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Book News: Blumesday and Bloomsday, Pynchon in New York
Yesterday was Blumesday, an annual holiday held in honor of Judy Blume. (Bloomsday, the annual celebration of “Ulysses,” was on Sunday).
The words “tweet” and “crowdsourcing” have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Oliver Pötzsch...Show More Summary
Enrique Vila-Matas Interview
This is a decent little interview with Vila-Matas. Here’s a nice bit where he talks about where Never Any End to Paris came from: En la ironía, precisamente, está el germen de este libro… De hecho, en un principio se iba a llamar ‘La ironía en París’. Show More Summary
The Ongoing Story: Twitter and Writing
I was in the Time magazine archives recently, doing research for my biography of J. D. Salinger, when I pulled open a drawer and found a small box containing a bunch of discarded typewriter heads for the I.B.M. Selectric typewriter—the cutting-edge writing technology of my youth. Show More Summary
Premio Gregor von Rezzori
They've announced that El ruido de las cosas al caer, Juan Gabriel Vásquez's 2011 Premio Alfaguara-winning novel, has now, as Il rumore delle cose che cadono, also won the Premio Gregor von Rezzori-Città di Firenze for best foreign novel (in Italy); in addition, Alessandro Fo's translation of... Show More Summary
Michael Krüger Q & A
At Publishing Perspectives Amanda DeMarco has a Q & A with soon-to-retire (from Hanser Verlag) publisher Michael Krüger -- brief, but covering a lot of territory.
drowned in Truro...Thoreau's Journal: 18-Jun-1857
Small says that the Truro fishermen who were lost in the great shipwreck were on the Nantucket Shoals. Four or five vessels were lost with all aboard. They may have been endeavoring to reach Provincetown Harbor. He spoke to one of his neighbors who was drowned in Truro, and very soon after his bones were found picked clean by the beach-fleas. Show More Summary
Eléctrico W review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Hervé Le Tellier's Eléctrico W, out today from Other Press. I'm now also really curious about Le Tellier's (French) translation of the (fictional author) Jaime Montestrela's...Show More Summary
Of Course, Calvino Was in Oulipo
Jonathan Galassi, NYRB: Calvino’s refined, gently pessimistic, humane irony rode the wave of the deconstruction of realistic fiction the way the more programmatic French nouveau roman and OULIPO writers could not... also not sure why OULIPO is all caps.
Foods You Meet in Longs
I so mangge’ (ono) for one sweet snack. So I go Longs Drugstore in M?noa Marketplace. Have you read Folks You Meet in Longs, a poignant collection of monologues by local writer, Lee Cataluna? In the introduction to the book,… Continue reading ?
If you liked my book…
I just found out that A Virtual Love has been shortlisted for the People’s Book Prize. The winner is determined by popular vote, and I’m up against some stiff competition, such as Taiye Selasi’s highly praised novel Ghana Must Go. So if you’ve read my book and liked it, please take a minute to cast a [...]
The /n/oulipian Analects
Very cool book for people into Oulipo or interesting writing in general: The /n/oulipian Analects, published by Les Figues Press. It’s essentially an anthology of recent constrained writing (both from without the Oulipo and outside of it), plus interesting essays and short bits on the ideas behind such writing. Show More Summary
the season of small fruits...Thoreau's Journal: 17-Jun-1854
Another remarkably hazy day: our view is confined, the horizon near, no mountains; as you look off only four or five miles, you see a succession of dark wooded ridges and vales filled with mist. It is dry, hazy June weather. We are more of the earth, farther from heaven, these days. Show More Summary
Gaddis’s Letters
Nice review of Gaddis’s letters by Paul Griffiths in the TLS. Particularly in the years after JR, with his work increasingly known and the world increasingly nosy, he had to defend himself repeatedly against requests for interviews and...Show More Summary
52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 48: the Trajectory of the Photographic Medium
Over the past year staff from the Special Collections Division have been putting together posts highlighting ‘Inspiring Illustrations’ of material in our collections. Representing the Photographic Collection, I chose to […]
This Week in Fiction: Thomas McGuane
Your story in this week’s issue, “Stars,” which is set in Montana, begins with a scene in which your protagonist, an astronomer named Jessica, confronts a man who has trapped and is about to shoot a wolf. Jessica argues that the wolf...Show More Summary
'Saving' Hindi through literature ?
I hadn't realized Hindi -- one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world -- needed saving but in this IANS report (here at the Business Standard) some apparently are concerned: Influence of English has sabotaged Hindi so muchShow More Summary
Libraries of the future ?
In the Boston Globe Anne Gray Fischer profiles The Library Test Kitchen at Harvard --: Dedicated to rescuing physical, book-dense libraries from obsolescence, the team of students and instructors dream up designs that, as Schnapp says,...Show More Summary
Redemption (A Conspiracy of Faith) review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jussi Adler-Olsen third 'Department Q'-thriller, Redemption, now published in the US as A Conspiracy of Faith.
Philosophy Weekend: Why Michael Lind and Jonah Goldberg are Wrong About Communism
It's refreshing to see rival social, political or philosophical doctrines debated online with the kind of clear, brisk, brief writing that the best blogs feature. Last week, Michael Lind of Salon challenged the American libertarian/Paulist...Show More Summary
genuine Cape Cod...Thoreau's Journal: 16-Jun-1857
From time to time, summer and winter and far inland, I call to mind that peculiar prolonged cry of the upland plover on the bare heaths of Truro in July, heard from sea to sea, though you cannot guess how far the bird may be, as if it...Show More Summary
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