Reading on the Road: For this relief, much thanks

This is my third weekend of travel in November and my fourth out of the last five. It's been a busy few weeks over at HQ -- I wonder if my roommates remember who I am? (Kidding! I'm the one who got them hooked on homemade espresso! It's a gift that keeps on giving.) I'm packing a stack of paperbacks that have been sitting around including THE RISK POOL, THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS and THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE.

Would you characterize your holiday family breaks (that's for all of you who may not celebrate American Thanksgiving) as high-downtime or low-downtime? I guess "it depends on the holiday" would be the prevailing answer, in any case, but Thanksgiving in my family has been fairly high-downtime in recent years. I feel I have to establish this before you paint this picture in your mind of me hiding in a corner while the rest of my family carves the bird in order to read more. (But at age 6, sure!) The downtime is not only how we roll, it's how the 3 members of my family who are in education (2 in college, 1 teaching) get caught up so they, too, can actually enjoy some of their time off. And if I end up spending my entire vacation laughing at cheesy holiday displays and talking my sister out of dragging me to see "Happy Feet 2"? There's always the flight time.

I love writing about giant unapproachable novels, so the news of a forthcoming 27-volume novel should be right up my alley... but, every three months? And Mark Z. Danielewski? That first vol better be a grabber.

Hot Guys As/ In Literature

This list of the Top 10 Literary Hunks (Classical) (in other words, Shut Up, TWILIGHT) is fairly solid, despite the placement of movie screenshots in such a way as to invite a person to judge according to those and not the associated books. Florentino Ariza is a particularly inspired choice. I think most of you will have problems with #6 (valid), but I would initially dispute #10, Queequeg (MOBY DICK) and #9, Yossarian (CATCH-22) as being, well, not that discriminating of their bedfellows. Ironically, this is a great quality to have if you're a sailor or in the military, but not so high in what the article calls "hunk qualities." (When did the word hunk go out of style? Just wondering.)

I humbly suggest replacing them with Nick Carraway, as played by Paul Rudd in the lost TV adaptation no one but me ever watched, but which I swear is real, and Vronsky from ANNA KARENINA (see 1997 adaptation), of course.

As a question of order, I would hold that you either put Heathcliff at #1, or Darcy at #1, and in either case you think the other side is crazy and should probably go back and read the related books again. I would put Darcy at #1 and accept that that is a predictor of my personality in some way. Hey, I see a new line for those Team [Whatever] shirts! (Ugh, just kidding.)

Thanks to Orrin for having my best interests at heart in sending this in.

Incomplete bibliography of Benno von Archimboldi

1. LUDICKE
2. THE ENDLESS ROSE
3. THE LEATHER MASK
4. RIVERS OF EUROPE
5. BIFURCARIA BIFURCATA
6. INHERITANCE
7. SAINT THOMAS
8. THE BLIND WOMAN
9. THE BLACK SEA
10. LETHAEA
11. THE LOTTERY MAN
12. THE FATHER
13. THE RETURN

Other books written (unsure as to chronology): THE KING OF THE FOREST, THE GARDEN, D'ARSONVAL, RAILROAD PERFECTION, THE BERLIN UNDERWORLD, BITZIUS

Reading on the Road: I was unrecognizable to myself

I'm off to Philadelphia today to run a half-marathon tomorrow. I will endeavor to move as little as possible in order to wake up fresh -- this is called "strategy" -- so of course some quality reading material had to make the luggage cut. I'm taking my library copy of Jennifer Close's GIRLS IN WHITE DRESSES, much praised by friends for its realistic depiction of the lives of city-dwelling late-20-something women. I should say, some friends -- I mentioned I was about to start it yesterday on Twitter and got a few people who said, actually, they wouldn't recommend it. (And then I said to myself, "I'll be the judge of that!" No offense, everyone. And I'm hoping to catch up on the insidery-media Kindle singles I bought ages ago, THE JUNKET and VANITY FAIR'S HOW A BOOK IS BORN.

If anyone has recommendations of good independent Philly bookstores, I would extra appreciate them, particularly if they are centrally located. I know the airport there used to have a well stocked Barbara's Bestsellers, but that seems to have turned over -- not that I'll be in the airport anyway.

Caption this photo

CAREY MULLIGAN AS DAISY: You guys I am so excited to be in this movie!!! You guys!!!
LEONARDO DICAPRIO AS GATSBY: Look at how mysterious I am. That has "Oscar bait" written all over it.
CAREY MULLIGAN AS DAISY: Leo! I used to have posters of you on my wall, Leo! Okay, I can totally focus for this shot!
LEONARDO DICAPRIO AS GATSBY: Maybe I won't even need this 3-D piece of ridiculousness if J. Edgar takes off. Never mind, practicing my Oscarface anyway.
CAREY MULLIGAN AS DAISY: My hair is so pretty!
LEONARDO DICAPRIO AS GATSBY: She came so well-regarded. I don't know what's going on here. Was Gwyneth not available?
CAREY MULLIGAN AS DAISY: I have read this book like 500 times you guys! But I never thought I was going to play Daisy! I mean, Daisy, right! In your face Knightley, in your face!
TOBEY MAGUIRE AS NICK CARRAWAY: Derp derp derpy derp! Derp.

Source. And before you start, I'm sure Carey Mulligan is plenty smart and Leonardo DiCaprio has done a lot of movies that did not directly lead to Oscarville. And I still like Baz Luhrmann even though it is definitely not cool to do so right now.

How about "Occupy n+1" ?

Keith Gessen (ALL THE SAD YOUNG LITERARY MEN) was arrested at an Occupy Wall Street protest yesterday. Girlfriend Emily Gould commented incorrectly, "Also your sad young lit man jokes are not now/ have never been funny."

Speaking of the NBA

BookPerk is banking on the fact that you are still mad at LeBron James, but are also not bitter about the doubtful future of this basketball season. The drink coasters are a funny touch. I wonder where those came from.

NBA News from Last Night (Not That One, The Other One)

Your National Book Award 2011 winners are (drumroll, please):

• Jesmyn Ward, fiction
• Thanhha Lai, young adult literature
• Stephen Greenblatt, nonfiction
• Nikky Finney, poetry

John Lithgow hosted, there were some Occupy Wall Street jokes (fitting, I guess? given that the award were held at a restaurant near Zuccotti Park), and the awards were also webcast for the first time this year. I preferred to watch people watching them on Twitter, but GalleyCat also has a liveblog if you want to feel like you were really there.

Some are calling Ward's award a major upset because it didn't go to Tea Obreht (whose novel THE TIGER'S WIFE I'm fairly sure was the top seller in the bunch), but the predictions I read were fairly split between them.

There will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year

I wonder what people who don't read do when they need a quick hit of accomplishment. Just, that little taste to remind them that they are not on autopilot, that ground is being gained. Obviously, there are a lot of options, but this one (for the most part) is mine.

This book at left ruled my life for about, hmm, two weeks not counting the days when I just goggled at it and said to myself "Got to review that book. Definitely getting around to it. Definitely going to pick it up off the floor and start it." 1152 pages later, I'm free! (Until edits get back.) Free! And able to say definitively that you are probably not in its target audience. Well, one out of two is not bad. I'm going to go stare down some more tomes right now.

Uh huh.

Steal from the best!

Kirkus Reviews' best of 2011 fiction list included (I assume it will be removed soon?) the plagiarized thriller ASSASSIN OF SECRETS. (Excited for the inclusion of THE FORGOTTEN WALTZ, though.)

Filmbook-to-Be: Trailer for "The Hunger Games" (2012)

High hopes for Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. (I did finally finish this series and will probably post about it a few times, once as a guide for those of you who don't know what the big deal is, and once to talk about third volume MOCKINJAY and its issues. For now, suffice to say if you've been shelving these books in the TWILIGHT category, I think you're mistaken.)

"Ivanov's fear was of a literary nature. That is, it was the fear that afflicts most citizens who, one fine (or dark) day, choose to make the practice of writing, and especially the practice of fiction writing, an integral part of their lives. Fear of being no good. Also fear of being overlooked. But above all, fear of being no good. Fear that one's efforts and striving will come to nothing. Fear of the step that leaves no trace. Fear of the forces of change of nature that wipe away shallow prints. Fear of dining alone and unnoticed. Fear of going unrecognized. Fear of failure and making a spectacle of oneself. But above all, fear of being no good. Fear of forever dwelling in the hell of bad writers."
-Roberto Bolaño, from 2666

Fall crafting hour

Here's a cool DIY project if you're handy with a box-cutter: iPhone dock and charger in a hardcover book.  (I believe the blogger will also make you one for donations... but you'd have to check with him on that.)

Am I sorry about the Alfred Lord Tennyson mutilation? Not particularly. I don't think anyone was reading that volume anyway.