The New York Times has released its list of the 10 best books of the year. I have read 3 of 10 (ironically, I did read a biography of Joseph P. Kennedy this year, just not this one) and agree with 2 of those 3. How did you do? 

Winston Churchill

is believed to be the recipient of the first piece of correspondence using the abbreviation "OMG." I'm sure you can imagine my reaction to this piece of history.

Feels like capitulation: Film publication admits "authors were behind some of 2012’s biggest stories"

The Hollywood Reporter hasn't done this before, but its list of "Hollywood's Most Powerful Authors" gives a lot to chew on. First of all, that bestselling authors can and do power movies, and may no longer be content to just hand off the rights and retreat. (Well, if they aren't already public figures.) 

Conveniently, #1 Stephen King just announced that he is developing a project based on his recent and well-regarded novel UNDER THE DOME. Despite all the hubbub around HBO's adaptation frenzy, only one of these has a currently running series on the channel (#14).  #20 can lay claim to having the only balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and if this list had been done a decade ago #24 would be in the top 10, no question. (It's okay John -- you can get it back!) 

In comments that have nothing to do with power: 

• I would like the dress Gillian Flynn is wearing in the shot taken with Reese Witherspoon. 
• Michael Lewis is married to former VJ Tabitha Soren -- insert thinkpiece about how they are the ultimate 80s couple here! 
• EL James looks just like a neighbor in Wisconsin whose kids I used to babysit.

Let's go buy furniture

I don't want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need... (via exp.lore.com, information regarding purchase available on atelier010.nl)

Stereotypes save time

Spotted on the shelf at my local New York Public Library. I realize this cover's supposed to shock, but even to this Northerner I feel that it's a little needlessly inflammatory. (Not to mention, we also have Christians up here. And hot ladies. Heck, and sawed-off shotguns and elephants also.)

Libraries and the kids these days

Library of the Chathams, Chatham, NJ

Loot and New Jersey

I Black Friday-ed this year, I pray you pardon me. The scene of the crime was the Chatham Bookseller in Madison, New Jersey, a really stellar crammed shop with a $3 paperback fiction shelf that's better than yours. From there I picked up a copy of Richard Russo's BRIDGE OF SIGHS and Iris Murdoch's THE SEA, THE SEA. I almost bit the bullet on a John Updike collection of criticism just because of its amazing cover (holy shorts tan!) but then remembered I was supposed to be buying presents for other people.


There were a lot of Richard Ford books around, which didn't strike me as weird the more I thought about it.

Later we went to a nearby comics store where I didn't buy anything but ogled Arne Bellsdorf's graphic novel BABY'S IN BLACK about the early years of the Beatles, and the giant box containing Chris Ware's BUILDING STORIES. What I hear about Comics These Days is that nobody particularly likes The New 52 and Green Lantern has been unfairly maligned by its terrible 2011 adaptation.

On the train back to New York I read part of Daniel Wolff's THE FIGHT FOR HOME, about rebuilding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I picked this up at the library after reading an op-ed the author wrote about Hurricane Sandy and Asbury Park, and was originally looking for his book about that city, but now there's some common ground (sadly) between them.

Reading on the Road: I shall never be sorry I was left over in Camden

I'm off to New Jersey for the day Thanksgiving and a few more days after. I never thought I would be relieved not to be flying for this holiday, but I should have less trouble getting this pie I'm bringing onto the train. (Chocolate bourbon pecan, from Sweet Melissa in Brooklyn.)

I'm taking Daniel J. Wolff's THE FIGHT FOR HOME: HOW (PARTS OF) NEW ORLEANS CAME BACK, a shameless pander to the interests of my hosts -- but I may just binge on back issues of the New Yorker for the rest of the week. Thankful for those.

Filmbook-to-be

USA Today pop culture blogger* Whitney Matheson lives in New York somewhere**, and today the adaptation of Mark Helprin's WINTER'S TALE is shooting outside her house. Look, fake snow! (credit: Matheson on Twitter)

The film stars Colin Farrell as the criminal Peter Lake (LOLOLOL), Jessica Brown Findlay (from that abbey show) as Beverly with whom he falls in love, and Russell Crowe as Javert the gangster chasing Peter.

*and credit to her parent organization 
**I would guess the Village, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill or Carroll Gardens. They had been shooting in downtown Manhattan but were delayed or had to reschedule because of the hurricane. 

The Four-Hour Tiny Violin Symphony

Movement 1: Allegretto, "Help! My book isn't doing as well as it should because the stores that compete with my publisher are acting competitively and refusing to sell it!"
Movement 2: Andante to Scherzo, "Sure, people could special-order the book, or buy it and return it. But I should get more attention that I'm not getting! Me! I have a new book!"
Movement 3: Waltz, "It's not fair, I am being banned just like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and ANIMAL FARM. Also, I have never used hyperbole before and we have always been at war with Eastasia. See, that's a reference you won't get if you refuse to sell my book!"
Movement 4: Allegro, "It's going to be totally awesome anyway and I'm going to sell a ton of books! I will not be ignored! Wait till you get my rabbit stew recipe, which is only in my book! Did I mention I have a book out?"

Secret Proust

Last night I found out my volunteer co-coordinator (who I see practically every week, September-May) is in a Proust book club. And they're almost done! They started IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME about two years ago and they're going to finish by the end of the year. I think he's the first non-professor I know who will have read the whole thing. And! When he mentioned it, it was like "Oh, my book club," not "Have you read Proust? Because I've practically read the whole monkey-fighting thing."

I wanted to take this opportunity to invite you to tell me if you have also been in a secret Proust book club. Just because it would make me happy.

I left the house: Bill Roorbach at KGB

Last night I went to see Bill Roorbach read from his new novel LIFE AMONG GIANTS.

If John Irving rewrote THE ART OF FIELDING, you'd get something like LIFE AMONG GIANTS -- a coming-of-age story backed with extremely messed-up rich people into whose problems the comer-of-age is drawn. In the novel that part is played by David "Lizard" Hochmeyer, an uncannily tall 17-year-old who becomes obsessed with his famous neighbors in tony Westport, Connecticut in the year that his parents are murdered in front of him. The murders derail Lizard, bound for Princeton on a football scholarship and striving to be the dutiful son in his older sister's absence, and change the course of his life.

Roorbach read part of the book's opening, in which Lizard goes over to his neighbor's after the man of the house has been killed (under murky circumstances, of course), ostensibly to help out with chores but really out of curiosity. He joked that he was censoring it on the fly for the benefit of his daughters, who were manning the sales table at the front of the room next to him and whom he had sent to "Annie" while he was having meetings in the city. Unfortunately, this meant the reading was somewhat start-and-stop as the author skipped around in the opening chapter.

LIFE AMONG GIANTS is Roorbach's eighth book but has already gotten more attention that the author said he was used to. He described a meeting with a TV agent who asked him, perplexingly, what the "takeaway" for viewers would be at the end of the first season. I doubt I could answer this question for shows I watch, let alone a series that doesn't exist yet. (For what it's worth: Because the book takes place in 3 different eras -- Lizard's high school years, everything that happened before, and decades later when he moves back to Westport as an adult -- I would do 3 seasons, present, past and present-narrative, which wraps up the unanswered questions of both. But I don't have HBO, so what do I know?)

A poet opened for him doing Americana-style works (the open road! Gettysburg! Hot ladies in the desert!) accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Less said the better about that.

There has been a terrible mistake

"Nearby was an iPhone he had bought recently. 'Why?' he said. 'Because I’m free. Every morning I study a chapter in IPHONE FOR DUMMIES, and now I’m proficient. I haven’t read a word for two months. I pull this thing out and play with it.'

"Then he corrected himself: 'I haven’t read during the day. At night I read. I read for two hours. I just finished a marvelous book by Louise Erdrich, THE ROUND HOUSE. But mostly I read 20th-century history and biography. I lived then. I was either a child or at school or at work. It’s time I caught up.'"

Philip Roth, now just trolling us all.

Now who is "The Nominee"?

The Wall Street Journal managed to coax "Marina," the ex-wife of Benjamin Anastas in his memoir TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, to respond after publishing a Q&A with Anastas. Not surprisingly, she takes issue with the way she is presented. EDIT: Not to be outdone, someone on Goodreads has a theory about The Nominee, the man who (spoiler?) "Marina" left Anastas to be with in the memoir.

If you've read the memoir, here is an essay she wrote about the divorce and here is another that you might like to read.

What was your first job in New York?  
Cutting out pages of David Mamet's Oleanna from a book and scotch-taping them to blank printer paper for St. Martin's.  

-John Hodgman in NY Magazine.