- Because a lot of people are winding up here looking for it, my Frank McCourt note from a few weeks ago has been updated with public memorial information, as current as I could find. Not afraid to be servicey!
- My copy of LOLITA which I admitted to re-purchasing several months ago has still not turned up. I think it either has been lent out for a long time or got mixed in with another family member's books. I may even have been the forgetful lender; that's where my copy of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY was all this time, on the nightstand of the West Coast bureau (who has since finished it). Meanwhile, another book has pulled a disappearing act when I most wanted it, which is why you're not currently getting "Incomprehensible Notes From My Adolescent Copy of LEAVES OF GRASS."
- This Times article on how serendipity is becoming extinct has so many techspletives in it it's practically unreadable. But I'm posting it because "serendipity" is one of my favorite words, and I see no reason that we have to let the concept or the term go. Now get off my lawn.
- "If Nora Ephron had been born buxom, what else besides that article might she not have written?" I'm just catching up to Ariel Levy's profile of Nora Ephron in the New Yorker from a few weeks ago, whose second paragraph can only be described as an equal-opportunity offender for the ladies, but if you can make it past that there are some nifty tidbits about her life as a writer. Related: Tina Fey's forthcoming book (!!!) was described at deal time as being "in the style of Nora Ephron."
- INFINITE JEST corner: What the hell do you say when people unfamiliar with the book ask what it's about? This has happened to me several times and my latest answer was the best, but I feel as if I owe people more than a shrug and a smile. (Let us not speak of the back-cover copy, which is atrocious.) My latest answer incorporated the current situations of the various Incandenzas and, since I passed Interdependence Day a while back, a smidge of the alternate-reality politics going on behind them. The last thing I want to do is deter anyone from reading it, which a vague answer or an "It's extremely complicated" might.
- Finally, shamelessly, self-promotionally: The AV Club's latest Wrapped Up in Books round begins Aug. 17 on John Crowley's LITTLE, BIG. That's two weeks from now. It is possible that you have not started the book yet, and I am not judging you, promise. But now would be a good time to start it!
4 days ago
3 comments:
"a fictional vision of the near future of America focusing on addiction and tennis." it's all I got
I think that 8YOD's summary is about as succinct as it can get. Well played, sir!
I am beginning Little, Bit as soon as I finish The Remainder (probably sometime tomorrow or Tuesday.) Its 500 pages, but what I didn't realize until I bought my copy was how many words those pages contain - my trade paperback is roughly the size of a 500 page graphic novel, instead of a 500 page, you know, book.
8, there's no way any of my attempts were shorter than that or better organized. But be honest: If you heard that fragment, would you be satisfied with that? I realize I'm too in the thick of the book to answer objectively, but that just begs for a follow-up. I could never hear just that and say "Oh, sounds like fun, so what else is new?"
As I said, in the thick of it.
W.G., it really is a Paperback Of Unusual Size, suggesting someone at the publisher just loves the book THAT much. I'm interested to hear what you think of Remainder.
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