W. S. Merwin
“I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can’t
you can’t you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don’t write”
-From “Berryman”
The New York Times surveys what people are reading on New York subways, here are the top 10 books. (Click on the link for Newspapers and Magazines too.)
The first is about a girl with a dragon tattoo, the last is about a girl who played with fire. The second is from the guy who wrote about a girl with curious hair. The third is written by a guy with curiously no hair. The fourth was released by a publisher who was maybe thinking of the cover of the second book. The title of the fifth book is mysteriously not a year, and a handful of years pass in the sixth. The seventh was written by a woman who liked to cook food, and the second to last by a man who likes to think about food. In the eight book, the eponymous heroine’s suicide [is this where I say “spoil alert”?] involves public transportation, but don’t worry, by a train not a subway. The last time I visited New York, I pensively read the map and people’s faces. Good Job New York City, and onwards literature!
Julia Wertz—the elegant and demure flower behind the comic Fart Party—has a chronic condition, no health insurance, and a giant bill from a recent emergency room trip. So she’s having a fundraiser. Also, health care reform is insane and socialist, and our current system is completely awesome and also “death panels” or something.
Selected Reading (Nausea)
Yesterday’s birthday girl Julia Cohen wasn’t the only birthday girl this week, apparently. Adele Cecilia was born Thursday in Fayetteville, Arkansas unto Katy & Matthew Henriksen, the inimitable wife-husband team responsible for Typo, Cannibal, Narwhal, The Frank Stanford Literary Festival, and the Burning Chair Series. Facebook’s being a punk right now, but later when it stops, there are pictures of the happy baby and proud parents on Matt’s page. Big internet hug to all 3 of you.
Also, just a heads up- Sunday’s birthday girl is Joshua Cohen.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME9cHn6j88o
Almost certain I’ve linked to this before, but here are Aesop Rock’s Top Ten Breakfast cereals.
Lyrics after the jump. READ MORE >
Re: that new language that Blake is looking for in which to write a book, here it is.
Books have been virtually standing up lately, endowed with a visual girth which reflects the meatiness inside. I like this idea, but it does make me wonder: why does a medium inextricable with 2D wanna play 3D? Is it a marketing thing? Like a representation of the actualization of having the physical book in one’s hands? Or is it simply the flourishes of photoshop’s capacities? Here are two books from Keyhole and Dzanc. One notices they are rendered with the same template. (I actually first thought they took a picture of the book.) I often wonder, “is the actual book that thick?” That’s a meaty 600 page-ish thickness.
Damnit, I feel revitalized. Go read Modern Love, at Everyday Genius. Now that’s a story. Bravo!
