Well kind of. It's still pretty damn cool.
Link via TEV
Posted by David
Sunday, June 29, 2008
I'd rather a pulp and a drink
Junot Diaz on what Grand Theft Auto is. And isn't.
"For me, GTA IV is more an example of our evasions as a culture, more of a fairy tale, more of a story of consolation than a shattering cultural critique or even, dare I say it, great art. GTA IV is a game that allows you to forget how screwed-up and complicated things are in the real world; it could have done more, it could have put that screwed-up complicated world front and center."
I've not played anything remotely like a video game in over twenty years, but I'm still glad to see the differences in narrative being discussed intelligently. And on some level, it is kind of cool that Diaz has got to be the first Pulitzer Prize winner than can also describe himself as an "early adopter" to video games.
Posted by David
"For me, GTA IV is more an example of our evasions as a culture, more of a fairy tale, more of a story of consolation than a shattering cultural critique or even, dare I say it, great art. GTA IV is a game that allows you to forget how screwed-up and complicated things are in the real world; it could have done more, it could have put that screwed-up complicated world front and center."
I've not played anything remotely like a video game in over twenty years, but I'm still glad to see the differences in narrative being discussed intelligently. And on some level, it is kind of cool that Diaz has got to be the first Pulitzer Prize winner than can also describe himself as an "early adopter" to video games.
Posted by David
Late to the party
The Wall Street Journal marvels at Amazon's ability to "champion" a debut novel, in this case David Wroblewski and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Bookdwarf quite rightly calls the Journal out, as her shop were boosters of the novel months ago, and more to the point, she makes the case that it's independents that till the soil and germinate the seed in the first place.
The weirdest bit from the Journal reads:
"But at a time when readers are increasingly buying only brand-name authors, the 566-page literary novel by Wisconsin native David Wroblewski wouldn't normally be expected to enjoy heavy demand."
Uhh...Brand name (bland name?) authors are so because of the influence of the chains and Amazon. Conversely, first novels that find air to breathe are usually the result of indie booksellers getting to the book early. In this case in particular, a rave in the NY Times a couple weeks ago probably helped a bit too.
Large format bookstores obviously have greater ability to influence a featured title through co-op advertising and so forth, but they are seldom in the business of championing talented unknowns. If that were the case, this guy would still be in advertising.
Well, for all practical purposes, he still is.
Posted by David
The weirdest bit from the Journal reads:
"But at a time when readers are increasingly buying only brand-name authors, the 566-page literary novel by Wisconsin native David Wroblewski wouldn't normally be expected to enjoy heavy demand."
Uhh...Brand name (bland name?) authors are so because of the influence of the chains and Amazon. Conversely, first novels that find air to breathe are usually the result of indie booksellers getting to the book early. In this case in particular, a rave in the NY Times a couple weeks ago probably helped a bit too.
Large format bookstores obviously have greater ability to influence a featured title through co-op advertising and so forth, but they are seldom in the business of championing talented unknowns. If that were the case, this guy would still be in advertising.
Well, for all practical purposes, he still is.
Posted by David
Saturday, June 28, 2008
No time to sleep
The shop is starting to wonder about making time to inhale all the good stuff coming in the next few months, and I've now got to make time for this.
Sadly, I've only read some earlier Ethan Canin, but I trust Ron Charles and I'll follow the American political novel forever.
Right now I'm plowing through what looks to be the season's big book, if all the prepublication hype is to be believed.
Gargoyle comes in at about 400 pages, but it's pure potboiler. It reads quickly and is driven by a pretty high octane story.
The lead character is a miserable guy who almost burns to death after a car wreck and is visited in the burn ward by a woman claiming to know him from their time together in the 13th century. The story moves through timelines with ease, shifts quickly and it's rather engaging stuff. I'm only about a third through and an astute editor could easily cut fifteen per cent of the length from the book, but so far so good.
Posted by David
Sadly, I've only read some earlier Ethan Canin, but I trust Ron Charles and I'll follow the American political novel forever.
Right now I'm plowing through what looks to be the season's big book, if all the prepublication hype is to be believed.
Gargoyle comes in at about 400 pages, but it's pure potboiler. It reads quickly and is driven by a pretty high octane story.
The lead character is a miserable guy who almost burns to death after a car wreck and is visited in the burn ward by a woman claiming to know him from their time together in the 13th century. The story moves through timelines with ease, shifts quickly and it's rather engaging stuff. I'm only about a third through and an astute editor could easily cut fifteen per cent of the length from the book, but so far so good.
Posted by David
Friday, June 27, 2008
study in contrast
The CBC is tweaking yet again, and I'm just old enough to be of two minds in Jian Ghomeshi, whose show seems directed at "younger, pop tastes, yet rests just outside the mainstream"
(I've no idea what that means).
I'll hold out hope for the Ian Brown slot, but you don't replace Shelagh Rogers so easily.
In the meantime, the American equivalent has a podcast and related goodies around my man Andrew Sean Greer, whose books are essential reading no matter what's on the radio.
Posted by David
(I've no idea what that means).
I'll hold out hope for the Ian Brown slot, but you don't replace Shelagh Rogers so easily.
In the meantime, the American equivalent has a podcast and related goodies around my man Andrew Sean Greer, whose books are essential reading no matter what's on the radio.
Posted by David
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
as on a darkling plain
For the last hour, I've read the comments section on this story and I kind of feel like crying.
From what I can tell, some questionable decisions by management; and Berkely being impossible to do business in had as much to do with Cody's closing (an apparent tripling of the rent sure as hell didn't help) as being pummeled by Amazon/Barnes & Noble etc.
But a surprising number of comments put the blame on a perceived lack of customer service and an off-putting aggressively lefty sensibility on the part of the staff.
So while I'll always mourn the passing of an independent bookstore and will never miss a chance to point out that chain stores and online shopping always make for a much larger carbon footprint and inevitably lead to a denuded tax base; here's my pledge to one and all.
I haven't read a Stephen King novel in years and likely never will again. The appeal of lots of hipster doofus authors is lost on me. But if any of this stuff is brought to my counter, the purchaser will never hear any of my artfully expressed opinions of the politics of the day, and I'll never be anything less than pleasant.
That's a promise. *
Posted by David
Although Ralph Nader is apparently-an a**hole *
From what I can tell, some questionable decisions by management; and Berkely being impossible to do business in had as much to do with Cody's closing (an apparent tripling of the rent sure as hell didn't help) as being pummeled by Amazon/Barnes & Noble etc.
But a surprising number of comments put the blame on a perceived lack of customer service and an off-putting aggressively lefty sensibility on the part of the staff.
So while I'll always mourn the passing of an independent bookstore and will never miss a chance to point out that chain stores and online shopping always make for a much larger carbon footprint and inevitably lead to a denuded tax base; here's my pledge to one and all.
I haven't read a Stephen King novel in years and likely never will again. The appeal of lots of hipster doofus authors is lost on me. But if any of this stuff is brought to my counter, the purchaser will never hear any of my artfully expressed opinions of the politics of the day, and I'll never be anything less than pleasant.
That's a promise. *
Posted by David
Although Ralph Nader is apparently-an a**hole *
hey what about...?!#$%??$!
Entertainment Weekly used to be a guilty pleasure, but for such an blockbuster friendly mag, their book coverage was not that bad. Especially in a time of shrinking print coverage a decent list is kind of an okay endeavour.
Okay, clearly struggling to find some praise here, but still if "modern classics" can encompass Mystic River, America the Book and Night Manager, then surely there's room for George Pelecanos, Shalom Auslander and Alan Furst?
Seriously, the new Alan Furst is chugging along pretty well and as an espionage guy, he's top shelf. His WW 2 era novels read like James Bond films written by Joseph Conrad.
Posted by David
Okay, clearly struggling to find some praise here, but still if "modern classics" can encompass Mystic River, America the Book and Night Manager, then surely there's room for George Pelecanos, Shalom Auslander and Alan Furst?
Seriously, the new Alan Furst is chugging along pretty well and as an espionage guy, he's top shelf. His WW 2 era novels read like James Bond films written by Joseph Conrad.
Posted by David
Monday, June 23, 2008
watch this space
I haven't read it yet, but we're not the only ones expecting big things from this guy.
"At the recent big bookseller convention in Los Angeles, dozens of curious readers lined up late on a Saturday afternoon to have Mr. Davidson, clad in a casual black shirt and jeans, autograph their advanced reader copies of his book. Doubleday, which printed a hefty 10,000 early editions to give away, also handed out miniature gargoyles.
Although his publisher won't disclose how much it is spending on its marketing campaign, there will be major print and online advertising. Also planned is an extensive online presence anchored by a Web site titled burnedbylove.com, where readers will be asked to describe, briefly, "their most intense relationship." There are plans for a Gargoyle Flickr Group on the photo-sharing Web site; a MySpace page, and book-related contests on various other sites. Doubleday is also creating a series of videos inspired by the book.'
We're working on an instore event with Andrew Davidson, and an absolute horde of other passers by in the fall. So far though, this looks like the big get.
Posted by David
"At the recent big bookseller convention in Los Angeles, dozens of curious readers lined up late on a Saturday afternoon to have Mr. Davidson, clad in a casual black shirt and jeans, autograph their advanced reader copies of his book. Doubleday, which printed a hefty 10,000 early editions to give away, also handed out miniature gargoyles.
Although his publisher won't disclose how much it is spending on its marketing campaign, there will be major print and online advertising. Also planned is an extensive online presence anchored by a Web site titled burnedbylove.com, where readers will be asked to describe, briefly, "their most intense relationship." There are plans for a Gargoyle Flickr Group on the photo-sharing Web site; a MySpace page, and book-related contests on various other sites. Doubleday is also creating a series of videos inspired by the book.'
We're working on an instore event with Andrew Davidson, and an absolute horde of other passers by in the fall. So far though, this looks like the big get.
Posted by David
George Carlin R.I.P.
Ahhhh....shit.
'Although some criticized parts of his later work as too contentious, Mr. Carlin defended the material, insisting that his comedy had always been driven by an intolerance for the shortcomings of humanity and society. “Scratch any cynic,” he said, “and you’ll find a disappointed idealist.”
Still, when pushed to explain the pessimism and overt spleen that had crept into his act, he quickly reaffirmed the zeal that inspired his lists of complaints and grievances. “I don’t have pet peeves,” he said, correcting the interviewer. And with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he added, “I have major, psychotic hatreds.” "
The language is a good deal less flavourful today.
Posted by David
'Although some criticized parts of his later work as too contentious, Mr. Carlin defended the material, insisting that his comedy had always been driven by an intolerance for the shortcomings of humanity and society. “Scratch any cynic,” he said, “and you’ll find a disappointed idealist.”
Still, when pushed to explain the pessimism and overt spleen that had crept into his act, he quickly reaffirmed the zeal that inspired his lists of complaints and grievances. “I don’t have pet peeves,” he said, correcting the interviewer. And with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he added, “I have major, psychotic hatreds.” "
The language is a good deal less flavourful today.
Posted by David
Friday, June 20, 2008
It's hard out there for a white man
Like the tides, the sun coming up, or the pronouncements of a few well-placed groundhogs; its a law of nature that Glenn Beck, probably the dumbest guy to ever cash a check at CNN, will before too long say something stupid.
All the nonsense is here but essentially books for preteen boys today are "emasculating."
"Try to find one" that acts as a manual "for growing up, being a good strong honest man.
They're no longer about value or virtue or the spirit of adventure or sticking up for your little sister or yourself."
That's not at all to say the book is a dud, I've not read it. But to say that there's nothing out there for boys anymore and equate it with his signature political correctness bogeyman is simplistic and offensive.
Beck concludes with "there are no great stories or storytellers anymore, but you've created one."
There are others on staff that I've relied on to stay on top of the young adult genre, but given that I'm sure Beck has done all the reading, I look forward to him uncovering other literary gems.
link via Galleycat
Posted by David
All the nonsense is here but essentially books for preteen boys today are "emasculating."
"Try to find one" that acts as a manual "for growing up, being a good strong honest man.
They're no longer about value or virtue or the spirit of adventure or sticking up for your little sister or yourself."
That's not at all to say the book is a dud, I've not read it. But to say that there's nothing out there for boys anymore and equate it with his signature political correctness bogeyman is simplistic and offensive.
Beck concludes with "there are no great stories or storytellers anymore, but you've created one."
There are others on staff that I've relied on to stay on top of the young adult genre, but given that I'm sure Beck has done all the reading, I look forward to him uncovering other literary gems.
link via Galleycat
Posted by David
They're more fun, too
Thursday, June 19, 2008
talking to Frederick Taylor about poetry
The Atlantic Monthly has the goods on us this month as Nicholas Carr wonders if we're going to read for anything more than distraction when Google is done.
Essentially, the way humans are reading is fundamentally different than how our grandparents did. We skim, we get a sense of an argument and after a few paragraphs we move on.
It follows that books are too big to get back to, never mind a longish article that requires keeping a few arguments in mind while reading how the author gets there.
"Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” he wrote earlier this year. A pathologist who has long been on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School, Friedman elaborated on his comment in a telephone conversation with me. His thinking, he said, has taken on a “staccato” quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.”
Our man is even handed enough, pointing out that every new innovation has naysayers and enthusiasts; that even the printed word itself prompted similar hand wringing in some quarters, but this is different.
"Some of the bloggers I follow have also begun mentioning the phenomenon. Scott Karp, who writes a blog about online media, recently confessed that he has stopped reading books altogether. “I was a lit major in college, and used to be [a] voracious book reader,” he wrote. “What happened?” He speculates on the answer: “What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?”
This leads me to wonder about the humble work of fiction in all this.
In this future of skim and what another commentator in the article calls "pancake people",
knowledge spread thin and wide, will we still seek out narrative in the same way?
Will we still feel a curiosity about much when the full sum of knowledge is a few keystrokes away or if Google has it's dreams realized,
“Certainly if you had all the world’s information directly attached to your brain, or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain, you’d be better off.” Last year, Page told a convention of scientists that Google is “really trying to build artificial intelligence and to do it on a large scale.”
If the act of consuming text is done to a finite end, similar to looking for and finding the right tool for a carpentry job, then will our relationship to the text change in ways that make it less likely to revisit text for something as emotional as storytelling. I wonder if our heretofore fundamental need to get a sense of ourselves and those around us changes as well. Storytelling has always done that for me, and has done so in the Western tradition of which I'm a part for centuries.
Take away the "pleasure of the text" and I'm not sure what one does with the knowledge it's now so easy to access.
It does make it easier to sell things to a populace that's easily distracted and not prone to overthink very much. Oh well, don't be evil.
Posted by David
Essentially, the way humans are reading is fundamentally different than how our grandparents did. We skim, we get a sense of an argument and after a few paragraphs we move on.
It follows that books are too big to get back to, never mind a longish article that requires keeping a few arguments in mind while reading how the author gets there.
"Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” he wrote earlier this year. A pathologist who has long been on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School, Friedman elaborated on his comment in a telephone conversation with me. His thinking, he said, has taken on a “staccato” quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.”
Our man is even handed enough, pointing out that every new innovation has naysayers and enthusiasts; that even the printed word itself prompted similar hand wringing in some quarters, but this is different.
"Some of the bloggers I follow have also begun mentioning the phenomenon. Scott Karp, who writes a blog about online media, recently confessed that he has stopped reading books altogether. “I was a lit major in college, and used to be [a] voracious book reader,” he wrote. “What happened?” He speculates on the answer: “What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?”
This leads me to wonder about the humble work of fiction in all this.
In this future of skim and what another commentator in the article calls "pancake people",
knowledge spread thin and wide, will we still seek out narrative in the same way?
Will we still feel a curiosity about much when the full sum of knowledge is a few keystrokes away or if Google has it's dreams realized,
“Certainly if you had all the world’s information directly attached to your brain, or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain, you’d be better off.” Last year, Page told a convention of scientists that Google is “really trying to build artificial intelligence and to do it on a large scale.”
If the act of consuming text is done to a finite end, similar to looking for and finding the right tool for a carpentry job, then will our relationship to the text change in ways that make it less likely to revisit text for something as emotional as storytelling. I wonder if our heretofore fundamental need to get a sense of ourselves and those around us changes as well. Storytelling has always done that for me, and has done so in the Western tradition of which I'm a part for centuries.
Take away the "pleasure of the text" and I'm not sure what one does with the knowledge it's now so easy to access.
It does make it easier to sell things to a populace that's easily distracted and not prone to overthink very much. Oh well, don't be evil.
Posted by David
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Now he can afford any house he wants
Great news, this.
The Richard and Judy book club in England has tapped one of my faves Linwood Barclay.
'A book by Toronto writer Linwood Barclay has earned a spot on the summer reading list of the Richard and Judy Book Club, the British equivalent of Oprah's Book Club.
Husband and wife team Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan chose Barclay's No Time for Goodbye for their summer 2008 list.'
It seriously couldn't happen to a nicer guy, and we were early fans.
His Zack Walker series is a winner as well, in which our hero, worried for his families safety in Toronto moves to the suburbs to be safe. As it happens, not so much.
Excellent news.
Posted by Dave
The Richard and Judy book club in England has tapped one of my faves Linwood Barclay.
'A book by Toronto writer Linwood Barclay has earned a spot on the summer reading list of the Richard and Judy Book Club, the British equivalent of Oprah's Book Club.
Husband and wife team Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan chose Barclay's No Time for Goodbye for their summer 2008 list.'
It seriously couldn't happen to a nicer guy, and we were early fans.
His Zack Walker series is a winner as well, in which our hero, worried for his families safety in Toronto moves to the suburbs to be safe. As it happens, not so much.
Excellent news.
Posted by Dave
Monday, June 16, 2008
post BEC musings
Tired, so very tired.
After two days in Toronto at the annual Book Expo Canada I'm a bit confused by it all.
On the one hand, there are too many booksellers fixated on dual pricing battles that were red hot last year. It's out of the media now so we rarely hear it anymore. What is in the media is the rise of the e-reader, but I didn't hear too much of it. (Whistling past the graveyard? Who the hell knows? Although if publishers want to get into bed with Amazon, they can damn sure expect things to get more interesting.
Saturday was filled with seminars around independent business acting in concert against the chains and Bill (End of Nature) McKibben was a very inspirational and forceful speaker on our behalf. Most of the reasons for buying local are fairly obvious to most citizens, but McKibben has an enviable took kit to help booksellers educate their own customers and chain store's customers as well. We just need to reach them.
It was an eye opener seeing what some other booksellers are doing to prosper in what can be a tough environment.
Sunday was a day for meeting authors and finding out where the good books are coming from.
I'm particularly pleased that one of my favourite outfits now has Canadian distribution through Penguin Canada.
That means the good stuff (and most of it is damnably good) gets here in three days instead of ten or twelve. I'm content to groove on that for now.
Posted by Dave
After two days in Toronto at the annual Book Expo Canada I'm a bit confused by it all.
On the one hand, there are too many booksellers fixated on dual pricing battles that were red hot last year. It's out of the media now so we rarely hear it anymore. What is in the media is the rise of the e-reader, but I didn't hear too much of it. (Whistling past the graveyard? Who the hell knows? Although if publishers want to get into bed with Amazon, they can damn sure expect things to get more interesting.
Saturday was filled with seminars around independent business acting in concert against the chains and Bill (End of Nature) McKibben was a very inspirational and forceful speaker on our behalf. Most of the reasons for buying local are fairly obvious to most citizens, but McKibben has an enviable took kit to help booksellers educate their own customers and chain store's customers as well. We just need to reach them.
It was an eye opener seeing what some other booksellers are doing to prosper in what can be a tough environment.
Sunday was a day for meeting authors and finding out where the good books are coming from.
I'm particularly pleased that one of my favourite outfits now has Canadian distribution through Penguin Canada.
That means the good stuff (and most of it is damnably good) gets here in three days instead of ten or twelve. I'm content to groove on that for now.
Posted by Dave
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tim Russert R.I.P
This is a big loss for political junkies everywhere.
Tim Russert was a fixture on Meet The Press for as long as I've been an adult and I'm geeky enough to catch it most of the time. Politically, I didn't lock in with him much, but we knew his stuff and plainly loved his job.
I get the sense that the next time my man Joe Biden gets on the show he'll make stuffing out of the new guy, but fifty-eight is too young to pass for anyone.
Posted by David
Tim Russert was a fixture on Meet The Press for as long as I've been an adult and I'm geeky enough to catch it most of the time. Politically, I didn't lock in with him much, but we knew his stuff and plainly loved his job.
I get the sense that the next time my man Joe Biden gets on the show he'll make stuffing out of the new guy, but fifty-eight is too young to pass for anyone.
Posted by David
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
It's wrong, but I understand
I'm not a fan of the Macallan, but some like it fine.
"It's not clear just what was so irresistible: Perhaps the richly resinous taste imprinted by aging in oak sherry casks from Jerez, Spain. Maybe it was the full-bodied palate with a nose of rich caramel and a chocolate finish.
But a Westbank, B.C., man was arrested this week for his exclusive taste in 10-year-old The Macallan cask-strength single malt scotch.
It was the second shot that did him in.
Kelowna RCMP arrested the 42-year-old man on Saturday for possession of stolen property after he allegedly walked out of a Westbank liquor store without paying for five bottles of the Speyside whiskey-maker's top mainstream product stuffed in his backpack.
He had allegedly cleared the shelf of the same selection just the day before - police say a security camera recorded him on Friday absconding with four bottles of the 10-year-old scotch that retails in B.C. for $94.95 a bottle."
The commentary from the cognoscenti in the rest of the article is beautiful, and spot on.
Lets hope the authorities give the guy a bottle to nurse for awhile, but it's really only worth doing time for this and surely there's a proper cell here.
Posted by David
"It's not clear just what was so irresistible: Perhaps the richly resinous taste imprinted by aging in oak sherry casks from Jerez, Spain. Maybe it was the full-bodied palate with a nose of rich caramel and a chocolate finish.
But a Westbank, B.C., man was arrested this week for his exclusive taste in 10-year-old The Macallan cask-strength single malt scotch.
It was the second shot that did him in.
Kelowna RCMP arrested the 42-year-old man on Saturday for possession of stolen property after he allegedly walked out of a Westbank liquor store without paying for five bottles of the Speyside whiskey-maker's top mainstream product stuffed in his backpack.
He had allegedly cleared the shelf of the same selection just the day before - police say a security camera recorded him on Friday absconding with four bottles of the 10-year-old scotch that retails in B.C. for $94.95 a bottle."
The commentary from the cognoscenti in the rest of the article is beautiful, and spot on.
Lets hope the authorities give the guy a bottle to nurse for awhile, but it's really only worth doing time for this and surely there's a proper cell here.
Posted by David
For openers
Early days, but about now publishers start rolling out the first big novels of the year.
Andre Dubus III has got outstanding pedigree and is worth keeping an eye on for that reason alone. House of Sand & Fog was a big book a handful of years back, and The Garden of Last Days drops today.
Posted by David
Andre Dubus III has got outstanding pedigree and is worth keeping an eye on for that reason alone. House of Sand & Fog was a big book a handful of years back, and The Garden of Last Days drops today.
Posted by David
Monday, June 09, 2008
the author is mediocre, annually
If there's such a thing as a law of intended consequences, perhaps this is it.
"In an age when reading for pleasure is declining, book publishers increasingly are counting on their biggest moneymaking writers to crank out books at a rate of at least one a year, right on schedule, and sometimes faster than that."
Many top-selling writers, such as John Grisham and Mary Higgins Clark, have turned out at least one book annually for years. Now some writers are beginning to grumble about the pressure, and some are refusing to comply."
Funny how reading for pleasure declines when no one is allowed to take the time to read, and when someone does, they have to rely on an undercooked slab of carcass from Mary Higgins Clark.
Jesus, maybe if fewer authors were published and loosed upon the shrinking reading public with some care, they could be allowed to take their time. Good writers would come up with stuff like this. Books would then be seen as something that had some care built into them.
Alternately, I suppose one could write an Adam Sandler movie during an unscheduled bathroom break. Either was is fine.
Posted by David
Posted by Dave
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Friday, June 06, 2008
Holding my breath until America turns blue
As of yesterday, the only site that matters for American political junkies is up and running.
It's all about the Electoral College now and it looks a lot like last time; except McCain runs well so far in Florida, and Obama looks a bit better in the Midwest and parts of the South.
He's also running a good deal better than Kerry in leaning Republican states generally, which may force McCain to spread out his cheese a bit.
Very early days of course, but I checked daily four years ago and will do so again.
Apologies in advance for some of the books that will go unread.
Go Barack.
Posted by Dave
It's all about the Electoral College now and it looks a lot like last time; except McCain runs well so far in Florida, and Obama looks a bit better in the Midwest and parts of the South.
He's also running a good deal better than Kerry in leaning Republican states generally, which may force McCain to spread out his cheese a bit.
Very early days of course, but I checked daily four years ago and will do so again.
Apologies in advance for some of the books that will go unread.
Go Barack.
Posted by Dave
Thursday, June 05, 2008
If you were a monopoly what kind of monopoly would you be?
Now Magazine's Susan Cole tees off on Heather Reisman (chief book lover/celebrity hound at Indigo) for her sloppy interview skills with Barbara Walters.
"Indigo books honcho Heather Reisman's vanity is out of control.
Her decision – and I guess we can blame publisher Knopf, too – to do an on onstage interview with Barbara Walters wasted a huge opportunity to get inside the heart and mind of the woman who single-handedly turned the on-air interview into pure gold.
A professional journalist would have extracted something more than just a rehash of her book – fascinating as it is – and would have given the audience more than just a conversation between the world's most famous interviewer and one of her greatest fans. Presumably, the folks at Knopf couldn't care less. The event was sold out and Walters's book Audition (see my review here) is #1 on the bestseller list and should stay there for quite a while."
And really, what else matters?
I've no problem with Indigo's getting these kind of events, they're the big dog and celebrity journalism pays down the debt. I'm just surprised that H. Reisman's ego surprises anyone else.
Posted by Dave
"Indigo books honcho Heather Reisman's vanity is out of control.
Her decision – and I guess we can blame publisher Knopf, too – to do an on onstage interview with Barbara Walters wasted a huge opportunity to get inside the heart and mind of the woman who single-handedly turned the on-air interview into pure gold.
A professional journalist would have extracted something more than just a rehash of her book – fascinating as it is – and would have given the audience more than just a conversation between the world's most famous interviewer and one of her greatest fans. Presumably, the folks at Knopf couldn't care less. The event was sold out and Walters's book Audition (see my review here) is #1 on the bestseller list and should stay there for quite a while."
And really, what else matters?
I've no problem with Indigo's getting these kind of events, they're the big dog and celebrity journalism pays down the debt. I'm just surprised that H. Reisman's ego surprises anyone else.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Perfect
This is creative sentencing at its finest.
The wankers who trashed Robert Frost's home a few months back have been frogmarched into a class on his poetry.
Noted critic and Frost biographer Jay Parini gets to redeem the future McCain voters with line by line interpretations of Frost's work.
'“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” he thundered, reciting the opening line of the first poem, which he called symbolic of the need to make choices in life.
“This is where Frost is relevant. This is the irony of this whole thing. You come to a path in the woods where you can say, ‘Shall I go to this party and get drunk out of my mind?”’ he said. “Everything in life is choices.”
The only thing that bugs me about this is the easy "poetic justice" gambit.
Poetic justice would have been making the little bastards read Billy Corgan's poetry while vandalizing their own homes.
Link via Bookslut
Posted by Dave
The wankers who trashed Robert Frost's home a few months back have been frogmarched into a class on his poetry.
Noted critic and Frost biographer Jay Parini gets to redeem the future McCain voters with line by line interpretations of Frost's work.
'“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” he thundered, reciting the opening line of the first poem, which he called symbolic of the need to make choices in life.
“This is where Frost is relevant. This is the irony of this whole thing. You come to a path in the woods where you can say, ‘Shall I go to this party and get drunk out of my mind?”’ he said. “Everything in life is choices.”
The only thing that bugs me about this is the easy "poetic justice" gambit.
Poetic justice would have been making the little bastards read Billy Corgan's poetry while vandalizing their own homes.
Link via Bookslut
Posted by Dave
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
happy days
unless you're stuck in Poland in the 1930's.
The new Alan Furst novel is out today, and even reading short interviews with him make me feel smarter than I am.
After reading his novels I'm pretty much bulletproof.
Well okay, but he's still a drop dead gorgeous writer.
Posted by Dave
The new Alan Furst novel is out today, and even reading short interviews with him make me feel smarter than I am.
After reading his novels I'm pretty much bulletproof.
Well okay, but he's still a drop dead gorgeous writer.
Posted by Dave
Monday, June 02, 2008
Uh, oh
Here comes the Kindle to scare the hell out of everybody.
"But excitement about the Kindle, which was introduced in November, also worries some publishing executives, who fear Amazon’s still-growing power as a bookseller. Those executives note that Amazon currently sells most of its Kindle books to customers for a price well below what it pays publishers, and they anticipate that it will not be long before Amazon begins using the Kindle’s popularity as a lever to demand that publishers cut prices."
Are these the same publishers that did virtually everything they could to ensure that retailers got big enough to start dictating terms in the first place. What the hell did they think was going to happen?
If this keeps up Amazon will be the only game in town when it comes to selling books.
The down side of course, is that thousands of authors who have a tough time making ends meet now will have a new hobby.
Posted by Dave
"But excitement about the Kindle, which was introduced in November, also worries some publishing executives, who fear Amazon’s still-growing power as a bookseller. Those executives note that Amazon currently sells most of its Kindle books to customers for a price well below what it pays publishers, and they anticipate that it will not be long before Amazon begins using the Kindle’s popularity as a lever to demand that publishers cut prices."
Are these the same publishers that did virtually everything they could to ensure that retailers got big enough to start dictating terms in the first place. What the hell did they think was going to happen?
If this keeps up Amazon will be the only game in town when it comes to selling books.
The down side of course, is that thousands of authors who have a tough time making ends meet now will have a new hobby.
Posted by Dave
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