http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/102306/ayn-rand.gif
I really couldn't be less interested, but for the moonbats out there this will set your little hearts (or Objectivist equivalent) aflutter
(link via Bookslut)
Posted by Dave
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Saving first editions from being read since 1987
Great post from a Seattle-based bookseller on etiquette at the annual library/fund raising sales that juice the inventory of the dealers involved and generally depress and anger everyone else.
A lifetime ago in the used book trade, I trudged off to these sorts of things with a cabal of used.. er antiquarian booksellers. Decent people most of us, who morphed into salivating greed heads on select days of the year.
"A few minutes before opening, the sale’s organizer stepped out of the library (accompanied by a uniformed police officer) and explained the rules of the sale. Dealers should fill one box, he said, then pass it to one of the volunteers before starting on another box. He passed out some labels for people to use on their boxes and went back inside. The doors were opened in short order and everyone rushed into the small meeting room where the sale was being held. Then in a carefully organized fashion, the four dealers who I mentioned before each scooped up a boxload of books from the choice non-fiction tables and shouted, “Full box.” They handed off their filled boxes and, barely glancing at the spines, dumped the next pile of books into their next four boxes. “Full box!”
I couldn't get to a shower quickly enough afterward.
By comparison, the only thing in the new book trade that makes me squeamish is having to touch things like this
Posted by Dave
A lifetime ago in the used book trade, I trudged off to these sorts of things with a cabal of used.. er antiquarian booksellers. Decent people most of us, who morphed into salivating greed heads on select days of the year.
"A few minutes before opening, the sale’s organizer stepped out of the library (accompanied by a uniformed police officer) and explained the rules of the sale. Dealers should fill one box, he said, then pass it to one of the volunteers before starting on another box. He passed out some labels for people to use on their boxes and went back inside. The doors were opened in short order and everyone rushed into the small meeting room where the sale was being held. Then in a carefully organized fashion, the four dealers who I mentioned before each scooped up a boxload of books from the choice non-fiction tables and shouted, “Full box.” They handed off their filled boxes and, barely glancing at the spines, dumped the next pile of books into their next four boxes. “Full box!”
I couldn't get to a shower quickly enough afterward.
By comparison, the only thing in the new book trade that makes me squeamish is having to touch things like this
Posted by Dave
Monday, October 30, 2006
over to Paris...
where violence has flared up again with the one year anniversary of the riots that resulted in the death of two teenage boys.
It's a bit callous, but any excuse to shout love about Lauren Davis' great book, and everything that I've read from this outfit as well. For a rock solid look at the riots focal point,
please check out Jean Claude Izzo's Marseilles trilogy. Classic American noir in a French setting; what's not to love?
Posted by Dave
it's safe(r) here
In a circumstance that would fit in J.M. Coetzee's novel Disgrace, noted South African writer Nadine Gordimer was robbed and assaulted in her Johannesburg home last week. Gordimer and others have recently remarked on the relative unease in South Africa, and some have voted with their feet.
Gordimer herself says, "my own view is complex and I really prefer to write them down. There are things that are remarkably good and things that are very, very worrying."
Posted by Dave
Gordimer herself says, "my own view is complex and I really prefer to write them down. There are things that are remarkably good and things that are very, very worrying."
Posted by Dave
Saturday, October 28, 2006
lazy, lazy lazy
It's one thing to give a book an unflattering review, it's another to opt for a lazy drubbing and leave a stated criticism entirely undressed.
Bob Armstrong's review in What's On Winnipeg is neither here or there on Craig Davidson's first novel, The Fighter, until this:
"And while he's ingenious and cruelly creative in dreaming up different kinds of mayhem, he's prone to clichés and sloppy thinking when he tries to connect his violence to the big picture.
To be fair, the secondary character, Rob Tully, and his family, are sketched out with a surprising tenderness and become three-dimensional characters, but Davidson's novel is ultimately about the other fighter, spoiled rich kid Paul Harris."
The novel excels as a study of character. I'm not sure what "big picture" Armstrong was talking about as he never returned to it. If the characters "are sketched out with a surprising tenderness" then Davidson has done his job. The book is a harrowing look at the world of bare-knuckle boxing and he's got his main characters right. That makes for a damn fine first novel.
As for Armstrong's silliness regarding the thrust of The Fighter:
"Forget the message. The message is that Craig Davidson thinks violence is cool" well that's the capper to an amateur hour review. Armstrong is ascribing a fetishistic intent on what is just descriptive writing.
As a sidebar, I corrected the typo in the above quote. It hardly bears mentioning, except that
Armstrong saw fit to rag on a few minor line edit oversights.
Again, nothing wrong with an unflattering review if it's backed up. This wasn't.
I can take or leave Chuck Palahniuk, but if the remarkable Thom Jones blurbed my book, I wouldn't care what a third tier reviewer said.
Posted by Dave
and so it goes
I'm reading Cormac McCarthy's new book so I don't hold us humans in very high regard anyway (except Cormac McCarthy) so it was a treat to come across incumbent Virginia Senator Republican George Allen's minions going through the CV of his Democratic opponent Jim Webb, and coming up with some spicy bits from several novels he wrote years earlier.
Webb is a former Republican and Vietnam vet whose military works are apparently “very disturbing for a candidate hoping to represent the families of Virginians," according to Allen's campaign. The fawning blurbs on Webb's books from Republican senator John McCain were apparently missed by said minions.
The same sort of nonsense occurred in Canada about six years back when New Democrats turned up an old novel by the late (and great) Bob Hunter that had some juicy bits in it and likely peeled enough votes away to give the NDP the byelection.
I wish Heather Mallick appeared more frequently because she'd hit this out of the park, but the idea that politicians would use novels as bait for their sleazy fishing expeditions against opponents is wholly pathetic.
The primary reason for the rise of the non-voter is because they think their vote makes no difference. The reason for that dubious but stubborn stance is because so few politicians seem able to relate to or connect with well, voters.
A good novel forces the reader to mine whatever empathy they have to care about the people in a book. Movies have virtually given up even broad character exploration, so elected representatives who don't have a novel in their house come off sounding like this.
As for me, I'm going to finish The Road. McCarthy's bleak, but I've never felt depressed afterward.
Please see Maureen Dowd for further reading
(password protected but I'll send my passwords to anyone who needs them)
Posted by Dave
Webb is a former Republican and Vietnam vet whose military works are apparently “very disturbing for a candidate hoping to represent the families of Virginians," according to Allen's campaign. The fawning blurbs on Webb's books from Republican senator John McCain were apparently missed by said minions.
The same sort of nonsense occurred in Canada about six years back when New Democrats turned up an old novel by the late (and great) Bob Hunter that had some juicy bits in it and likely peeled enough votes away to give the NDP the byelection.
I wish Heather Mallick appeared more frequently because she'd hit this out of the park, but the idea that politicians would use novels as bait for their sleazy fishing expeditions against opponents is wholly pathetic.
The primary reason for the rise of the non-voter is because they think their vote makes no difference. The reason for that dubious but stubborn stance is because so few politicians seem able to relate to or connect with well, voters.
A good novel forces the reader to mine whatever empathy they have to care about the people in a book. Movies have virtually given up even broad character exploration, so elected representatives who don't have a novel in their house come off sounding like this.
As for me, I'm going to finish The Road. McCarthy's bleak, but I've never felt depressed afterward.
Please see Maureen Dowd for further reading
(password protected but I'll send my passwords to anyone who needs them)
Posted by Dave
Thursday, October 26, 2006
stumbling in late and drunk
or at least late. Too damn tired to do much here lately.
It's author event season at work. The kickoff was a power trio made up of Mary Lawson, David Adams Richards and local fella and two time GG nominee Trevor Cole.
I've read all but three of these (oops) so I can't comment yet, but the half dozen David Richards novels I have read mean I can say without hesitation that he's the best novelist Canada has. There's wonderful stuff out there of course, but he's one of a select few that will be read generations from now.
The knock on him is that he's a bit bleak, (as though an existence in a resource economy is a barrel of laughs, and a Dickensian representation made up of a few thousand perfect sentences is a drag to read) but I love his stuff.
Mary Lawson is a genuine hit with legions of fan's who buy books and will likely follow her anywhere over the next effort or three.
It's always a good idea to have a chuckle at author readings, and Trevor Cole fits the bill admirably with his familial tale, Fearsome Particles. He's got an impressive CV in addition to being a novelist and it'll serve him well.
He's off to a hell of a start.
Next week Wayne Johnston, Timothy Taylor and Anita Rau Badami, who's book Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? is the best Canadian novel I've read this year.
Posted by Dave
Monday, October 23, 2006
I heart the Guardian
The Guardian just excels at this kind of thing.
Jason Cowley's article highlights the effect of awards on literature and details the Orange Prize win for Lionel Shriver and her brilliant novel We Need to Talk About Kevin.
The Guardian quotes James English, an American academic who has written a book on the cultural effects of prize giving thusly,
" 'The process involves power, money, politics. Prizes create symbolic value astonishingly quickly and easily, because they bring together economic power, social connections, academic expertise and celebrity and enable rather complex transactions to take place."
This is spot on.
I think both casual and voracious readers especially are particularly accumulative in needing to keep up what's out there and they like the idea of having ticked books off their mental list.
There's a vast number of books that still have legs because they benefit from "buzz" on several levels. Prizes can mean big initial numbers, but a plethora of book clubs, community programs or steady word of mouth that can keep interest fairly high. Once that happens the interest is no longer symbolic.
There are always books that win major awards and are off the radar relatively quickly, but
I'm amazed at how well Oprah's backlist still sells. Moreover, any novel that can get consistently recommended from one friend to another can avoid the maw of the midlist. Literary prizes help foster that, so bring on the prizes.
Not for nothing did a disparate group of authors implore Oprah Winfrey to re-instate her book club.
Ezra Pound may have a small point in bemoaning prize giving in the mid 1920's (see article) but given the number of entertainment options out there, a few prizes with a track record that reward quality (I pay specific attention to the Orange Prize) can only be a good thing.
Sidebar, a couple of us at Words Worth read "Kevin" when it was still a new hardcover and hand sold the hell out of it. Prizes or not, having a Lionel Shriver to shout about makes for a great workday.
Posted by Dave
Jason Cowley's article highlights the effect of awards on literature and details the Orange Prize win for Lionel Shriver and her brilliant novel We Need to Talk About Kevin.
The Guardian quotes James English, an American academic who has written a book on the cultural effects of prize giving thusly,
" 'The process involves power, money, politics. Prizes create symbolic value astonishingly quickly and easily, because they bring together economic power, social connections, academic expertise and celebrity and enable rather complex transactions to take place."
This is spot on.
I think both casual and voracious readers especially are particularly accumulative in needing to keep up what's out there and they like the idea of having ticked books off their mental list.
There's a vast number of books that still have legs because they benefit from "buzz" on several levels. Prizes can mean big initial numbers, but a plethora of book clubs, community programs or steady word of mouth that can keep interest fairly high. Once that happens the interest is no longer symbolic.
There are always books that win major awards and are off the radar relatively quickly, but
I'm amazed at how well Oprah's backlist still sells. Moreover, any novel that can get consistently recommended from one friend to another can avoid the maw of the midlist. Literary prizes help foster that, so bring on the prizes.
Not for nothing did a disparate group of authors implore Oprah Winfrey to re-instate her book club.
Ezra Pound may have a small point in bemoaning prize giving in the mid 1920's (see article) but given the number of entertainment options out there, a few prizes with a track record that reward quality (I pay specific attention to the Orange Prize) can only be a good thing.
Sidebar, a couple of us at Words Worth read "Kevin" when it was still a new hardcover and hand sold the hell out of it. Prizes or not, having a Lionel Shriver to shout about makes for a great workday.
Posted by Dave
Sunday, October 22, 2006
well at least read 'em the riot act
A couple news stories on the BBC that make for excellent cloudy day reading.
A survey by a charity called Booktrust and Pearson publishers suggests that "one in ten UK primary school parents never reads to their children" and a quarter of those polled "skip pages" to speed up the bedtime story."
In itself this is unfortunate but the beauty part reveals itself in the same paper from the Institute for Public Policy Research, which says that "Britain is in danger of becoming a nation fearful of its young people."
The report states that "British adults are less likely than those in Europe to intervene when teenagers commit anti-social behaviour."
The report blames "changes in the family, communities and the economy" for the rise in youth crime.
Read to the little bastards when their young or they'll steal your car later.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
It'll look great next to all those candles
Forget what I said yesterday. Jed Rubenfeld's Interpretation of Murder is the new Heather's Pick
Friday, October 20, 2006
bookselling as adoption
There have been several articles recently to do with the avalanche of fall releases and the high stakes involved for the major publishers. Authors in the current retail environment are prone to very public failures. A slew of decisions outside their control can derail a career.
It's one thing for a first novel like Jed Rubenfeld's Interpretation of Murder to tank (see NYT link) as he's teaching law at Yale as he did before.
But the NYT runs pretty much the same piece every year and last years noted casualty was Myla Goldberg's Wickett's Remedy. My partner read the book and liked it well enough but the talented writer's second novel never found it's audience.
I don't envy any beginning writer nowadays, but it should be a given that the fun in the bookselling game is finding the stuff that likely isn't going to move a lot of units but could use an advocate.
I read Rubenfeld's Interpretation of Murder and it's pretty average. There's plenty of florid prose on the bestseller list (his publisher spent the necessary money to get him there at any rate) and if he doesn't make it as a novelist it's no great loss.
It would be a shame though, if Myla Goldberg who is young and loaded with talent, gets lost in the proverbial shuffle.
So in the spirit of leading a horse to water as it were, everyone ought to read this. Or this.
Posted by Dave
It's one thing for a first novel like Jed Rubenfeld's Interpretation of Murder to tank (see NYT link) as he's teaching law at Yale as he did before.
But the NYT runs pretty much the same piece every year and last years noted casualty was Myla Goldberg's Wickett's Remedy. My partner read the book and liked it well enough but the talented writer's second novel never found it's audience.
I don't envy any beginning writer nowadays, but it should be a given that the fun in the bookselling game is finding the stuff that likely isn't going to move a lot of units but could use an advocate.
I read Rubenfeld's Interpretation of Murder and it's pretty average. There's plenty of florid prose on the bestseller list (his publisher spent the necessary money to get him there at any rate) and if he doesn't make it as a novelist it's no great loss.
It would be a shame though, if Myla Goldberg who is young and loaded with talent, gets lost in the proverbial shuffle.
So in the spirit of leading a horse to water as it were, everyone ought to read this. Or this.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
the law is an ass, or perhaps a ......
Anybody can be a social liberal in Massachusetts, it's probably a bit more difficult in Texas. That's why they, and everyone of them are just better than we are. Here's Molly Ivins, the best political writer in America on some of the oddities in Texas law.
In addition to some great books, her columns are abrasive like Bill Maher, funny like Jon Stewart and if America read enough of her instead of Michael Moore during the Nineties, George W. never even becomes governor of Texas, never mind the President. Sigh.
Link via Bookslut
Posted by Dave
In addition to some great books, her columns are abrasive like Bill Maher, funny like Jon Stewart and if America read enough of her instead of Michael Moore during the Nineties, George W. never even becomes governor of Texas, never mind the President. Sigh.
Link via Bookslut
Posted by Dave
yes with a but
The Toronto Star wonders if iconic Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart is staying true to Jack McClelland, given the association with Random House and several cost cutting measures in recent years.
"Nor does the firm have its own warehouse — its books are printed in Canada but stockpiled mostly in Chicago, except for a portion kept at a Mississauga site. Earlier this year it reduced its publicity staff and dismissed its talented art director, Kong Njo, who did much to create a distinctive look for Atwood and Munro's fictions.
"Is (M&S) an imprint of Random House?" says retired publisher Anna Porter. "That's the way it functions."
This seems symptomatic of changes throughout the industry. Influence has shifted from publishers to chains, and it should be noted that Heather Reisman's first foray into book selling wasn't infused with McClelland-style nationalism either.
Bookninja is right to point out that is only an issue because government money is at work.
As for the worry that M&S doesn't employ as many Canadians as it used to, Amazon.ca doesn't employ....well, any.
"Nor does the firm have its own warehouse — its books are printed in Canada but stockpiled mostly in Chicago, except for a portion kept at a Mississauga site. Earlier this year it reduced its publicity staff and dismissed its talented art director, Kong Njo, who did much to create a distinctive look for Atwood and Munro's fictions.
"Is (M&S) an imprint of Random House?" says retired publisher Anna Porter. "That's the way it functions."
This seems symptomatic of changes throughout the industry. Influence has shifted from publishers to chains, and it should be noted that Heather Reisman's first foray into book selling wasn't infused with McClelland-style nationalism either.
Bookninja is right to point out that is only an issue because government money is at work.
As for the worry that M&S doesn't employ as many Canadians as it used to, Amazon.ca doesn't employ....well, any.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Where to begin
Wow, this is probably the silliest, most ill-informed little screed on the subject of Print on Demand and the future of book selling that I've ever come across.
To summarize, big chain bookstores are too powerful, too filled with crappy, expensive books and the new scenario will work something like this:
"With luck, within five years your local Waterstone’s will have shrunk roughly to the size of a branch of Snappy Snaps. Books will be a lot cheaper, and you will be able to buy anything published anywhere in the world. In fact, you probably won’t bother with Snappystone’s at all. You will go into Starbucks, slip your credit card into a machine, order a book and grab a latte, which you will finish just as your book completes its printing and binding process."
In the meantime, Bryan Appleyard says, "Online, Amazon and Abe Books have everything I need; in fact, they have everything anybody could ever need, and Abe Books, especially, is absurdly cheap."
Please read the whole article, but unless I'm missing something, this clown's hatred of bookstore chains can be wholly replaced with... more chains.
Dude, are there no locally owned bookstores left in Britain?
I get along fine without chain stores too, but start thinking in terms of zeroes.
ABE and Amazon employ no one locally, contribute nothing to local tax bases, contribute nothing to local charities, authors receive no revenue through ABE's and Amazon's second hand businesses, and if small presses get bestseller placement on Amazon's page, I've never seen it.
I can only assume this guy wet himself in a bookshop as a child and is still horrendously scarred by the episode.
Posted by Dave
To summarize, big chain bookstores are too powerful, too filled with crappy, expensive books and the new scenario will work something like this:
"With luck, within five years your local Waterstone’s will have shrunk roughly to the size of a branch of Snappy Snaps. Books will be a lot cheaper, and you will be able to buy anything published anywhere in the world. In fact, you probably won’t bother with Snappystone’s at all. You will go into Starbucks, slip your credit card into a machine, order a book and grab a latte, which you will finish just as your book completes its printing and binding process."
In the meantime, Bryan Appleyard says, "Online, Amazon and Abe Books have everything I need; in fact, they have everything anybody could ever need, and Abe Books, especially, is absurdly cheap."
Please read the whole article, but unless I'm missing something, this clown's hatred of bookstore chains can be wholly replaced with... more chains.
Dude, are there no locally owned bookstores left in Britain?
I get along fine without chain stores too, but start thinking in terms of zeroes.
ABE and Amazon employ no one locally, contribute nothing to local tax bases, contribute nothing to local charities, authors receive no revenue through ABE's and Amazon's second hand businesses, and if small presses get bestseller placement on Amazon's page, I've never seen it.
I can only assume this guy wet himself in a bookshop as a child and is still horrendously scarred by the episode.
Posted by Dave
tis the season (not that one)
Governor General awards.
National Book Awards. Wow. Strong list, that.
It's hard not to be struck by the contrast in lists between a bunch of heavies, or at least books that have gotten widely reviewed in the States, compared with the relative unknowns on both major Canadian awards. Still, it makes for a busy season. I've always thought Ken Kalfus was underrated and Echo Maker looks amazing. I see some of the sharpies are all over it.
Posted by Dave
National Book Awards. Wow. Strong list, that.
It's hard not to be struck by the contrast in lists between a bunch of heavies, or at least books that have gotten widely reviewed in the States, compared with the relative unknowns on both major Canadian awards. Still, it makes for a busy season. I've always thought Ken Kalfus was underrated and Echo Maker looks amazing. I see some of the sharpies are all over it.
Posted by Dave
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Giller musings
I'm enjoying this from the surprising Giller shortlist. I've always tried to read more short fiction and nothing succeeds like a good short story collection. Carol Windley has two other books in play, so it follows that she belongs on the shortlist as much as anyone else in small press land.
Not much going on in the way of post list comment, but perhaps everyone is still shaking their heads. Also, the reviews are still coming.
Ouch.
Not much going on in the way of post list comment, but perhaps everyone is still shaking their heads. Also, the reviews are still coming.
Ouch.
Nice one, folks
I've just read Gary Shteyngart and Walter Kirn's exchange in Slate magazine on the future of the novel. It's a great take on a question I spend a great deal of time on, and of course, I'll follow Shteyngart anywhere.
In fact, all the Fall Fiction Week entries are great. I especially like Jennifer Egan on Cormac McCarthy.
In fact, all the Fall Fiction Week entries are great. I especially like Jennifer Egan on Cormac McCarthy.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
and now you know
Bloggers and booksellers have weighed in over at Slate with some overlooked gems for 2006.
There's some wonderful stuff up there, and Bookdwarf, a blog I really like, has picked a couple of beauties.
There's some wonderful stuff up there, and Bookdwarf, a blog I really like, has picked a couple of beauties.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Tip the Writer
I've never been much for movies. Not for any reason in particular, but I can't remember the last time I missed something in a theatre and regretted it. Our DVD player's dull grey pallor is largely the result of dust. On their own, movies don't seem to have much punch anymore
But a couple of my favourites are making some noise this autumn with their screen adaptations.
Tom Perrotta's Little Children made a fair splash a couple of years ago by expanding on John Cheever and Donald Antrim's turf of suburbanites gone wild and flaming out. This is something American authors have always done well and for my money Tom Perrotta is everything and more that Douglas Coupland was for a few months during the early 90s.
Perrotta's books, Election (filmed with Matthew Broderick) and Joe College are note perfect riffs on entitlement, ambition and a search for something like fulfillment.
The treat for the reader is being able to giggle throughout his books which are essentially, slow motion car crashes. I'll get to this, but nothing like the original. Perrotta's brand of humour is tough to duplicate on screen.
Giles Foden's Last King of Scotland concerns a Scottish doctor who while in Uganda, has the unfortunate happenstance to treat the hideous dictator's injury along a road they are traveling separately.
Amin (played by Forest Whittaker) promises the medical moon to Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, specifically the chance to oversee an emerging nations health care program. For those who know a bit of history, it ends rather badly. It's become rather common to refer to aggressive dictators as sociopathic, but Idi Amin surely was.
Foden is a U.K. native but he gets African nuances, as he has in his other three books. In his novel of the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa, Osama Bin Laden is a minor character. The books arrival very shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks made for a creepy read.
The number of good books made into great movies is likely small in number, but if either or both films equal the books in this case, that'll make for a good few hours.
Posted by Dave
But a couple of my favourites are making some noise this autumn with their screen adaptations.
Tom Perrotta's Little Children made a fair splash a couple of years ago by expanding on John Cheever and Donald Antrim's turf of suburbanites gone wild and flaming out. This is something American authors have always done well and for my money Tom Perrotta is everything and more that Douglas Coupland was for a few months during the early 90s.
Perrotta's books, Election (filmed with Matthew Broderick) and Joe College are note perfect riffs on entitlement, ambition and a search for something like fulfillment.
The treat for the reader is being able to giggle throughout his books which are essentially, slow motion car crashes. I'll get to this, but nothing like the original. Perrotta's brand of humour is tough to duplicate on screen.
Giles Foden's Last King of Scotland concerns a Scottish doctor who while in Uganda, has the unfortunate happenstance to treat the hideous dictator's injury along a road they are traveling separately.
Amin (played by Forest Whittaker) promises the medical moon to Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, specifically the chance to oversee an emerging nations health care program. For those who know a bit of history, it ends rather badly. It's become rather common to refer to aggressive dictators as sociopathic, but Idi Amin surely was.
Foden is a U.K. native but he gets African nuances, as he has in his other three books. In his novel of the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa, Osama Bin Laden is a minor character. The books arrival very shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks made for a creepy read.
The number of good books made into great movies is likely small in number, but if either or both films equal the books in this case, that'll make for a good few hours.
Posted by Dave
Saturday, October 07, 2006
otherwise engaged
I finally got an issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review today. I subscribed a couple weeks back, but happened to be wandering through a shop that stocks it.
I don't read nearly enough magazines and I'm afraid that includes literary journals. There are a few that I keep up with for the purposes of staying on top of reviews, but that's about it.
I've been hearing so much gushing from others that know from quality and VQR cleaned up at the National Magazine Awards recently.
I've been stumbling across a lot of twaddle recently that suggests that patronizing indie bookstores is the act of a poseur who wants to appear smarter or literate or some such nonsense.
Bullshit.
I'm going to patronize the Virginia Quarterly because I know it will make me smarter.
Posted by Dave
I don't read nearly enough magazines and I'm afraid that includes literary journals. There are a few that I keep up with for the purposes of staying on top of reviews, but that's about it.
I've been hearing so much gushing from others that know from quality and VQR cleaned up at the National Magazine Awards recently.
I've been stumbling across a lot of twaddle recently that suggests that patronizing indie bookstores is the act of a poseur who wants to appear smarter or literate or some such nonsense.
Bullshit.
I'm going to patronize the Virginia Quarterly because I know it will make me smarter.
Posted by Dave
Friday, October 06, 2006
think of the children
An inexplicable parade of celebutards putting together children's books continues.
On an unrelated matter, I used to wonder what would happen if I was ever in an elevator with several other people and someone noticeably larger than the rest of us got on, pushing our collective weight over the design requirement. I remember it always being securely bolted near the sliding doors.
Would we all fall to our deaths? Perhaps an audible stress on all that steel and hydraulics to make everyone briefly question their lives? Or maybe nothing but a silently expressed vow by each of us to practice safe elevating in future.
It's random fear response scenarios like this that make me wonder why anyone would think this is a good idea.
Posted by Dave
On an unrelated matter, I used to wonder what would happen if I was ever in an elevator with several other people and someone noticeably larger than the rest of us got on, pushing our collective weight over the design requirement. I remember it always being securely bolted near the sliding doors.
Would we all fall to our deaths? Perhaps an audible stress on all that steel and hydraulics to make everyone briefly question their lives? Or maybe nothing but a silently expressed vow by each of us to practice safe elevating in future.
It's random fear response scenarios like this that make me wonder why anyone would think this is a good idea.
Posted by Dave
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Circle the Wagons
The KWSO is in some serious trouble. The money needs to be there by Oct 31 and if you can donate some of the $2.5 million apparently needed to keep them afloat, let them know.
Some of the sixty-six musicians are among my favourite people in the bookstore, and we're richer for having the Symphony.
Please give what you can.
Posted by Dave
Some of the sixty-six musicians are among my favourite people in the bookstore, and we're richer for having the Symphony.
Please give what you can.
Posted by Dave
Half A Yellow Sun
There's near unanimous praise around the new novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Nigerian authors second. Chinua Achebe notes that the twenty-nine year old Adichie is "endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers" and her grasp of character and pacing, indeed of the fundamentals and craft of a novel is remarkable.
Adichie's second novel, following Purple Hibiscus concerns the Nigerian civil war in the late 60s' that resulted in the short, bloody history of Biafra in the eastern half of the country.
Five main characters anchor the book, most notably two sisters; the beautiful and complex Olannah, a mistress to Odenigbo, a revolutionary and academic. Olannah leaves her relatively monied family to follow her lover to a university town outside of the capital city.
Her sister Kaniene, is smart, blessed with a head for business and is the most enigmatic character in the book. She takes a visiting English writer for a lover and Richard ends up writing a novel of reportage around the gathering crises that turns to civil war.
Turning from boy to man during the Sixties is Ugwu, a houseboy to Odenigbo who serves as a window to everything in the book and has the bad luck to come of age as the war comes to the Igbo-dominated villages of eastern Nigeria.
Military campaigns are not uncommon in the modern novel, but Adichie has fashioned a singularly fine work by getting the village life right as well as the trajectory of low level military conflict. Minor indignities and all out calamity share the stage but never completely elbow the other off. The tumultuous love around the sisters and their very different men, and the incendiary politics of the emerging nation make for pleasing close reading, yet pages turn quickly throughout. The result is a book that rivals Tim O'Brien for reportage and bests books by many other writers who are deep into their careers.
She's so young and as Achebe notes on the book jacket, " came almost fully made."
Adichie is really a writer to watch.
Posted by Dave
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
they've never heard of you either
I'm of two minds on the Giller shortlist. On the one hand it's nice that small (ish) presses are entirely represented. Offhand I can't remember the last time Random House was represented only by a short fiction collection. Secondly, a couple short story collections on the shortlist is great. I've always maintained that short fiction is where the better writing can be found. It's very hard to sell short fiction because the novel has become so paramount among fiction readers. Whether it's to do with book clubs or not is another question, but unless you're Alice Munro, short fiction is a tough thing to meet the rent with.
Therefore, as a bookseller it's a hell of a lot easier having a David Adams Richard and Wayne Johnston around to gift a shortlist a push. Quill and Quire reported "an audible gasp" when it became clear that both writers weren't going to be at the best tables come Nov 7, the date the winner is announced.
So many booksellers are really just professional readers in the sense that they try to some degree to read strategically; to get familiar with both the big names and the stuff they can hand sell at the margins.
That we always fail at this brings up the next point.
Because there's so much this year means that I'm going to miss a lot and that's okay, because if publishers continue to push more titles through the fall, they'll figure out soon enough that it's self defeating. Until such time as the pool of readers increases, putting more fish in the pond is only going to lead to a lot of unhealthy fish. To wit, many unhappy returns.
In the meantime, handicapping is as big a waste of time as this. I stole the line from Mark at TEV, but it works for the Gillers, too. Nonetheless, keep an eye on Vincent Lam and Carol Windley, the short fiction people. Cormorant publisher Marc Cote makes a good point when he said, “when Alice Munro (one of the jurors) says you have written a great short story … you have.”
Posted by Dave
Therefore, as a bookseller it's a hell of a lot easier having a David Adams Richard and Wayne Johnston around to gift a shortlist a push. Quill and Quire reported "an audible gasp" when it became clear that both writers weren't going to be at the best tables come Nov 7, the date the winner is announced.
So many booksellers are really just professional readers in the sense that they try to some degree to read strategically; to get familiar with both the big names and the stuff they can hand sell at the margins.
That we always fail at this brings up the next point.
Because there's so much this year means that I'm going to miss a lot and that's okay, because if publishers continue to push more titles through the fall, they'll figure out soon enough that it's self defeating. Until such time as the pool of readers increases, putting more fish in the pond is only going to lead to a lot of unhealthy fish. To wit, many unhappy returns.
In the meantime, handicapping is as big a waste of time as this. I stole the line from Mark at TEV, but it works for the Gillers, too. Nonetheless, keep an eye on Vincent Lam and Carol Windley, the short fiction people. Cormorant publisher Marc Cote makes a good point when he said, “when Alice Munro (one of the jurors) says you have written a great short story … you have.”
Posted by Dave
Monday, October 02, 2006
but can he dance like me?
One of the locals has been getting a lot of attention with his new book, The Trouble with Physics. I think Lee Smolin resides in Toronto, but he's a founding scientist with the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo. His contention that "the field of fundamental theoretical physics is in trouble, and this book is about why," looks like it's going against the grain in the brainier circles, and it's always fun to watch a dust up at this level. Literary food fights are boring by comparison now that Martin Amis is a winter lion.
And honestly, given that everyone seems to know the money paragraphs already, I don't expect much from this. The book business could learn a thing or two from a proper movie trailer perhaps. That, and maybe hold Christmas twice a year.
Last link via Bookninja
Posted by Dave
And honestly, given that everyone seems to know the money paragraphs already, I don't expect much from this. The book business could learn a thing or two from a proper movie trailer perhaps. That, and maybe hold Christmas twice a year.
Last link via Bookninja
Posted by Dave
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
