Random
BookLyfe, or Compendium #1
Millions crushed underneath.
Hello everyone. Pappy Blake Butler has allowed me to talk out loud a bit, and for that I am grateful. I hope to not bug the hell out of everyone here at HTMLG.
I’ve gleaned a lot of booktalk from the internet in the past week or so, and I’ll present it here, all at once. To start: Over at the Vroman’s Bookstore blog, Patrick Brown discusses the National Book Critics Circle’s recommended reading list. Patrick says:
…their recommended list leaves a bit to be desired. It’s not that the books on the list aren’t good — they are — it’s that they’re, well, a little obvious. My friend Cory, blogger at Skylight Books in LA, pointed out that Philip Roth made the list. Looking at the fiction list, I feel a little like Jack Black’s character in High Fidelity, “Philip Roth? Not obvious. No, not obvious at all. Come on, NBCC, couldn’t you make it easier? What about Hemingway? How about William Shakespeare? Why not recommend Hamlet?” I don’t mean to hammer on Philip Roth, who I love, but come on. Does he really need the readers?
Go ahead and read the whole post. Patrick poses some critical questions, and they are eloquently answered by John Freeman, NBCC Member. John goes on to say:
I’m not terribly worried, though, about giving very good books another shot at reaching readers. I’m more worried about the speed with which we’re supposed to metabolize books now. Johnson’s novel was out in September, won an award in November, and I feel by December we’re all supposed to have moved on because it’s had ’success.’ It’s a big book, which took him a decade or more to write, and raises some very serious issues — I think reviews have just scratched the surface. I don’t think readers who wander into the store are on that speeded up schedule and the critical world (and publishing world) does them a disservice by our restlessness.
I agree with John. Although it is nice to highlight and promote books with ‘less of a shot’, ultimately the NBCC recommends by consensus, and if that consensus loves Cheever or Roth or Johnson, so be it. It is a list for readers by readers.
On the business side, The Word Hoarder hosts a lively and deep conversation about the relationship of e-book and bookseller, e-book and consumer. And in an sometimes hyperbolic essay, author Stephen L. Carter discusses the nature of the book object, online literature, and the screen-vs-page attention deficit. Although I’m not too keen on his occasional political bent (although, what do I expect from The Daily Beast), Carter does say some wonderful stuff:
But books themselves, the actual physical volumes on the shelves of libraries and stores and homes, send a message through their very existence. In a world in which most things seem ephemeral, books imply permanence: that there exist ideas and thoughts of sufficient weight that they are worth preserving in a physical form that is expensive to produce and takes up space. And a book, once out there, cannot be recalled. The author who changes his mind cannot just take down the page.
And later on, regarding online literature:
Such results might bear out Miller’s concern that, in cyberspace, the text “jostles side by side” with a thousand other possible destinations for the attention. And the reader, of course, freely flees. I have had the experience of reading an op-ed in a newspaper, then mentioning it later to a friend, who will say, “Yes, I read it” —but will have turned out to have skimmed the first page of text or so, before jumping away to something else. Perhaps, when we read online, the perceptive part of the brain is, in a sense, confused by the intention of the reader who sits in front of a screen. Is the reader there to gather and reflect upon information, or perhaps to check email or play a game?
Yep.
And to further illustrate the point, let me change the subject and show you a YouTube video!
Away We Go: Written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. Directed by Sam Mendes. Starring the guy from the Office and SNL girl. And I have to say: I look forward to seeing this. I put A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius down >100 pages in, but still; this film looks good. Funny and painful.
That’s all for now.
Nice post Ken. Good links and reading. You should submit that first photo to haut or not.
Nice post Ken. Good links and reading. You should submit that first photo to haut or not.
Thanks, Brad. Yeah, let’s see Jimmy snark that one! (I love you Jimmy)
Thanks, Brad. Yeah, let’s see Jimmy snark that one! (I love you Jimmy)
i like this, the part about books being digested over-fast and then gone. i also like the trailer and thinking about the very different people coming together to do that movie. thanks for the post.
i like this, the part about books being digested over-fast and then gone. i also like the trailer and thinking about the very different people coming together to do that movie. thanks for the post.
yeah Ken! I am happy to see this. Yeah yeah. You were so supportive when I started posting. You are great. I loved this post. I will say that Roth DOES need more readers. Everyone needs to read Roth. Um, Roth post by me coming up some day.
ken fucking baumann, we meet again
ken fucking baumann, we meet again
I’m not taking off my sunglasses for anybody, and that includes the scum that is Sam Pink.
I’m not taking off my sunglasses for anybody, and that includes the scum that is Sam Pink.
Thank you! Glad to be amongst folk like you. I look forward to that post.
Love you Sam.
Thank you! Glad to be amongst folk like you. I look forward to that post.
Love you Sam.
That pic reminds me of a little bookstore in Salem, MA. Wall-to-wall and two- to three-stacks deep. Knock ’em over, the guy just builds ’em up again.
That pic reminds me of a little bookstore in Salem, MA. Wall-to-wall and two- to three-stacks deep. Knock ’em over, the guy just builds ’em up again.
That pic reminds me of my apartment right now in the midst of doing research for essays.
That pic reminds me of my apartment right now in the midst of doing research for essays.
that pic reminds me of my mr bean bobblehead thats sitting on my desk.
that pic reminds me of my mr bean bobblehead thats sitting on my desk.
This movie looks TERRABULL.
Sorry. It does.
This movie looks TERRABULL.
Sorry. It does.
I want to shout 100000 times NO at that silly article about the permanence of books but I should probably read it more carefully and think about it first. I think though that there could be 100000 things wrong with his argument, beginning with the idea that there is something inherent to print that makes us read more carefully. Isn’t the whole idea of the inverted pyramid in newspaper stories–the most essential information up top and descending from there–predicated on the thought that most people skim the newspaper–the printed newspaper–looking for stories that interest them?
I want to shout 100000 times NO at that silly article about the permanence of books but I should probably read it more carefully and think about it first. I think though that there could be 100000 things wrong with his argument, beginning with the idea that there is something inherent to print that makes us read more carefully. Isn’t the whole idea of the inverted pyramid in newspaper stories–the most essential information up top and descending from there–predicated on the thought that most people skim the newspaper–the printed newspaper–looking for stories that interest them?
That photo is definitely haut – and I don’t even need to see the titles.
That photo is definitely haut – and I don’t even need to see the titles.
I think that this early in the brain’s use of the internet it is sort of inevitable for our attention to wander more often than not. Although I’m sure we’ll acclimate and be able to focus well and often, soon.
Also, a point he didn’t bring up: We buy books. When we buy we ‘invest’, and create that value, and ‘pay off’ that value by giving the book a shot and really reading. I know I’ve treated ‘free’ printed literature as I have stuff online.
I think that this early in the brain’s use of the internet it is sort of inevitable for our attention to wander more often than not. Although I’m sure we’ll acclimate and be able to focus well and often, soon.
Also, a point he didn’t bring up: We buy books. When we buy we ‘invest’, and create that value, and ‘pay off’ that value by giving the book a shot and really reading. I know I’ve treated ‘free’ printed literature as I have stuff online.
What’s the bookstore called?
What’s the bookstore called?
I wish I could remember. Are there a lot of little bookstores that look like this there?
I wish I could remember. Are there a lot of little bookstores that look like this there?