Themes & Projects

Mysteries, December 2008–January 2009

Maritime literature, January–March 2009

Melville read-through, part I, TypeeWhite-Jacket, December 2009–January 2010

Whirlwind tour of Russian literature, February–May 2010

Epistolary literature, July 2009–June 2010

Short stories


Authors

Booking Through Thursday

I still couldn’t post yesterday, so I’m a day late on this, but I liked the question.

If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, [...]

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway

The Gone-Away World is, first and foremost, a very funny novel. A sprawling adventure spanning decades, it never misses a chance to laugh at the absurdity of life as—as the narrator so aptly puts it—hairless mammals. I always appreciate this outlook, because we are ridiculous, highly flawed creatures making our way as best we [...]

Breathing New Life & Monday Poem

My reading funk appears to be over, thanks to Nick Harkaway’s The Gone-Away World—managed a breakthrough yesterday. Of course, I still have 70-odd pages to go, so some damn fool ending could ruin things, which would be a shame. Expect a review this week. Assuming my internet access doesn’t become a problem. I can [...]

Sunday Salon

This weekend finds me back in the bosom of New England. I have demonstrated this by buying The Witches of Eastwick last night (how has my CT self not read this? and how is it that this will be my first Updike??).

After a very blah reading week (Rebecca is not the only one)—I [...]

And It Begins

So, tomorrow I’ll be on my way back to the east coast and next week may be a busy one for me. Between work stuff and visiting people and eating bagels and pizza I should still find some time to blog (and read).

On Tuesday night I did end up starting The Gone-Away World. [...]

Booking Through Thursday

Whether you usually read off of your own book pile or from the library shelves NOW, chances are you started off with trips to the library. (There’s no way my parents could otherwise have kept up with my book habit when I was 10.) So … What is your earliest memory of a library? [...]

Blurbs for Cash?

A few days back The New York Times published an essay by Rachel Donadio on Blurbing LLC—a company that buys and sells book-cover blurbs. Some authors are offended by the concept. But Donadio points out:

The endorsements on books aren’t entirely impartial. Unbeknownst to the average reader, blurbs are more often than not from [...]

Reading ADD

At the end of last week, as I mentioned, I began reading Wieland: or the Transformation. I made it about 60 pages in, decided against carrying it around all day Saturday, and haven’t touched it since.

Saturday afternoon I started reading Les Choses (my first Perec, somehow), loved the first two chapters, and haven’t [...]

TuesdayThingers

Today’s question: LT and RL (real life)- do you have friends in real life that you met through LibraryThing? Have you attended any LT meet-ups in your area? Would you be open to attending meet-ups or is LT strictly an online thing for you?

I don’t have any real-life friends that I met through [...]

The Sister by Poppy Adams

The Washington Post has a review up of Poppy Adams’ novel The Sister. I read this back in March and enjoyed it—one of the many “good but not great” books I find myself reading. (I’m sure there’s a post in that.) The review is surprisingly positive for such a book, and instead of complaining [...]