Perhaps I will tinker with my blog
For a variety of reasons, it has been way too long since I wrote a new blog post. I’m happy to say that some of those reasons are good ones. I’ve been busy with all of the events at RiverRun Bookstore, and also with some freelance writing assignments.
Check out some brand new ones:
My interview with the highly intelligent and very talented Joe Meno is now up at Identity Theory. If you need to know about “what makes books different than television and film and a gym shoe”, Meno has the answer for you.
A review I wrote of Paul Harding’s Tinkers, which is by far one of my favorite debut novels I have ever read, is now up at The Quarterly Conversation.
Tinkers’ prose sings of seizure and shock, of frigidness and frozen motion. A grave condition is transformed into a poetic burst of alliteration and examination, but also remains terrifying. (Harding asks: “What is it like to be full of lightning? What is it like to be split open from the inside by lightning?”) The novel is full of these brief, intense moments of illumination and introspection; they both highlight the terror and awe of life and remind us of the pervasive ticking down of a person’s time.
For the rest of the review, go here. (Note, the last link didn’t work. I’ve updated it since then).
The only bad thing about being a bookworm…
I’m packing up my books this month to move into a new apartment. There’s nothing worse than moving when you own as many books as I do. It’s a blessing and a curse to have such a LARGE personal library.
How does one decide what books to hold on to and what to give up?
I think the answer is that I need to become a billionaire and have a fancy library in my home like Jay Walker.
Balancing the old with the new, and the many with the few
via http://www.matejkren.cz/cs/book-cell/
Pssst…I have a confession to make. I’ve never read Moby Dick. Or Ulysses. Or Anna Karenina, for that matter. I’ve meant to for a while now, but there’s one big thing that stops me. I’m a bookseller who works at a bookstore that sells new books. Yes, we sell older titles, too, but often I want to read the new titles that are coming out. For one thing, it’s fun to be part of the pre-publication buzz. The other thing is that I like to be able to recommend new reads to customers. A classic novel or even a book that came out ten years ago and won the Pulitzer doesn’t need my recommendation to help it sell.
Then there’s the whole dilemma of re-reading books. But as Tom (my boss at RiverRun Bookstore) recently blogged about, sometimes we just really need to lose ourselves in a book we already know will keep us glued to our reading chairs for hours on end. I just purchased The World Before Her by Deborah Weisgall, and a blurb that made a comparison to A.S. Byatt’s Possession immediately made me want to go back to the rich, romantic and scholarly world that I found in Byatt’s book.
So how do we balance the old and the new? It’s important to give ourselves permission to re-read, to read the classics, or to even read a contemporary book that’s already a couple of years old. I guess there’s no such thing as “balancing” when it comes to the reading life. The Libra in me wants to strive for that perfectly level scale, though! (And I’d really like to read Ulysses one of these days).
Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness address the issue of the unopened book on the bookshelf in one of their podcasts at Books on the Nightstand.
Kate Christensen’s review of “The Song Is You”
Readers of my blog know that one of my favorite contemporary novelists is Kate Christensen. Kate has written a glowing review of Arthur Phillips latest novel in The New York Times Book Review.
If novelists were labeled zoologically, Arthur Phillips would fall naturally into the dolphin family: his writing is playful, cerebral, likable, wide-ranging and inventive.
Just try to tell me that the review doesn’t make you want to read the book right this instant.
I’m planning a really fun event featuring Kate and Arthur at The Red Door martini bar in Portsmouth on June 22nd. We’re going to have drinks for sale named after the books, local musicians as part of the Hush Hush Sweet Harlot series, and readings from both authors. Mark your calendars now!
For those with short attention spans…
Vincent Van Gogh's "The Poet's Garden"
Is it just me, or is March an incredibly hectic month? And to top it all off, Daylight Saving Time makes it harder and harder to concentrate on the tasks at hand. We’re all antsy for the warmer weather, the longer bouts of sunshine, for an end to being cooped up in our homes or apartments.
That’s why one of my favorite forms of writing is always perfect to read in the spring months. (Not that it’s not perfect other times of the year as well.) Reading good poetry is similar to that enlightened, grounded feeling you get after an hour-long yoga class. Best of all, it’s free, and you can find plenty of places on the internet to read some.
You can hear my review of a new book of poetry published by Norton, called Essential Pleasures, over at the Books on the Nightstand most recent podcast. You can also see me blog about poetry over at Identity Theory’s Book Rate blog.
What are some of your favorite poems, and what do you read when you don’t have time to devote to a novel or long book? I’m also a huge fan of short stories. I think they are the most underappreciated form of writing. If you don’t understand the big deal about short stories, just read Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain”. If he doesn’t change your mind, I don’t know who will.
Links! News! Distractions!
- I’ve written before about one of my favorite shows, LOST, and how naturally the redneck-disguised bookworm Sawyer is the best character. Over at Jacket Copy, executive producers and writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse talk about their literary choices:
“It’s really more about the fact that we’ve been influenced by literature in the way we’ve shaped the show, and it’s a nod to that process,” said Lindelof, who is also co-creator. “We pick the books with a great deal of meticulous thought and specificity and talk about what the thematic implications of picking a certain book are, why we’re using it in the scene and what we want the audience to deduce from that choice.”
- Very sad news for the family of one of the best poet’s to ever live. Sylvia Plath’s son, Nicholas Hughes, has committed suicide at the age of 47.
- I usually have a hard time deciding whether I should be excited or nervous for a movie adaptation of one of my favorite books, but I’ve been looking forward to seeing “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” since they started filming it. The trailer is finally up over at The Elegant Variation.
- My friend Tim Horvath’s short story, Circulation, has just been published as a novella by the good folks at sunnyoutside Press. It’s the finest kind of fiction, and features a librarian as the main character. I’m a sucker for books with bookish characters. Tim is a fan of Italo Calvino (clearly he has impeccable taste!), and the influence is notable in his writing. If you live around seacoast New Hampshire, come hear Tim read at RiverRun Bookstore this Wednesday night (March 25th) at 7:30 PM with novelist Tom Paine and writer Clark Knowles.
- I’ve officially registered to go to Book Expo America for the first time. Can’t contain my excitement! Who else is going? The highlight of the weekend will be the author luncheon with Pat Conroy, Lorrie Moore, and other authors. Lorrie Moore= writing goddess.
- I love these images taken mostly at the University of Michigan’s Hatcher Graduate Library, posted on the userslib blog.
- I kind of want these felt Nerdy Glasses.
I’m still here!
I seem to have abandoned my poor little blog for over two weeks now. Blame it on my business trip to NYC without internet access, and my time spent catching up. Or blame it on the fact that my computer power cord has decided to die and I’m waiting for the new cord and a new computer to arrive safely at my apartment. OR just blame me for neglecting my little corner of the web as I try to get a bunch of forthcoming book reviews, articles, and author interviews finished. More on that as they are published!
For those of you who don’t follow my tweets, exciting news: I’ve been appointed the new Book Reviews Editor at identity theory, along with the multi-talented blogger, Condalmo. Click on the link and check out the wonderful literary journal run by Matt Borondy.
What’s everyone reading and recommending lately?
One very ambitious reading project
I’m a sucker for books about books. Is that really a surprise? So when an advanced reading copy arrived in the mail called The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death, and Pretty Much Everything Else, I moved it up to the top of my to-be-read pile.
This reading memoir is coming out in May, and is written by Christopher Beha, an editor at Harper’s Magazine. Beha decided to read the Harvard Classics in its entirety in one year, and write about not just what he absorbs from the books, but how reading these classics impacts his life.
As he deals with losing a family member and recovering from an illness, Beha reflects on his massive undertaking and shares some jewels from the books.
On talking about Emerson:
“Each age,” he insists, must “write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.” It’s not that older books are no longer valuable, but as they age–as they become “Classics”- we become too respectful of them; we stop seeing them for what they are: “Meek young men grow up in libraries believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote these books.”
At the time I read these words, it would have been possible for me to spend entire days without moving from that library, doing nothing but reading the books of an older period. And some days I did. But mostly I didn’t– not because I didn’t enjoy it there, but because reading someone like Emerson is bound to send you back out into the world.”
Beha successfully approaches the topic of reading to understand one’s place in the world, and he also talks about the necessity of reading with a foot in the past and the present.
I was still reading to some degree to acquire knowledge, and I was certainly still reading for pleasure. But I was also reading to be a part in a great chain of readers. Aurelius read Plato, then Aurelius died. Milton read Auerlius, then Milton died. And here I sat up in bed reading Milton, fighting off the time when sleep would overtake me. Such is everything.
I’m endlessly fascinated by how readers react to what they are reading; whether it’s a classic or a contemporary novel. I love to read about the process of the reader mulling the words over in their mind, and then applying it to their own lives. Beha’s book made me want to tackle the Harvard Classics myself someday. It made me realize how completely different the educational system is today. Most public school systems don’t have a lot of the classics on their required reading list. It’s a shame they don’t, because then usually only people who are liberal arts majors in college end up reading even some of the titles on the list.
As Patrick over at the Vromans blog relates, The New York Times recently reported on the problems with the economy making it an even tougher go for humanities programs. Let’s hope that humanities programs don’t disappear, and that more funding is out there to support these crucial studies.
For those of you who can’t afford to go back to school or just miss it, reading Christopher Beha’s book is like having a friendly, hip professor give you a syllabus with extended notes in the margins. It’s anecdotal and lit crit at the same time, and a fine introduction to some of the best books ever written.
