Orhan Pamuk’s Nobel Lecture. Conversational Reading’s Epiphany on how Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer critiques space (or the lack of a defined, unique space). Syntax of Things makes a list of Underrated Writers. Lastly, Pinky’s Paperhaus comments on After the MFA’s post about whether MFAs should take Lit Crit Class.On that last link . . . […]
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Round Up
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Cage Match!
From Litkicks: More bad news: in recognizing the "blogosphere", Tanenhaus disparages us (yet again, yet again) as sloppy writers. I insist to the New York Times Book Review staff that the best bloggers out here (and I volunteer to be on the team) can at least hold our own, and could possibly kick the Book […]
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Chris Abani Reads at the Good Luck Bar in L.A.
Went to see Chris Abani read at the Rhapsodamancy Reading Series last night. I had seen him twice at the UCLA/LA Times book fair last year, and was impressed by the way he spoke – with gravity, authority, and insight into the way that literature works. What I knew about him before the Rhapsodamancy reading […]
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Mix Tape #6: The Death of 2006
While everyone else is busy making lists of Best Books of 2006, I thought I’d respond a little differently and make a literary mix tape of selections from a few of my favorites, all united around the theme of death. Why death? Because I’m morbid. When I was five years old I tried to kill […]
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Told You So
As I suspected back in October from the vitriolic reviews by Marilynne Robinson and Terry Eagleton, Richard Dawkin’s God Delusion is the most overrated book of the year. Here’s the list of the other overrated and underrated books (hat tip to Ed) Addendum: Rake’s Progress on Murakami’s political involvement I-keep-finding-great-stuff Addendum: Foer (as in Jonathan […]
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Dave Eggers reading “What is the What”
Dave Eggers has a strong streak of social consciousness, as can be seen through his 826 Valencia writing program for kids, the content of You Shall Know Our Velocity, where the character travels the globe looking to give people money, and in the 2005 book Surviving Justice: America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated, a book of […]
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The Loudest Voice with Glen David Gold
My good friend Bryan Hurt organized the second Loudest Voice reading at the Mountain Bar in Los Angeles last night. We packed out the second story, despite the sweltering conditions (management refused to turn down the heater) and a bouncer who continued to harass everyone even after they’d been carded. Cody Todd read a number […]
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Wendell Berry’s New Book
The irony of writing about Wendell Berry on a computer, especially for a blog, doesn’t escape me. Since Berry refuses to own a computer, and has widely (and trenchantly) written about the negative repercussions of technology, there is almost a note of friction simply by covering him in such a technological medium. Nonetheless, it’s time […]
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Ask and You Shall Receive
So since I had scored on a copy of Hear the Wind Sing (unavailable in the States) I thought why not go for broke and ask my loyal readers for a copy of Pinball 1973? It was mostly tongue in cheek, but lo and behold, Viktor JaniÅ¡ emails me the Pinball text. Mucho thanks, my […]