the "perfect library" seems disastrous to me.

These kinds of lists often do. I think the way they generally serve is to make us feel smug when we've read things on them, and smugger still when we've read things they missed, or have decided that something they did list is not worth reading. So, needless to say, I got a small buzz from having read, let's pick one at random, John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which I loved, but I got a bigger buzz because they included the obvious choice of Jane Austen, an author I have no interest in. This set me off to notice just how heavily the list relied on English authors, which enabled me to look down on their list.

Of course, if you're really going to narrow down the 110 books that a person should read for a literary education, as an English speaker, there will be a lot more English books on there than American, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealander. After all, they've been writing for a lot longer.

That's why these lists are really fun to make though, it's a chance to insult those 'greats' you don't think are that great, mine for example would exclude Austen and the Brontes, and to include lesser known works that you really enjoy, I would include Flann O'Brien. It's also a chance to show the breadth of your familiarity. They include a section for Science Fiction, which seems to be much more acceptable in England. The big surprise was that they did not include The Watchmen graphic novel by Alan Moore, which has become the de rigeur means of acknowledging the growing importance of graphic novels without having to go around actually reading them. It's typically chosen because its more popular among comic book fans than Maus, or Persepolis, both of which are comics for the non comic reader, so it better demonstrates a familiarity with the genre, but more about that at another time.

Anyway, I started out about anglophilia, and seem to have ended up on book lists, but since I'm sure more lists will come out in future, so that I will always have material to play with, I'll go back to anglophilia, or rather, explain the connection. It's not just that I got the list from an English paper. It's part of that attitude. The New York Times produces, each year at the end of the year, a list of notable books. This is done very seriously, with the deep intention of demonstrating the Times' approval of certain works and authors. It's great for business, people buy the papers to see it (or check the website these days) and people buy the books when they bear that little stamp of approval on the cover. I think they give Oprah a run for her money, particularly as she does one at a time, while they do a hundred or so. Of course, I'm sure they're tied for how few people read the books after buying them.

The Telegraph on the other hand, was clearly being playful. They want to get you thinking, and start discussion. It's successful too, the comment thread on the list has just gotten started, and already people are throwing out what they see as omissions or inappropriate inclusions. After all, our favorite and least favorite books are important to us. They also have their own book blogger, who responded to the list with some very interesting thoughts of her own.

Not to get too down on Americans as being part of the books are fun crowd, I'd like to add that I learned of this list from the blog for Book Slut, which is a great site run by Americans. There are plenty of us out there, and the internet is giving us a lot more opportunities to communicate.

But really, don't the Telegraph editors recognize the importance of Joseph Heller's Catch 22? What fools!

Reading for fun or facts?

2008-04-07T08:02:00.003-04:00

I was reading this article in the Guardian, and it got me thinking about the role of Authors in what we read. Now obviously they produce it, but it can go further than that.

In this particular instance, despite Rushdie's objections, the interviewer is intent on linking, strongly and thematically, his new novel to his divorce. While I find Rushdie to be an interesting person, and enjoyed the interview, when I read the book I don't plan to look for that link. I try very hard to separate what I know about an author outside of their writing, from the book that I am reading. Clearly this interviewer disagrees with me, he is very interested in finding details about this author and (particularly in England) public figure. When he read the book, he was clearly looking actively for details about his reaction to his recent divorce. My immediate thought is that he thereby was unable to really enjoy the book, he wasn't reading a story anymore. In my mind what he did was no different than looking through Rushdie's tax returns, it has almost nothing to do with the pleasure of reading a story, or appreciating Rushdie's technique. It's about finding the specific clues to support a thesis.

The Movie of the Book

2008-04-06T12:58:00.001-04:00

With the recent announcement that the cinematic dream team of Peter Jackson, George Lucas, and Stephen Spielberg are teaming up to make a Tintin movie. I've been thinking a lot about movies based on books and comic books.

Most of them are terrible while the ones that are good often seem to be a studio's Oscar attempt. The initial buzz though, that's always good. When you hear that a book or comic that you really like is being made into a movie, you may worry about them messing it up, but you're also excited about the possibility that they won't. At least, that's how I feel, and I'm going to project this as a universal, because of the truthiness of the idea.

The converse is not the case, I don't know anyone who gets excited about the book of a movie they like. Photo books, or books with the script, maybe, but novelizations? No. Even the word novelization has a negative sound to me.

Movies of comics seem to be particularly bad and unlikely to stay true to the original story. Perhaps because the comic books are already such perfect storyboards, the movie makers feel a need to show that they're doing it themselves, and to resist the directorial force of the original book. At the same time, comic book movies are supposed to be summer blockbusters, and if there was ever a movie type that was driven by committee, it's these. Executives start with the property, and then they package everything good out of it.

But Tintin, well, it's hard to picture it as a summer blockbuster, and the people who are working on it have been pretty good in the past, so I have hopes. I'm fighting them though, because that disappointment when they make a terrible movie out of something you love can be painful.

Keeping Lists

2008-04-05T11:33:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of 2005, I decided to start keeping a list of every book that I read over the course of a year. I started this because a friend of mine had done it for 2004, and I found it really interesting to look at her list, to see what books seemed connected thematically, as well as the scope of different types of books she had read.

As it is 2008, I am now in my fourth year of doing so, and still enjoying it. It does lead me to consider applying the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal to reading (I try to apply the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal to almost everything, observing and being observed are powerful forces in our society). Does the fact that I am keeping a precise record of what books I read, and further, sharing these lists with others, change the way I decide what to read?

I believe it does. I have always had a fairly sizable list of books that I feel I should have read, but have not gotten around to yet, and since I began tracking what I read, I've gotten to more of them than I think I would have otherwise. This has been a real positive, I have really enjoyed a number of these, particularly, Dante, both the Inferno and Purgatorio (I confess it, I still haven't gotten to the Paradisio) and also Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.

I think that most people have a list, either written out, or existing vaguely in their heads, of books that they feel they should read, and as we read, even as we check off those books, more are added, it's a bit like Sisyphus, but more enjoyable. Every book you read just makes your mountain a little taller.

Welcome to the Armchair Reader!

2008-04-05T11:12:00.000-04:00

On this blog, I will be musing about reading, and readers. While I may occasionally recommend or review specific books and authors, the main purpose is to think about what it means to be someone who reads.

Does it just mean books? fiction? novels?

I certainly don't think so. I read voraciously, news, blogs, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and anything else I can get my hands on. As my mother puts it, sometimes you just need words in a line, and if I have nothing to read on me, then I will quickly find myself reading whatever is available, advertisements, ingredient lists, or whatever else has words on it.

One constant curiosity for me is what other people are reading. If I see someone reading on the subway, or anywhere else, I always want to know what they are reading, and can become very patient, waiting for them to shift their hold on their book long enough to reveal the title. I have been aided in this curiosity by the site GoodReads which enables you to connect with your friends, and always know what they are reading (assuming they update their page with this information.)

So with that, I'll close by welcoming you to this blog, and asking, what are you reading?

Books Read in 2007

2008-01-01T11:54:00.000-05:00

F = Fiction
NF = Non-Fiction
B = Biography
P = Poetry
PL = Play
GN = Graphic Novel

1) Patrick O'Brian - Treason's Harbour (F)

2) Alaa Al Aswany - The Yacoubian Building (F)

3) Patrick O'Brian - The Far Side of the World (F)

4) Steven Brust - Brokedown Palace (F)

5) Jim Butcher - Storm Front (F)

6) Jim Butcher - Fool Moon (F)

7) Patrick O'Brian - The Reverse of the Medal (F)

8) Mark Kurlansky - The Big Oyster: History on the Halfshell (NF)

9) Terry Pratchett - Strata (F)

10) Patrick O'Brian - The Letter of Marque (F)

11) Patrick O'Brian - The Thirteen-Gun Salute (F)

12) Patrick O'Brian - The Nutmeg of Consolation (F)

13) Patrick O'Brian - The Truelove (F)

14) Patrick O'Brian - The Wine-Dark Sea (F)

15) Patrick O'Brian - The Commodore (F)

16) Patrick O'Brian - The Yellow Admiral (F)

17) James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (F)

18) Rex Stout - Curtains for Three (F) (reread)

19) Dick Francis - Slay Ride (F)

20) Dick Francis - High Stakes (F)

21) Dick Francis - The Edge (F)

22) Dick Francis - Bonecrack (F)

23) Orhan Pamuk - Snow (F)

24) Jim Butcher - Grave Peril (F)

25) Jim Butcher - Summer Knight (F)

26) Alexandre Dumas trans. Andrew Brown - Captain Pamphile (F)

27) Jim Butcher - Death Masks (F)

28) Jim Butcher - Blood Rites (F)

29) Dick Francis - To the Hilt (F)

30) E.M. Forster - Where Angels Fear to Tread (F)

31) E. OE. Somerville & Martin Ross - The Irish R.M. (F)

32) Dick Francis - Dead Cert (F)

33) Conor McPherson - Four Plays (PL)

34) Jamie Delano et al. - Hellblazer: The Devil You Know (GN)

35) Bill Bryson - The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America (NF)

36) William Shakespeare - The Life & Death of King Richard the Second (PL)

37) Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat (F)

38) Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (F)

39) Emile Zola - Therese Raquin (F)

40) Dick Francis - Trial Run (F)

41) Glen Cook - The Silver Spike (F)

42) Warren Ellis et al. - Hellblazer: Haunted (GN)

43) Warren Ellis et al. - Hellblazer: Setting Sun (GN)

44) Jim Butcher - The Furies of Calderon (F)

45) Jim Butcher - Academ's Fury (F)

46) Upton Sinclair - World's Fury (F)

47) Graham Greene - The Third Man (F)

48) Ian Sansom - The Case of the Missing Books: A Mobile Library Mystery (F)

49) George Orwell - Down and Out in Paris and London (F)

50) Clifford D. Simak - The Goblin Reservation (F)

51) Sarah Vowell - Take the Cannoli (NF)

52) I.J. Parker - Black Arrow (F)

53) Boris Akunin - Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog (F)

54) Lawrence Sterne - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (F)

55) Edgar Rice Burroughs - A Princess of Mars (F)

56) J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (F)

57) Sholom Aleichem, trans. Curt Leviant - Happy New Year! and Other Stories (F)

58) Saul Bellow - Dangling Man (F)

59) Michael Chabon - The Final Solution (F)

60) Stuart Kelly - The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You'll Never Read (NF)

61) Harvey Pekar - American Splendor: The Life and times of Harvey Pekar (GN/B)

62) Maurice LeBlanc - Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief (F)

63) Liz Williams - Snake Agent: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel (F)

64) Mike Carey et al. - Hellblazer: Reasons To Be Cheerful (GN)

65) Alan Moore & Melinda Gebbie - Lost Girls (GN)

66) Mike Mignola & John Byrne - Hellboy: Seed of Destruction (GN)

67) Don Marquis - The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel (F/P)

68) Wole Soyinka - Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known (P)

69) James Herriot - All Creatures Great and Small (B) (reread)

70) Leonard Cohen - Let Us Compare Mythologies (P)

71) Flann O'Brien - At Swim-Two-Birds (F)

72) James Herriot - All Things Bright and Beautiful (B) (reread)

73) James Herriot - All Things Wise and Wonderful (B)

74) Cauvery Madhavan - Paddy Indian (F)

75) James Herriot - The Lord God made Them All (B)

76) Dick Francis - The Danger (F)

77) Guy Delisle - Shenzen: A Travelogue from China (GN) (reread)

78) Guy Delisle - Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea (GN) (reread)

79) Dick Francis - Longshot (F)

80) Dick Francis - For Kicks (F)

81) Terry Pratchett - Making Money (F)

82) Joyce Cary - Herself Surprised (F)

83) Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Other American Stories (NF)

84) Dick Francis - Driving Force (F)

85) Sam Shepard - Seven Plays (PL) (partial)

86) John Le Carre - Our Game (F)

87) Ha Jin - The Crazed (F)

88) I.J. Parker - Island of Exiles (F)

89) Patrick O'Brian - The Hundred Days (F)

90) Parick O'Brian - Blue at the Mizzen (F)

91) Brian Azzarello et al. - Hellblazer: Hard Time (GN)

92) Brian Azzarello et al. - Hellblazer: Good Intentions (GN)

93) Brian Azzarello et al. - Hellblazer: Freezes Over (GN)

94) Rex Stout - Some Buried Caesar (F) (reread)

95) Herman Hesse trans. Sherab Chodzin Kohn - Siddartha (F)

96) Rex Stout - The Father Hunt (F) (reread)

97) Joseph Heller - Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man (F)

98) Ryunosuke Akutagawa trans. Jay Rubin - Rashomon and 17 Other Stories (F)

99) Rex Stout - Gambit (F) (reread)

100) Rex Stout - Where There's A Will (F) (reread)

101) Rex Stout - Three Men Out (F) (reread)

102) Rex Stout - Might As Well Be Dead (F) (reread)

103) Rex Stout - Black Orchids (F) (reread)

104) Rex Stout - The League of Frightened Men (F) (reread)

105) Rex Stout - Murder by the Book (F) (reread)

106) Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire (F)

107) Rex Stout - Fer-de-Lance (F) (reread)

108) Anton Chekhov trans. Laurence Senelick - Three Sisters (PL)

109) Rex Stout - The Red Box (F) (reread)

110) Glen Cook - Cold Copper Tears (F) (reread)

111) Glen Cook - Red Iron Nights (F) (reread)

112) Rex Stout - If Death Ever Slept (F) (reread)

113) John Mandeville, trans. C.W.R.D. Moseley - The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (NF)

114) Flann O'Brien, trans. Patrick C. Power - The Poor Mouth: A Bad Story About the Hard Life (F)

115) Rex Stout - Tri for Blunt Instruments (F) (reread)

116) Rex Stout - Death Times Three (F) (reread)

117) Glen Cook - Sweet Silver Blues (F) (reread)

118) Apuleius, trans. P.G. Walsh - The Golden Ass (F)

119) Jim Butcher - Cursor's FUry (F)

120) Glen Cook - Bitter Gold Hearts (F) (reread)

121) Glen Cook - Old Tin Sorrows (F) (reread)

122) David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (B)

123) Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange (F)

124) Glen Cook - Dread Brass Shadows (F) (reread)

125) Haruki Murakami, trans. Alfred Birnbaum - Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (F)

126) Cormac McCarthy - The Road (F)

127) Salman Rushdie - Haroun and the Sea of Stories (F)

128) Larry Gonick & Christine DeVault - The Cartoon Guide to Sex (GN)

Books Read in 2006

2007-01-01T11:53:00.000-05:00

F = Fiction
NF = Non-Fiction
B = Biography
P = Poetry
PL = Play
GN = Graphic Novel

1) Bill Maher - When You Ride ALONE You Ride with bin Laden: What the Government SHOULD Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism. (NF)

2) Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. M.D. Herter Norton - Letters to a Young Poet. (NF)

3) Salman Rushdie - The Satanic Verses (F)

4) Kaoru Kurimoto, trans. Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander - The Guin Saga, Book Two: Warrior in the Wilderness (F)

5) Dick Francis - Rat Race (F)

6) Will Eisner - Last Day in Vietnam: A Memory (GN)

7) Anthony Bourdain - The Bobby Gold Stories (F)

8) Al Franken - The Truth: with jokes (NF)

9) Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming - Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl? (GN)

10) M. John Harrison - The Pastel City (F)

11) M. John Harrison - A Storm of Wings (F)

12) J.W.von Goethe, trans. Thomas James Arnold - The Story of Reynard the Fox (P)

13) Ben Edlund - The Tick: The Naked City (GN) (reread)

14) Sue Grafton - 'A' Is For Alibi (F)

15) Alfred Kazin - A Walker In The City (B)

16) Dick Francis - 10lb. Penalty (F)

17) John Maddox Roberts - SPQR: The Tribune's Curse (F)

18) Dante Alighieri, trans. Mark Musa - The Divine Comedy, Volume 1: Inferno (P)

19) John Maddox Roberts - SPQR: The River God's Vengeance (F)

20) Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys (F)

21) Flann O'Brien - Stories and Plays (F and PL)

22) Petronius Arbiter, trans. falsely ascribed to Oscar Wilde - The Satyricon (F)

23) Sarah Vowell - The Partly Cloudy Patriot (NF)

24) George Orwell - Keep the Aspidistra Flying (F)

25) Zbigniew Herbert trans. Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott - Selected Poems (P)

26) Flann O'Brien - The Hard Life (F)

27) Bram Stoker - Dracula (F)

28) P.G. Wodehouse - Jeeves and the Tie That Binds (F)

29) Edwin A. Abbott - Flatland (F)

30) Alan Alda - Never Have Your Dog Stuffed (B)

31) Ian Fleming - For Your Eyes Only (F)

32) Sarah Vowell - Assasination Vacation (NF)

33) Geoffrey Lloyd and Nathan Sivin - The Way and the Word: Science and Medicine in Early China and Greece (NF)

34) Eamon Grennan - Still Life with Waterfall (P)

35) Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone (F)

36) Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (B)

37) Terry Pratchett - The Unadulterated Cat (F)

38) Gustav Meyrink - The Golem (F)

39) Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code (F)

40) Boris Akunin - Murder on the Leviathan (F)

41) Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot (PL)

42) Yamamoto Tsunetomo, trans. William Scott Wilson - The Hagakure (NF)

43) Frank Miller - The Big Fat Kill (GN)

44) Sholom Aleichem trans. Julius and Frances Butwin - The Old Country (F)

45) Dick Francis - Straight (F)

46) Aeschylus trans. Peter Meineck - Oresteia (PL)

47) Garth Ennis and John Higgins - Hellblazer: Son of Man (GN)

48) Russell Shorto - The Island at the Center of the World (NF)

49) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon - Preacher: Gone to Texas (GN)

50) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon - Preacher: Proud Americans (GN)

51) Michael Cunningham - Specimen Days (F)

52) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon - Preacher: Dixie Fried (GN)

53) Lemony Snicket - A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning (F)

54) Flann O'Brien - The Third Policeman (F)

55) Jerry Holkins & Mike Krahulik - Penny Arcade: Attack of the Bacon Robots! (GN)

56) Rex Stout - Too Many Cooks (F) (reread)

57) Kurt Vonnegut - Player Piano (F)

58) Dave Barry - Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway (H)

59) Boris Akunin - The Turkish Gambit (F)

60) Dante Alighieri, trans. Mark Musa - The Divine Comedy, Volume 2: Purgatorio (P)

61) ed. and trans. Moss Roberts - Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies (F)

62) I.J. Parker - Rashomon Gate (F)

63) Lenny Bruce - How to Talk Dirty and Influence People (B)

64) Boris Akunin - The Death of Achilles (F)

65) Marilyn Johnson - The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries (NF)

66) George Bernard Shaw - Man and Superman (PL)

67) David Sedaris - Naked (B)

68) W. Somerset Maugham - Cakes and Ale (F)

69) Sofka Zinovieff - Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens (NF)

70) Rene Descartes, trans. Donald A. Cross - Meditations on First Philosophy (NF)

71) Ha Jin - War Trash (F)

72) Paul Auster - City of Glass (F)

73) Colette, trans. Enid McLeod - The Vagabond (F)

74) Robert Sullivan - The Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures on the Edge of a City (NF)

75) Ian Fleming - Moonraker (F)

76) Charles MacLean - MacLean's Miscellany of Whisky (NF)

77) Ian Fleming - Thunderball (F)

78) Steven Brust - Dzur (F)

79) Fred Saberhagen - The Book of Swords Vol. 1 (F)

80) Fred Saberhagen - The Book of Swords Vol. 2 (F)

81) Fred Saberhagen - The Book of Swords Vol. 3 (F)

82) Bill Buford - Heat (An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany) (NF)

83) Neil Gaiman - Stardust (F)

84) Sholem Aleichem, Trans. Hillel Halkin - Tevye The Dairyman and the Railroad Stories (F)

85) O.Henry - The Best Short Stories of O.Henry (F)

86) John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces (F)

87) E.B. White - Here is New York (NF)

88) Martin Millar - The Good Fairies of New York (F)

89) Terry Pratchett - Wintersmith (F)

90) James Joyce - Dubliners (F)

91) Vassar College - Albert Einstein: Life and Letters, 1905-1955 (NF)

92) Dick Francis - Wild Horses (F)

93) Guy Delisle - Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea (GN)

94) Terry Pratchett - The Last Continent (F) (reread)

95) Terry Pratchett - Small Gods (F) (reread)

96) C.S. Forester - Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (F)

97) C.S. Forester - Lieutenant Hornblower (F)

98) C.S. Forester - Hornblower and the Hotspur (F)

99) C.S. Forester - Hornblower and the Atropos (F)

100) C.S. Forester - Beat to Quarters (F)

101) C.S. Forester - Ship of the Line (F)

102) C.S. Forester - Flying Colours (F)

103) C.S. Forester - Commodore Hornblower (F)

104) C.S. Forester - Lord Hornblower (F)

105) Guy Delisle - Shenzen: A Travelogue From China (GN)

106) C.S. Forester - Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies (F)

107) C.S. Forester - Hornblower During the Crisis (F)

108) Patrick O'Brian - Master & Commander (F)

109) Patrick O'Brian - Post Captain (F)

110) Patrick O'Brian - H.M.S. Surprise (F)

111) Eric Hobsbawm - The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 (NF)

112) Patrick O'Brian - The Mauritius Command (F)

113) Patrick O'Brian - Desolation Island (F)

114) Patrick O'Brian - The Fortune of War (F)

115) Patrick O'Brian - The Surgeon's Mate (F)

116) Patrick O'Brian - The Ionian Mission (F)

117) Alec Guinness - My Name Escapes Me (B)

118) Adam Zagajewski, asstd. trans. - Without End (P)

Books Read in 2005

2006-01-01T11:50:00.000-05:00

F = Fiction
NF = Non-Fiction
B = Biography
P = Poetry
PL = Play
GN = Graphic Novel

1) Neal Stephenson - The System of the World (Baroque Cycle, Vol. 3) (F)

2) Rex Stout - Too Many Cooks (F)

3) P.G. Wodehouse - Jeeves in the Morning (F)

4) Da Chen - Sounds of the River (B)

5) Nick Hornby - How to be Good (F)

6) Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle (reread) (F)

7) David Gemmell - Morningstar (F)

8) Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Preludes And Nocturnes (reread)
(GN)
9) Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: The Doll's House (reread) (GN)

10) Garth Ennis - Preacher: Until The End of the World (GN)

11) Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: The Dream Country (reread) (GN)

12) Algis J. Budrys - Michaelmas (F)

13) Jamie Delano et al. - Hellblazer: Original Sin (GN)

14) David Eddings - Pawn of Prophecy: The Belgariad, book 1 (reread) (F)

15) David Eddings - Queen of Sorcery: The Belgariad, book 2 (reread) (F)

16) David Eddings - Magician's Gambit: The Belgariad, book 3 (reread) (F)

17) Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Season of Mists (reread) (GN)

18) Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: A Game of You (reread) (GN)

19) Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Fables & Reflections (reread) (GN)

20) David Eddings - Castle of Wizardy: The Belgariad, book 4 (reread) (F)

21) David Eddings - Enchanters' End Game: The Belgariad, book 5 (reread) (F)

22) Garth Ennis et al. - Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits (GN)

23) Rex Stout - Trio for Blunt Instruments (F)

24) Mike Carey et al. - Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway (GN)

25) Garth Ennis et al. - Preacher: Ancient History (GN)

26) David Eddings - Guardians of the West: The Mallorean, book 1 (reread) (F)

27) William Logan - Macbeth in Venice (P)

28) Tom Stoppard - The Invention of Love (PL)

29) David Eddings - The King of The Murgos: The Mallorean, book 2 (reread) (F)

30) Isabel Fonseca - Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey (NF)

31) David Eddings - Demon Lord of Karanda: The Mallorean, book 3 (reread) (F)

32) T. S. Eliot - The Waste Land and Other Poems (P)

33) Jamie Delano, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis et al. - Hellblazer: Rare Cuts (GN)

34) David Eddings - Sorceress of Darshiva: The Mallorean, book 4 (reread) (F)

35) Marjane Satrapi - Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (GN) (B)

36) Umberto Eco, trans. William Weaver - Serendipities: Language & Lunacy (NF)

37) David Eddings - The Seeress of Kell: The Mallorean, book 5 (reread) (F)

38) Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Brief Lives (reread) (GN)

39) Alan Moore - Saga of the Swamp Thing (GN)

40) Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon - Hellblazer: Fear and Loathing (GN)

41) Sophocles, trans. Rachel Kitzinger & Eamon Grennan - Oedipus at Colonus (PL)

42) Art Spiegelman - In the Shadow of No Towers (GN)

43) Frank Miller - Sin City: The Hard Goodbye (GN)

44) Daniel Defoe - A Journal of the Plague Year (F)

45) Glen Cook - The Black Company (F)

46) Dick Francis - Odds Against (F)

47) Dick Francis - Whip Hand (F)

48) Dick Francis - Come to Grief (F)

49) Mike Carey et al. - Lucifer: Children and Monsters (GN)

50) Mike Carey et al. - Lucifer: A Dalliance with the Damned (GN)

51) Neil Gaiman et al. - The Books of Magic (GN)

52) Terry Pratchett - Monstrous Regiment (reread) (F)

53) Mike Carey et al. - Lucifer: The Divine Comedy (GN)

54) Mike Carey et al. - Lucifer: Inferno (GN)

55) Glen Cook - Shadows Linger (F)

56) B. H. Liddell Hart - Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon (B)

57) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon - Hellblazer: Tainted Love (GN)

58) P. G. Wodehouse - How Right You Are, Jeeves (F)

59) Mike Carey et al. - Lucifer: Mansions of the Silence (GN)

60) Jasper Fforde - The Eyre Affair (F)

61) Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon et al. - Hellblazer: Damnation's Flame (GN)

62) Robert Pinsky - Jersey Rain (P)

63) John Stewart- Naked Pictures of Famous People (F)

64) Richard Hooker - MASH (F)

65) Neal Gaiman - Sandman: The World's End (GN)

66) Dick Francis - Reflex (F)

67) E. M. Forster - A Room With A View (F)

68) Dave Sim - Cerebus (GN)

69) Anthony Hecht - The Darkness and the Light (P)

70) Dick Francis - Forfeit (F)

71) Thich Nhat Hanh - The Miracle of Mindfulness (NF)

72) Alan Moore and David Lloyd - V for Vendetta (GN)

73) R. Crumb and Peter Poplaski - The R. Crumb Handbook (GN/B)

74) Paul Cartledge - The Spartans (NF)

75) David Gemmell - The Swords of Night and Day (F)

76) Oscar Wilde - The Ballad of Reading Gaol (P)

77) Rex Stout - Murder By the Book (F)

78) Jack Keruoac - On the Road (F)

79) Will Eisner - Invisible People (GN)

80) Glen Cook - Whispering Nickel Idols (F)

81) Rex Stout - Red Threads (F)

82) Mickey Spillane - I, The Jury (F)

83) Robert Kirkman & Cory Walker - Invincible: Family Matters (GN)

84) Arthur Gelb - City Room (B)

85) Dick Francis - Risk (F)

86) Alan Moore - The Swamp Thing: Love and Death (GN)

87) Alexandre Dumas trans. Robin Buss - The Black Tulip (F)

88) Lewis Black - Nothing's Sacred (NF)

89) Wislawa Szymborska trans. Clare Cavanagh - Nonrequired Reading (NF)

90) Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon - Hellblazer: Rake at the Gates of Hell (GN)

91) Joyce Johnson - Minor Characters (B)

92) Lois McMaster Bujold - The Hallowed Hunt (F)

93) Sharon Lee & Steve Miller - Conflict of Honors (F)

94) Sharon Lee & Steve Miller - Agent of Change (F)

95) Sharon Lee & Steve Miller - Carpe Diem (F)

96) Sharon Lee & Steve Miller - Plan B (F)

97) Sharon Lee & Steve Miller - I Dare (F)

98) Nick Hornby - The Polysyllabic Spree (NF)

99) Dick Francis - Blood Sport (F)

100) Lawrence Robinson - The Accidental Connoisseur (NF)

101) David Sedaris - Barrel Fever (F)

102) Ian Fleming - Doctor No (F)

103) Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (F)

104) Ian Fleming - Casino Royale (F)

105) Trans. Barbara Stoler Miller - The Bhagavad-Gita (P)

106) Dick Francis - Knockdown (F)

107) Allen Ginsberg - Howl and Other Poems (P)

108) Rick Gekoski - Nabakov's Butterfly (NF)

109) Dick Francis - Flying Finish (F)

110) Robert Sullivan - Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants (NF)

111) J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (F)

112) Ian Fleming - Diamonds Are Forever (F)

113) Joseph Heller - Picture This (F)

114) Jeff Smith - Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume (GN)

115) Lewis Lapham - 30 Satires (NF)

116) Carl Reiner - My Anecdotal Life (B)

117) Ross King - Ex Libris (F)

118) Ian Fleming - From Russia With Love (F)

119) Rex Stout - Before Midnight (F) (reread)

120) I.J. Parker - The Dragon Scroll (F)

121) Dick Francis - Nerve (F)

122) Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely - WE3 (GN)

123) Rex Stout - Death of a Dude (F) (reread)

124) Ian Fleming - Live and Let Die (F)

125) Robert Graves - Goodbye to All That (B)

126) Raphael Sabatini - Scaramouche (F)

127) H. Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines (F)

128) Marquis de Sade - The Crimes of Love (F)

129) Mickey Spillane - My Gun is Quick (F)

130) Will Eisner - The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (GN) (NF)

131) Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel (F)

132) Marco Polo - The Travels of Marco Polo (NF)

133) Terry Pratchett - Thud! (F)

134) Jon Stewart et al. - America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy (NF)

135) Isaac Asimov - The Return of the Black Widowers (F)

136) Glen Cook - The White Rose (F)

137) Charles MacLean - Scotch Whisky: A Liquid History (NF)

138) Art Spiegelman - Maus: A Survivor's Tale, My Father Bleeds History (GN)(B)

139) Art Spiegelman - Maus: A Survivor's Tale, And Here My Troubles Began (GN)(B)

140) John Ruskin - Unto This Last, and Other Writings (NF)

141) Lenny Bruce - The Essential Lenny Bruce (NF)

142) Arturo Perez-Reverte, trans. Margaret Jull Costa - The Fencing Master (F)

143) Inga Saffron - Caviar: The Strange History and Uncertain Future of the World's Most Coveted Delicacy (NF)

144) George Plimpton - The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair and Other Excursions and Observations (NF)

145) Boris Akunin, trans. Andrew Bromfield - The Winter Queen (F)

146) Ian Fleming - Goldfinger (F)

147) Frank Miller - Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (GN)

148) Sara Bader - Strange Red Cow: and other curious classified ads from the past (NF)

149) David Sedaris - Holidays On Ice (F and NF)

150) Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. Stephen Mitchell - The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (P)

151) Zbigniew Herbert - THe King of the Ants: Mythological Essays (NF)

152) Mark Kurlansky - The Basque History of the World (NF)

153) R.A. Lafferty - Nine Hundred Grandmothers (F)

154) Michael Chabon et al. - The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, vol. 2 (GN)

155) Euripides, trans. Richmond Lattimore et al. - Euripides III, Hecuba, Andromache, The Trojan Women, and Ion (PL)

156) Mickey Spillane - Vengeance is Mine! (F)

157) Nick Hornby - Fever Pitch (NF)

The Armchair Reader

Book Beast

Rushdie Comes to Brooklyn!

Top 10 of 2008

Books Read in 2008

Remainders of the Day

Interview with Alaa Al Aswany

Driving Mr. Paterniti

Late to the Party: Man Booker Edition

Holiday Reading

December Reading

Thanksgiving

The Year of Readers

Readability

A Mood Captured

Read like Ike!

Where History Comes From

Election Over

Wislawa Szymborska

Election Reading

Translation Revisited

Editing is good

Public Intellectuals

Translation

Reading Sisyphus

Watch this space

Congrats Tony Kushner!

The Brooklyn Book Festival

David Foster Wallace

Brooklyn Book Festival

Beyond the Cover

Should They Stay, or Should They Go?

Closing Tabs

Books are more than just entertainment

Recommended Reading

Literary Coincidence

Nearing the Finish Line

Inspiring Readers

An Experiment in Literacy

Author Labels, take 2

Cairo meets Chicago

Hardcore Writers

Kindling

Our Continuing Story

Go Out and See Something

Bored at Work

Finding Forster

The Orwell Diaries

More Reading Passions

VQR Young Reviewer Contest, Part the First

Reading Passions

NYRB Sale

Old Fashioned Novels

I'm Reading on a Jet Plane

Favorite Opening Line

Cover story

Author Labels

The New York Review of Books, plus Yeats

Becoming a Reader

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