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I read four books while I was away (beyond all that I read about Berlin). I reported on the first—If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, Robin Black's crisp and smart debut short story collection—here. I'll be reporting on the others (The Paris Wife (hmmmmm) and The Coffins of Little Hope (a marvel!)) in days to come.
But this very early morning, I'm reflecting on the scouring brilliance of Paula Fox's Desperate Characters. It's a book I'd always meant to read, an author whose story I have followed. That doesn't mean that I was prepared for the hard, bright smack of Fox's sentences, the relentless disintegration of a domestic arrangement that may or may not hold. We have Jonathan Franzen to thank for helping to bring Desperate Characters back into print and wide circulation. We have, in the Norton edition, his essay that suggests that the book is, "on a first reading," "a novel of suspense."
As the novel opens, Sophie Brentwood is bitten by a stray cat; Sophie's hand swells. Sophie should have the hand checked, but she is afraid. She can imagine dire consequences—rabies, even death—but other underlying fears persist and complicate. Three days will go by, and the wound will keep molting, oozing, disfiguring, haunting, and this is the running tension—this cat bite, this not knowing, this unwillingness to find out, this false hope that comforts lie elsewhere (in drink, in friendship, in secrets, in lashing out). Into this strange, unsettling frame Fox inserts the fractures of a marriage in naked near stasis. Sophie and her husband, Otto, are childless. Otto is abandoning a business partnership with a long-time friend, Charlie—bating him, hating him, feeling abandoned and abused by him. Brooklyn, finally, is scathing and scabrous and ill-equipped, in these late 1960s, to wrap this couple in a numbing sheen.
Sophie and Otto know too much. They see too much. They both despise excessively and love forlornly. Is this all that marriage is? All it offers? Is there refuge among the refuse? In whose arms can one trustingly take shelter? Desperate Characters is a brutal book, a lacerating book, and if that makes it a hard book to read, it also makes it an impossible book to put down. I, for one, read the bulk of it while being jostled about during a long wait at the Berlin airport.
There are easy books, and there are hard books, and I will be honest: I prefer the latter. I want to be tested. I want to think. I want to study a book and ask, in awe, How in the world was this made? Desperate Characters has me asking.
2 Comments on Desperate Characters/Paula Fox: Reflections, last added: 6/22/2011
I have not heard of this book until now, but I love reading "hard-to-read" books...they're so challenging and worthwhile. Thanks for the review...and calling my attention to the new edition
Philip Pullman doesn't believe in it. "Carpenters don't get carpentry block." He argues that we shouldn't be so precious about what we do. Instead we should just treat writing like a job of work and get on with it. James Kelman's advice boils down to the same thing. He says that the only way to defeat the blank page is to write even when it's the last thing you feel you are capable of doing. Even when all you can write is - I don't know what to write. The mind hates a vacuum and something will come out of it...not a very good something perhaps, but something all the same and writing always has to be better than not writing. Remember the wise words of the great short story writer Katherine Mansfield.
Far better to write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all.
And inspiration only strikes when you are already at the keyboard or have a pen in your hand.Jonathan Franzen has a different take on the subject. In a question and answer session at the famous New York creative hub, Gotham City Workshop, he says that it could be a sign that you're writing the wrong thing.
It happens when I'm trying to write something that I'm not ready to write, or that I don't really 'want' to write. And there's no way to discover my unreadiness or unwillingness except to try and fail.
I would certainly endorse that trying and failing bit. You can't write in your head. It only counts when paper is involved at some stage. All the thinking about a story won't tell you if it works: only putting one word after another can do that.
But I think perhaps we do need to give ourselves permission to have a break from a story that is being particularly difficult. If it is stuck then staying around may make the the mud thicker and stickier....but it has to be a real break: not writing doesn't count. You have to take the writer part of yourself off to a different world and a different story. Only then will you be able to see if you need a holiday or a divorce.
Click on the title of this post to read all of Franzen's Q&A session
2 Comments on Writer's Block and how to find a way out of it, last added: 5/24/2011
I had a friend who had 'writer's block' in a university English exam. She subscribed to the 'anything is better than nothing' school too and began her essay with "Pigs is the plural of pig."
That has to go down as one of the weirdest intros to an academic essay (not counting the ones written by students who have no intention/desire/ability to pass). Is it Nike that has the slogan Just do it? Works for writers too...
This is not my yard. This is the perfect lawn of Chanticleer Gardens, where two of my books take place and many of my other books have been considered. This is the lawn children tumble down, the lawn my own Chanticleer students once traversed as they made their way from prose poems to villanelles.
This is also not my life—this quiet, green perfection. My life is more like last night—those 45 minutes of sleep that I finally got—or more like this morning, when, after deciding that further sleep was not an option, I turned on my computer only to experience a three-hour computer crash. My email files have now been restored, thank you very much. But it's 11:20 AM, and I have not dressed for the day.
What I have done, while wading through no sleep and no connectivity is to read and blurb a book, to talk to my father, and to read Jonathan Franzen's essay, "Farther Away," in last week's The New Yorker. This is the piece my dear student brought to me on Tuesday. This is the quality of work she finds inspiring. And no wonder. I share with you now the passage my student read aloud to me, on that gray day, in that dark and too-cold room, her voice the warmth, her presence the light. It's Franzen reflecting on David Foster Wallace:
People who had never read his fiction, or had never even heard of him, read his Kenyon College commencement address in the Wall Street Journal and mourned the loss of a great and gentle soul. A literary establishment that had never so much as short-listed one of his books for a national prize now united to declare him a lost national treasure. Of course, he was a national treasure, and, being a writer, he didn't "belong" to his readers any less than to me. But if you happened to know that his actual character was more complex and dubious than he was getting credit for, and if you also knew that he was more lovable—funnier, sillier, needier, more poignantly at war with his demons, more lost, more childishly transparent in his lies and inconsistencies—than the benignant and morally clairvoyant artist/saint that had been made of him, it was still hard not to feel wounded by the part of him that had chosen the adulation of strangers over the love of people closest to him.
What we learn from our students. What they yield.
2 Comments on Not perfection (and Jonathan Franzen on David Foster Wallace), last added: 4/24/2011
For a limited time, The New Yorker will give Facebook fans free access to a Jonathan Franzen essay about his relationship with the late David Foster Wallace. Follow this link to access the essay.
Here’s an excerpt: “The people who knew David least well are most likely to speak of him in saintly terms. What makes this especially strange is the near-perfect absence, in his fiction, of ordinary love. Close loving relationships, which for most of us are a foundational source of meaning, have no standing in the Wallace fictional universe.”
What do you think about the provocative essay? Last week, we found a number of tax tips hidden inside The Pale King–Wallace’s unfinished novel about the lives of IRS agents.
Today A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan has won the 2011 Tournament of Books at The Morning News–a round robin competition that pits books against books every March.
A team of literary judges decided each round of the competition, and all the judges voted on the final two books: Jonathan Franzen‘s Freedom and Egan’s novel. Egan earned nine votes; Franzen earned eight.
Andrew Womack concluded the contest with this vote: “How fortunate to find two books in the championship so comparable—both spanning decades (or beyond) and heavily centered on music. For me, this decision comes down to pacing, and Franzen is the Pink Floyd to Egan’s Sex Pistols; by the end of Freedom I couldn’t take another meandering guitar solo, while I was dazzled by how much Goon Squad packed into such a compact space.”
Today A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan has won the 2011 Tournament of Books at The Morning News–a round robin competition that pits books against books every March.
A team of literary judges decided each round of the competition, and all the judges voted on the final two books: Jonathan Franzen‘s Freedom and Egan’s novel. Egan earned nine votes; Franzen earned eight.
Andrew Womack concluded the contest with this vote: “How fortunate to find two books in the championship so comparable—both spanning decades (or beyond) and heavily centered on music. For me, this decision comes down to pacing, and Franzen is the Pink Floyd to Egan’s Sex Pistols; by the end of Freedom I couldn’t take another meandering guitar solo, while I was dazzled by how much Goon Squad packed into such a compact space.”
It does seem odd that we are becoming reliant on videos in the world of printed books. Along with video reviews comes video trailers. http://tinyurl.com/4samvmn
The video is hilarious. I have a hard enough time doing 1:30 vlogs without a teleprompter; this was seamless and great at every turn.
I don't tend to read book reviews and see this more along the lines of a package from "The Colbert Report." I just hope he isn't expected to start cranking one out each week. There is a mountain of work behind those four minutes.
A decline could be caused by the reason why some people write reviews these days. Most people write reviews to expand their name and platform, or for a friend. I am not saying they are disingenuous, but I miss the days of the honest and unrequested review.
But for every 1up review out there, there is an excellent one waiting to be discovered.
2. I read book reviews when they cross my path, like a link from Twitter or a blog, but I don't typically seek them out. I don't credit them with much validity unless I know something about the reviewer's preferences.
If I do know a bit about the reviewer, I can read a negative review and still know that might be a book I would like although it didn't work for the reviewer. And the opposite is true for some of the "professional" reviewers on Amazon who never post anything below 4 stars.
I'm increasingly fed up with reviews that amount to little more than outlines of plot.
In fact I rarey ever buy a book that has the plot given away by a review - Freedom is a good example. I'd read so much about it there seemed little room to read the thing.
There are good reviewers around, a few, but on the whole, what with the bloggers glogging the scene, it's inevitable that reviewers - good ones - are going to need to do more - as the vlogger suggests by way of presentation - no bad thing.
Reviewers I think are excellent for tracking what's coming out and other certain things (Such as length of novel, age group targetted, slow or fast paced).
However, a reviewers opinion is less helpful. I mean I follow "fantasy book critic" and they have 3 categories for A-Rated books (A, A+ & A++) And I think the lowest review I read on there was a C.
A reviewer HAS to thwack stuff they don't like or, for me, it's totally irrelevant.
Reviews on the blogosphere are a double-edge sword for authors. We need reviews and want reviews, but anyone can slap a review together and put it on a blog, give stars on Amazon, B&N or other site.
In the long term, what profit is it to an author or reader? Can too many actually cheapen and create irrelevancy?
Maureen said, on 3/14/2011 7:44:00 AM
The video review was entertaining and though I own Freedom, I still haven't read it. I think I missed that initial wave of discussion.
I subscribe to the NYT, I read some of their book reviews. Their real value is that they inform me about interesting books that I might otherwise miss. It was pretty hard for anyone (even a non-reader) to miss the debut of Freedom, but not many books get that star treatment. So I pick and choose the reviews that seem interesting to me and on occasion I buy one of the books reviewed.
And while I read some of the Amazon reviews, I don't tend to trust them because so many seem to be at the extreme ends of the star scale. Love it or hate it.
I'm hoping book reviews stay around in one form or another.
I'm sure this isn't the end for book reviews; we depend on them too much. Seriously, I didn't realize just how much I depended on them until I went to a "remainders" bookshop and couldn't find any of the books I'd recently read (or heard) about. I was at a complete loss. There weren't even any shelf-talkers pointing me to books that staff members enjoyed. I actually had to read the first couple pages of books to decide whether I might like them or not. Call me a drone, but I don't think I'm alone in being swayed by a good review or media hype around a book... umm, Freedom?
The experience really made me take stock of how much I enjoy and rely on book bloggers' and critics' reviews ... not that I always agree with them, but that's half the fun.
Book reviews are here to stay, but yeah, the form is changing. But as long as they inspire people to go out and buy the book, I don't care what form they take. This guy is awesome.
Four words: Young Adult Book Bloggers. These people are the heart and soul behind why books that might otherwise go unnoticed get so much online love. These are the people I turn to for advice and new book ideas. Most of these bloggers are not in it for the fame or the fortune (goodness, certainly not the fortune) and do it because they LOVE books. Many of them don't even keep ARCs and free review copies they receive from publishers and authors. They usually go to giveaways to readers or donations to libraries.
I've narrowed down my book review blogs by how much in sync my tastes are with the blogger. My absolute favorites are: Love YA Lit http://loveyalit.com/ The Story Siren http://www.thestorysiren.com/ Steph Su Reads http://stephsureads.blogspot.com/
If they have a book reviewed that I haven't previously heard of, you bet I'm probably going to check it out and very likely order it up on my Kindle.
I think the key is to find a reviewer you trust to tell it like it is.
Unrelated: My word verification today is: Whatsy which I think is just a fantastic word and one I intend to find a good use for.
I haven't read a "professional" review in ages, but I do like book review blogs. It's not only the review, but the community of readers that develops around the reviews. Look at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books or Dear Author, and you can see the tribe of readers that actively participates. I don't see those types of reviews "declining" at all. If anything, I think that authors ignore them at their own peril.
Anonymous said, on 3/14/2011 8:46:00 AM
He's trying to be funny, and he might be trying a little too hard because not everyone cares for this type of humor.
Most book reviewers don't think with words like "awesome, cute, and ginormous." These are words for the Food Network. Book reviewers think with their tongues pressed to their cheeks.
The majority of book reviewers wouldn't do this and I'm sure most rolled their eyes when they saw it for the first time.
I pay attention to a few reviewers on Good reads whose tastes are similar to mine.
I belong to an ARC sharing site, and when I'm deciding whether or not to sign up for a book. I'll chack goodreads and glance over a dozen or so reviews. (I have to review the book and pay for postage whether I like the book or not, so I'm picky.)
It's just like finding a restaurant- I disregard the rants and the raves and look at what the bulk of people say.
Made me smile, but is this VidRev perhaps more about Mr. Parrish than it is about FREEDOM? The form itself suggests that the subject at hand is the guy in the window. Still, he took the time to make it, and it's vastly superior to the drive-by reviews books often get on Amazon and Goodreads.
I'd like to see more professional print reviews by impartial reviewers who don't live in their mothers' basements. Google "book reviewers" and it appears as if networking and profit are more important than the quality of the reviews themselves.
Online reviewers are stepping up to the plate as newspapers blow away in the virtual wind. (Moment of silence for newspapapers.)
But the VidRev is probably a trend. So, okay, I suppose ReviewTainMent is better than the raves/rants available at the retail level, but there's still a market for more serious print reviews. I'm sure we'll get both, in time, but quality often suffers during revolutions.
I'm pretty selective of the reviews that I read when it comes to books. I've noticed that you really can't trust fellow writers for an informative review because they always rave about everything. I can understand this behavior as they are writing and don't want to be truthful about something and give it a bad review since it may reflect badly upon them someday. Either that, or they legitimately like everything that they read which seems kind of strange to me (and in any case that isn't valuable to me because I certainly don't absolutely "OMG I LUV THIS"!!! enjoy everything that I read).
Mostly, I inspect a book blogger's site for any negative reviews. If I find one, then I know that at least the reviewer has the cahones to come out and say what they really think about a book. This helps build trust with me.
I never seek out professional reviews but I somehow I still have a six page to be read list from word of mouth reviews on blogs and from friends. And I don't write down everything I hear about.
I liked the video book review. He gave me a good overview of what to expect in the way of writing in the novel. Is it sad that I pay more attention to what the writing is like than the plot?
Anonymous said, on 3/14/2011 10:33:00 AM
As a mystery fan, I read reviews in EQMM and AHMM. With so many options and so little time, reviews help me to find new books that are more to my taste and to avoid one that aren't. I imagine that reviews might be more necessary in the future since the options are only going to increase. The format won't matter. People will learn to look for who reviews their favorite genre online or in print or in the app that I'm sure will be developed. You could probably have the top 20 book reviews for your selected genre sent to you weekly or monthly. For all I know, such a service already exists.
That was so funny and witty! What a great video. I especially liked how he demonstrated 'voice'. Very clever.
I will watch anything Stephen Parrish ever makes. I'm a fan! Hopefully he branches out from book reviews and makes documentaries or even little movies or goes on T.V. He's talented.
That's part of the wonderful change with the internet and all of this new technology - people can expand creatively. Stephen can make a video review, where a few years ago, the technology and access just wasn't there.
In terms of book review format, I think people will experiment, like this. It's fun to watch. I imagine that we'll end up with a wide variety of formats - something for everyone. Print reviews have the advantage of being quick to read, video reviews have the advantage of being creative, interesting and/or fun, and who knows what else people will come up with?
For example, I've come up with something new. I'm going to pioneer a new type of review.
I'm going to review my own book.
Hopefully in as many formats as possible, so people just can't get away from me.
The advantages of reviewing your own book are awesome, the most obvious and important being how efficient it is. You write the book, you review it. Can't beat that for being on top of things.
Of course, there might be a few other advantages as well, I'll have to think about it.
I'm alittle worried, though, that I'm going to be too hard on myself, so I'm saving up in case I have to grease my own palm, just to keep myself happy. It might be expensive, but one can't be too careful in these days and times.
So, that's my method.
Thanks, Nathan - wonderful video and fun to think about!
Jeannie said, on 3/14/2011 10:57:00 AM
Some bloggers will not review books they don't like, in an effort to avoid making negative comments--which, I think, contributes to the five star/one star culture.
Setting that aside, I do regularly read a couple of reviewer blogs: one in my subject area and one more general. Both have pointed me to books of interest. So I really hope the print review never goes away. I'm not terribly in love with the video format.
Jeannie said, on 3/14/2011 10:59:00 AM
P.S. It might be worth adding that I find new review blogs by checking out links that my favorite reviewers have listed on their pages. If you blog, this is where networking counts.
I typically read book reviews to find out a little more about content if the synopsis looks interesting. Most customer reviews I've found fail pretty miserably in this department. Nine out of ten will rave in vague terms about how wonderful a book is and never bother to mention that it's littered with profanity, which is absolutely no help to me.
Personally, I enjoy writing reviews of obscure or lesser-known books that I've read and loved. The latest hits will always have plenty of reviews, but a forgotten gem deserves the help.
One problem I can see with video reviews is the same as for politicians - that the visual presence of the reviewer will influence the listener. e.g.,If you don't look credible in your video review, why would I listen to you?
Book reviews are valuable and most writers do like to receive favorable ones, but are the bad reviews a problem? It depends on whence they came, IMO. (was it the 'New Yorker' review, or an Amazon reviewer?)
As for the impact of book reviews on readers' choices or an author's ego, we must recognize that it is one person's opinion.
Book reviews will survive as long as people want that snippet of the product, but I hope the online reviewing systems become less susceptible to manipulation.
He's the guy in the video, Stephen is the guy who sent the video.
Anonymous said, on 3/14/2011 12:50:00 PM
Great review: he gave the gist of the book without spilling everything. FREEDOM sounds like a socialist work of propaganda. I'm not surprised that the President pointed it out.
I liked Stephen's increment of Beanie Babies. Nice touch!
I read reviews largely for two reasons. The first is if I'm uncertain I want to purchase a book; the second is to help reflect upon it. While my subscription to The New Yorker lasts, I read their reviews, but don't find them useful for consumer advocacy, nor stimulating for reflection. I also browse the NY Times Book Review and whatever friends link me to around the web. Most reviews that I read are written by amateurs at Goodreads.com. I go there because, while they're seldom holders of PHDs in Lit. Theory, they are candid about what they liked and saw as worthwhile in the books, usually with much less pomp and filler than major magazine reviewers. Sites like Goodreads also have the advantage of letting you respond directly to the reviewer, stimulating conversation with him/her. The quality of top-rated reviews on such public sites are a gamble. If they fail me, I'm more likely to flip around for the professionals again. In both professional and amateur settings I prefer longer reviews, though that length should be warranted by substance. Another attraction for Goodreads is that if people don't have much to say, they'll stop. Tragic as it is for book review sections to shrink, it often seems like their writers don't mind wasting space with biography, trivia and unnecessary plot description.
I enjoyed that video. More entertainment than review, but it was novel. It reminds me of something I deeply wish the books press had. In the videogames press many journalists don't take themselves too seriously and will host podcasts that last well over an hour discussing industry news and the titles they've been reviewing. Giantbomb.com runs a weekly podcast of this sort, and their discussions serve as secondary reviews, listening to well-versed critics going into their personal experience with less defenses than they have on the page. It can be jocular, but haven't most of us been jocular about our passionate fields? I've never heard reviewers discuss books with similar enthusiasm. The critical level remains, but more relateable personality shines through. It's the best part of discussing books with friends, and the most crucial part missing from mainstream criticism, barring when someone hates a book and goes off the handle ripping into it (which is the least appealing part of their personality for me).
Thanks, Nathan, for turning me on to Ron Charles. Am I the last person in this country to discover him!?? He's hilarious. And I loved his review of FREEDOM. Have to say, I shared his take on that one.
As to book reviews, I do read them, mainly to get a sense of the story line to determine whether it's my kind of book. But I don't take them too seriously. Even people who seem to have everything in common clash when it comes to their opinions on books and movies.
I read book reviews quite often, but I rarely go looking for a book review. I happen upon them in a magazine or online newspaper. That said, I often come upon them as I am taking a mental vacation from my day job, so a video book review doesn't work for me in that instance. I don't need to announce to my co-workers (esp. in this day and age) that I'm not always 100% focused on my job at work. And at home, well, my computer needs better speakers ;o)
As a consumer, I've always rejected reviews of movies, books or music by professional critics. Most of the time they're just pretentious and I almost never agree with them. I think most professional critics have absolutely no idea what real people like. I would much rather read a review by a regular joe who's just giving their private impressions and not getting paid to be "witty" and arrogant.
The guy in the video was great though. I love anyone who doesn't take themselves too seriously.
I read book reviews. I don't watch them or book trailers either and didn't watch this video.I prefer the printed word, simple as that.I like reviews that give a feel for the book and reponse to it without giving away too much of the plot.
Terri said, on 3/14/2011 4:14:00 PM
I read reviews for one very important reason: money. If I'm going to spend my hard-earned money on something, I better take the time to decide the product is worth it.
That said, I never rely on just one source. I read multiple reviews and whether it's a book or a movie decide: 1) Dash to the register/box office, 2) Wait for DVD/library 3) You'll never get those hours back--pass.
i think reviews and reviewers are becoming more like a friend, a buddy, somebody you can trust - if you can find somebody that has similar tastes, and can grow to trust them, then i think book reviews can still be a great way to discover new authors, or be reminded of releases that might otherwise slip past - the best reviews that i run across come frome friends, peers or associates that i've come to trust as sources of powerful novels and collections
that being said, and i hope you'll pardon the link, if you like dark fiction that is somewhere between literary and genre, check out my reviews up at the nervous breakdown, i profile almost entirely small and indie presses - people like stephen graham jones, paul tremblay, lindsay hunter, tina may hall, amelia gray, craig davidson, xtx, ethel rohan and benjamin percy
"I'd like to see more professional print reviews by impartial reviewers who don't live in their mothers' basements."
I couldn't agree with you more. Online reviews for the most part are reviewfail. Most authors are out there soliciting reviews from friends and from places they know will review them well. And then there are review blogs that advertise publishers and books and get paid for it. So much for objective. A review blog shouldn't be associated with any publisher or author. It's shifty.
I’m rarely influenced by book reviews, however, I like reading a well-written, entertaining review, especially when the reviewer has Personality Plus, like Stephen Parrish. I think he’s onto something. Hysterically funny! I loved watching the stuffed animals multiply, and the use of the over-the-top prop—the toilet brush—too near his mouth! Too near his mouth! Ew!
I used to read amazon reviews until amazon started censoring them. Now, I don't believe them anymore. They've gone from okay to unbelievable.
And I definitely don't turn to newspaper reviews, which come across as pompous nonsense.
Instead, I have turned to listening to what my friends think of certain books, and I've learned to filter out bad suggestions from good suggestions. My writing group also provides decent suggestions from time to time.
Well...since I have a book out for review, I certainly hope there's a future for reviews. Unless I get bad reviews, and then, nah, book reviews are dead. Love the trailer. Much better than Freedom.
I actually like to read book reviews after I've read the book. (Although I must admit I do often read some before too.) If a book's bad--really bad--you know it without being told and, hopefully, have the sense to put it down. Sometimes I'm amazed at what a reviewer gets from a book that's very different from my take. Other times I've said "Halleluyah!" for finding out I wasn't the only one who didn't see the magic in a best seller. We all like company in our tastes. Thought this review was hilarious and not that far off even though I really liked Franzen's style and story. Do think he has a bit of a mystical view of women, however.
Anonymous said, on 3/15/2011 4:41:00 AM
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I am an American man, and I have decided to boycott American women. In a nutshell, American women are the most likely to cheat on you, to divorce you, to get fat, to steal half of your money in the divorce courts, don’t know how to cook or clean, don’t want to have children, etc. Therefore, what intelligent man would want to get involved with American women?
American women are generally immature, selfish, extremely arrogant and self-centered, mentally unstable, irresponsible, and highly unchaste. The behavior of most American women is utterly disgusting, to say the least.
This blog is my attempt to explain why I feel American women are inferior to foreign women (non-American women), and why American men should boycott American women, and date/marry only foreign (non-American) women.
I read reviews. Michael Dirda's reviews are great reading in themselves. If his name is on a review, I read it, whether I'm interested in the book or genre or not. He writes well, he's very entertaining, and he brings an extensive reading and historical background to a review.
See, the thing is, a review needs to be a good read in itself. A lot of web reviewers out there don't seem to realize that. But there are some people who DO know that, and put a good bit of effort into them.
Graham Joyce writes magnificent reviews. It's not his main thing, of course -- he's a novelist.
Donna
kevin lynn helmick said, on 3/15/2011 8:49:00 AM
Probably the most entertaining book review i've seen. I don't read many though except for a few short ones by other readers. You can easily tell the difference when they're written by or bought and paid for buy a marketing dept or the worst-another author trying to draw attention of said writer or said writers publisher to himself and his work. I liked this, and the humor and sarcasm leads me to beleive he doesn't think it's such a good book. I could see this being the future of book reviews, less painful than reading them and wondering of the hidden agenada.
I read book reviews in magazines. It is how I decide on which ones to try next sometimes. I think it answers your question to say that I wish this review had been in a written format.
I liked Charles' witty style and the beanie babies were a quirky whimsical touch.
I wouldn't want all my reviews to be videos, though, because you feel compelled to engage completely and it seems piggish on the part of the 'entertainer/reviewer'.
I prefer the printed word because while more passive a medium, it doesn't demand my attention. I feel more in control, and less badgered.
Also it contained a very long intro which usually isn't part of a review, and further felt like a waste of time.
The poor Internet keeps getting blamed for the end of newspapers, magazines, print books … so many things. The Internet doesn’t kill. It’s pretty peaceful by nature, really, always eager to share and collaborate, the more the merrier. These industries are killing themselves by fearing the changes they will need to make instead of embracing the new opportunities with imagination and spirit.
There is no way books reviews are dying. Readers will always like to read, and that includes reviews. I find it silly to conclude that one person has done something new and creative and been successful, and now this is what all book reviews will inevitably turn into. No. There may be more book reviews than before, and there may be more variation in their presentation (which I think is great) – traditional, blogs, videos – but they’re not going anywhere. We need them to help us sort through the massive jungle of books out there.
I still use book reviews, although I tend to seek out reviews from blogs or websites written by people with somewhat similar taste to me, and am critical of the traditionally public critics. (I don't always disagree with them, but I try to analyze more carefully why they're saying what they are, and whether the things they criticize are things that are going to bother me. I still read movie reviews as well. I haven't really switched over to watching these things as videos unless they're funny and someone links me (and even then, it's usually the reviewer that's the attraction, and not their opinion of the book), and don't seek them out often on my own. That might change, though! Right now it's just easier for me to read a review between different tasks than to sit down and watch a video. Even most of the text links I find are through aggregate websites whose RSS feeds I subscribe to.
It takes me a lot less time to read a review than watch a video, so I'm still all for the written review. Quite honestly, I'm good with the 'word-of-mouth' style consumer reviews on Amazon, B&N, etc. Traditionally, pro reviewers, ie. 'critics' are generally trying to be amusing and famous. I prefer getting my recs from people without an agenda.
The problem with these excerpts is — and I didn’t entirely realize this until I started reading for the contest — that the sex I respond to most in fiction is really fucked-up. It’s definitely not that I want to experience the anonymous sexual assaults of Nicholson Baker’s The Fermata (though I confess, I did think that book was hot, in its autistic way), or get involved with a porn-obsessed televangelist as in A.L. Kennedy’sOriginal Bliss, or abduct a man and use him as my sex slave, as in Rupert Thomson’sThe Book of Revelation, but those stories stay with me because they reveal something incredibly dark and twisted and, to me, true about desire and obsession. I like fiction, whatever the subject, that exposes the surprising longings its characters harbor in their heart of hearts. Mary Gaitskill’s “The Other Place,” in the latest New Yorker, is a perfect example, though it’s not actually about sex at all.
Oprah Winfrey picked a classic double header for her latest book club selection, choosing Charles Dickens‘ Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities.
During her announcement, Winfrey noted: “I’m going old, old school … Normally I only choose books that I have read, but I must shamefully admit to you all that I have never read Dickens.”
Winfrey will use Penguin’s new $20 paperback containing both books and nearly 800 pages. Amazon noted yesterday they have free Kindle editions of both titles. Penguin offers a $7.99 digital edition that includes illustrations, author background, and historical information.
Last night The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation gave ten writers $50,000 each for the 2010 Whiting Writers’ Awards–celebrating “exceptional talent and promise in early career.” The complete list (and bios) of the authors follows below.
During the ceremony at the Morgan Library & Museum Foundation president Dr. Robert L. Belknap told the winners not to worry about finding blockbuster audiences. “Perhaps they will become incredibly important to a readership that hasn’t even been born yet,” he explained.
Keynote speaker Peter Matthiessen reassured the nominees with tales of his own successes and failures. The great writer shared a rejection note with the recepients: “Dear Peter, James Fenimore Cooper wrote this book 150 years ago, but he wrote it better.” Matthiessen (pictured) laughed as he recited the note from memory: “Right then, I could have used a Whiting.” Stay tuned for video coverage from the ceremony over the next few days.
Plenty of celebrities–from Kristen Bell to Elizabeth Banks–have tweeted about Suzanne Collins‘ Hunger Games trilogy. But, not all of them have their very own talk show. That’s what sets Tyra Banks apart from all the rest. You can read Banks’ Twitter book review in the image embedded above: “Soooooo good!!!”
Shelf Life poked fun at the review: “That is especially impressive, since six o’s and three exclamation points is the highest possible score in Tyra’s rating system. (By comparison, she thought Twilight was ‘Soooo good!!’ and she broke with critical consensus by only giving the new Franzen a tepid ‘Soo good!’)”
You have your novel idea. Now it's time to fill it page in and page out with various events that keep the reader's interest. How exactly do you do that?
Novels don't just spill themselves onto the page (or at least they shouldn't!). It's best to make sure that on every page, in every scene, and in the novel as a whole, every character has their own set of goals that they're striving for and obstacles in their way.
Goals and obstacles. Goals and obstacles. It's crucial to know what your characters want and what is thwarting them.
Step 1: What does your protagonist want? It could be to save the world, it could be closure on an especially difficult issue, it could be romance, it could be to finally figure out who the Cylons are no seriously this time. But even better if your protagonist wants more than one thing, and these things could very well be at odds with each other at times. The ultimate, most important thing they want should be achieved (or not achieved) in the climax.
Step 2: What is standing in your protagonist's way? Obstacles reveal the true personality of a character. Are they ingenious? Stubborn? Clever? The way someone deals with conflict and adversity shows a great deal about their true character. Placing roadblocks in front of your characters at (nearly) every opportunity will show you and the reader who they really are. The biggest obstacle in their way should be faced in the climax.
Step 3: What do they value the most? Your protagonist should be in conflict not just with the world, but also within themselves. The battles and travails along the way should reveal the things that they care most about and their true qualities. Best of all, they should have to give up something important in order to get the thing they want the most.
And don't stop with your protagonist! Every character should have their own set of goals, obstacles, and ultimate values.
Jonathan Franzen is a master of goals and obstacles. If you look at nearly every scene in FREEDOM, every character has a goal that they approach a scene with (and it's a goal that the reader clearly understands), and we read on to see if they will obtain it. Often they are blocked by not only another character, but also by themselves.
When in doubt while you're writing your novel: throw an obstacle in your protagonist's path. Your reader will thank you for it.
ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper caught Jonathan Franzen at the White House this afternoon. Here’s more from report: “Spotted leaving the White House Monday afternoon: Jonathan Franzen. Asked how his meeting with the president went, the celebrated author of ‘Freedom’ said ‘delightful.’”
Everybody in the literary blogosphere has been speculating what the President and the novelist discussed. This GalleyCat editor hoped they discussed one of the most popular passages in Franzen’s new novel, Freedom.
According to Amazon, 300 Kindle users underlined this passage in Freedom, the perfect election season quote: “He became another data point in the American experiment of self-government, an experiment statistically skewed from the outset, because it wasn’t the people with sociable genes who fled the crowded Old World for the new continent; it was the people who didn’t get along well with others.”
Whew! Back in the office, where I returned to the sound of 421 queries simultaneously shouting "Hi! Hi! Where have you been?!" from my Inbox. Needless to say, query response time is going to be delayed for a while. Not least of which due to the monumental jet lag that led me to arrive at the office at 6:15 this morning since, hey, I was wide awake anyway!
Also, while away I entered the ranks of those who have read Jonathan Franzen's FREEDOM. Loved it. Seriously. That guy really knows human beings. Frankly I'm surprised he can walk down the street with that much awareness of what makes every single person around him tick. It's no wonder he loves bird watching.
But more on that when my brain knows what time it is.
Lastly, a major THANK YOU to the incredible lineup of guest posters for their amazing series of posts. I don't know that this blog has had a better week in its history. Thank you thank you.
Welcome back! Wow, showing up at work at 6:15 in the morning just because you’re wide awake – that is some jet lag! I just got back from a long weekend across the country in Southern California and only had mini-jet-lag, which involved 12 hours of sleep followed by a nap a few hours later.
I felt the same way after reading FREEDOM. Jonathan Franzen is so brilliant with so much insight into human beings at all stages of life in vastly different settings ... and, oh my God, he sees so much of where the world is really at and where we might be headed, I wondered how he even functions. I found it interesting that practically every discussion about FREEDOM on the Internet completely avoids the information inside the actual novel, FREEDOM. Maybe it’s too frightening for most people to discuss. Most of the discussions have been about his brouhaha with Oprah, his curmudgeonly personality (to which I always want to respond: Have you even read the book? Try living inside Franzen’s head for a while and see how happy-go-lucky you feel.), how President Obama purchased the book on his vacation, and the incident in which Franzen’s glasses were stolen right off his face. Sigh. It’s like there’s a rule: Discuss FREEDOM without ever discussing the actual pages of FREEDOM.
Glad to have you back! It's so wonderful that you take the time to find subs for your blog instead of letting it run dry for a week. What would we do?! O_O
In the office at 6:15? You are doing nothing to dispel the rumor that you're a robot. Humans simply cannot function at that hour; I'm pretty sure it's coded into our DNA..er... maybe it's the RNA...um... NBA... AT&T... something.
Welcome back! I hope you feel refreshed and recharged. As a settling back in tip, I highly recommend chocolate to support you through the rough re-adjustment to local time zone phase you'll be experiencing about now.
Thanks for organizing such great guest bloggers, they were fantastic.
Thanks for not leaving us hanging. The guest bloggers were great.
And yeah, FREEDOM was one of the best books I've read in a year of very, very good books. I don't think there's a topic related to modern life it didn't touch in some way.
As my good friend Moyrid said up there, we missed you. I was going to say exactly what she said, we loved the guest bloggers (I learned a thing or two), but it's nice to have you back.
Yay, Nathan's back. I hope you had a wonderful time on your vacation, and you're all rested and refreshed (aside from jetlag).
From our side - I agree with others - you were missed! It was generous and kind of you to feature guest bloggers - they were terrific, and it was lots of fun reading them.
I can't believe you LEFT right when I came to SF for Bouchercon. I'm trying not to take it personally. I did have fun raising a ruckus with one of your clients, though. :)
I did miss your posts, Nathan. And I'm probably the only one who hasn't read anything the guest bloggers had to say. I took the opportunity to read Freedom instead.
Welcome back! Oddly, I always have worse jet-lag flying east than I do coming back west. I always seem to have these super-long flights that take 30 hours with layovers, so flying east and losing hours with each time zone really kills me. Anyhow, hope you feel better soon.
Hey! I'm glad you're back, Nathan. Even though we don't know each other I feel like I know you. I know your words and some of your thoughts at least.
And, yes, thank YOU to all the brilliant guest bloggers. Wow. Had a fun time reading their posts and learnt such a lot.
Is Freedom really so incredible? Then I must read it. And thanks for the heads up on it. No one I know in this tiny retirement-like village reads anything like that so all I know about contemporary, amazing lit comes pretty much from this blog.
Mood: feeling happy and peaceful.
Jill said, on 10/20/2010 4:43:00 AM
So let me get this straight ...
I sent you my query while you were away, and now it's sitting amongst 400-something other queries?
Crud.
And while you were away, you read the Super Most Awesome Book Ever, and now my little ol' query has to compete with that?
Welcome back sir. Glad you're among us Franzenites. For your jet lag, may I suggest Nyquil? Just one shot before the set bed time and it should regulate your sleep
Missed having you with my morning coffee and my late night snack. Missed you in the middle of the day after getting home from work. Missed you during writer's block and the frustration of a blank page. Missed you when I needed answers and missed you because you are one of the few who actually reads what we write. Gee Nathan...did you miss me... HELL NO !! Welcome home babe. OMG I just called Mr Branford babe.
Welcome back! The guests bloggers did have a lot of good insight. You picked them well! Your week away was a joy, but still...nothing like the original.
Nathan, I read everything you wrote about synopses and queries while you were away, but I started to wonder, is there a synopsis gene and am I maybe missing it? I finally decided it was time to put the genes aside and get to work!
This morning the National Book Foundation (NBF) announced the finalists for the 2010 National Book Awards. Novelist Pat Conroy made the official announcement at the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home in Savannah, Georgia.
Many were surprised to see Jonathan Franzen‘s critically acclaimed novel Freedom did not make the cut. In a pleasant fiction surprise, Karen Tei Yamashita‘s I Hotel earned a nomination for indie publisher, Coffee House Press.
The LA Times broke the news this morning. We’ve updated our original post with the NBF’s official list. Follow this link for more details.
Fiction Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America (Alfred A. Knopf) Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule (McPherson & Co.) Nicole Krauss, Great House (W.W. Norton & Co.) Lionel Shriver, So Much for That (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) Karen Tei Yamashita, I Hotel (Coffee House Press)
Nonfiction Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group) John W. Dower, Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq (W.W. Norton & Co.) Patti Smith, Just Kids (Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) Megan K. Stack, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War (Doubleday) Justin Spring, Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
First off, thank you so much to everyone who entered the Guest Blog Contest Festival Event! There were actually so many spectacular entries that I decided to expand the number of contest winning slots. That's right folks, this blog is going seven days a week. Well. At least until I get back. So! Please come back tomorrow for the first guest blog post! I have notified the winners, but shant reveal them so as to preserve the surprise.
Also, there will be no Page Critique Friday this week or next as I'm out of the office. I'll be back on the 19th, enjoy the guest posts in the meanwhile.
Now then. Publishing news!
The biggest literary prize of them all, which you may know better as the Nobel Prize in Literature, was awarded to Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa for "his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt and defeat." He is the first South American to win the award since Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1982. The US of A remains shut out since Toni Morrison's win in 1993.
In possibly just as big news, Jonathan Franzen had a tough week in the United Kingdom. First he discovered during a reading that the books that were printed were from an earlier draft and contained errors (HarperUK issued an apology). Then his glasses were stolen from his face. No. Really. Not joking. The perp was later caught, and Franzen didn't press charges. Don't miss Patrick Neylan's great roundup from the Guest Blog Contest.
In publishing economics news, the Wall Street Journal took a look at some of the factors behind declining advances in the publishing industry and their effect on literary fiction in particular. And a used book salesman who travels around scanning barcodes and trying to find profitable books talked about his profession and the unease and detachment he feels about his line of work.
And Malcolm Gladwell made some waves last week when he argued that social media is not an effective tool for social change. Writing for the New York Book Bench, Rollo Romig used Gladwell's article as a jumping off point to consider what social media and social change do have in common: narratives. And writing for Change O
9 Comments on This Week in Publishing 10/8/10, last added: 10/9/2010
I finished reading Franzen’s novel, FREEDOM, this past week. The man is a genius. How he can write so many separate characters in so many different stages of their life with such exquisite detail and incredible insight, as if he had lived through each and every stage, is mind-boggling. (Of course, most of the characters are dysfunctional and less than admirable, but they provide a wealth of insight into the culture within which they live.) My first reaction after completing the book: to feel like a complete and utter failure at writing compared to Franzen. I also felt deeply moved by Franzen’s picture of U.S. culture and why it is what it is right now – a kind of escapism to avoid some very deep and frightening issues for which everyone wants to devour entertainments in order to block out reality. And, as though to prove Franzen right, the literary world joined in, commenting more on his stolen glasses, his brouhaha with Oprah, and his personality than on what he had to say. La la la, scary information, don’t want to hear it. Unfortunately, I joined in, too. Couldn’t resist the Franzen glasses situation. Started sending out tweets about how maybe he writes through magic glasses, and if a writer just had those magic glasses, they could write with the same skill level as Franzen. I have taken somewhat to heart Franzen’s approach to writing by trying to stay off the Internet during writing sessions, and I did get a lot more done in a much more serious tone of writing than ever before.
That was a really interesting article in the Wall Street Journal. I love literary books, and recently have discovered some incredible literary books published through small indie press. I’m planning to buy the novel SLEIGHT talked about in the article. I read TINKERS by Paul Harding, the novel that received a boatload of rejections, then was published by an indie press and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize last year. It was a beautifully written, very moving novel. I loved every minute of reading it. As a reader, I love good literary fiction, and will purchase it no matter who publishes it.
Marilyn, I really liked your commentary on Franzen's book.
Nathan - I'm so glad you're off having fun. I hope you have a lovely, refreshing, renewing wonderful time.
But I will certainly miss having you around the blogosphere!
But I will totally enjoy the guest posts - I guess there will be eleven (!) of them. How fun to have weekend posts - this is wonderful for everyone.
I also want to say YAY for J.T.! That was a very funny and clever comment. Nice work, Mr. Shea.
A couple links stood out for me. First, I think it's wonderful that a Peruvian won the Nobel Prize. Way overdue.
In terms of the Franzen eyeglasses thing. Yes. Soon all famous authors will be dealing with the paparazzi and obsessive fandom. Matter of time. Utterly serious.
The Wall Street Journal Article was both sensational and inaccurate. Boy, e-books really must be making a splash if the Wall Street Journal is resorting to anti-e-book propaganda, leaving out a few relevant facts, for example that it's the publisher's (heavily critiqued) decision to keep e-book royalty rates low, and that royalty rates for e-self-publishing are huge. Propaganda.
Gladwell is wrong, wrong, wrong. Sorry, but he is. Social media is absolutely the best thing that ever happened for activism in the history of the world. Look at all the recent activity around the book about rape that was supposedly 'soft porn.' Powerful voices rose against this.
Great Harry Potter site!
congrats again to J.T.! Looking forward to the guest posts. :)
Have a wonderful vacation, Nathan!
J. T. Shea said, on 10/8/2010 3:48:00 PM
Jurassic Park? What's a Jurassic Park? Google... Who's this Michael Crichton? I've been pirated! Years ago! Time-travel, obviously. Oh, he's dead. But he wrote a book about pirates! Which was published posthumously. I'm haunted by Time-Traveling Pirate Ghost-Writer! A SEVEN FOOT TALL Time-Traveling Pirate Ghost-Writer!
Seriously, Michael Crichton was great, not just tall. He drew his characters broadly and briefly, making them cool to the verge of coldness at times, but that seemed to suit his fast-moving economical tales. He made much of his movie of his own novel THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY in Ireland, in and around Cork, where I live. I will be very interested to see what Steven Spielberg makes of PIRATE LATITUDES.
Mr. Shea, Mira? If we're going to run Barnes & Noble together, just call me John. And yes, both the WSJ and Gladwell articles oversimplify things, to say the least.
Enjoy the Czech waters, Nathan! Though I might give the vodka enemas a miss...
Have a great time, Nathan! In the meantime, I'll be looking forward to tomorrow (and the day after that, and the day after that...).
If the Twilight hands lady wants to make it as an actor, I don't think an article on how she carries an apple in her purse to prove that it was her will do it. Auditioning, maybe, but not going around convincing strangers of the Importance of her Hands in the Twiverse.
I'm pleased about the Nobel award. That's a great piece of news.
Novelist Jonathan Franzen appeared on All Things Considered this evening to discuss the theft of his glasses at a book party. Follow this link to listen to the appearance. An excerpt: “Franzen told Kelly he doesn’t plan to press charges. ‘I’ve been laughing about the whole thing and observing the anguish secondhand,’ he said.”
We’ve linked to coverage of the theft–a prankster was arrested after stealing the author’s glasses at a reading, but Franzen (pictured, via Greg Martin) won’t press charges.
The story has generated some controversy. LA Times staff writer Carolyn Kellogg called the story “the lamest book ‘news’ story of the year.” One-Minute Book Reviews editor Janice Harayda pointed out that U.K. taxpayers were complaining about the event in the comments section of The Bookseller.
One reader wrote: “How disgraceful! Not the fact that his glasses were stolen, but the fact that the police sent out a helicopter to try to catch the thieves! How much did that cost the tax paying public? Is this even newsworthy? Scraping the barrel Bookseller, you really are!”
The literary blogosphere hummed with rumors all afternoon that someone had stolen Jonathan Franzen‘s glasses at a UK book party and left behind a ransom note.
After a flurry of Twitter posts, GQ had the first eyewitness account: “What happened next was more bizarre – a number of uninvited guests stormed the Pavillion, stole Franzen’s glasses from his face and left a ransom note. The police were called and were interviewing people outside. The note, seen by GQ, said the following:’$100,000 Your glasses are yours again!’ accompanied by a Hotmail email address. Franzen apparently has minus-eight vision so GQ can only suggest someone convert the ransom note to braille.”
You can follow all the excitement at the Twitter hashtag “Glassesgate.” Publishers Weekly has a great round up of the first flurry of Twitter reports. We’ll keep you posted as the story develops. Above, we’ve embedded a video of Franzen and his glasses in happier times. (Via Sarah Weinman)
It has been a very busy few weeks over here at BookFinds. To start, I was in the audience for Oprah’s Season Premiere and was part of the monumental show in which Oprah announced she was taking her entire audience to Austraaaaaaliaa! Yes, you heard that right. I am going to Australia for ten days with Ms. O and her audience of Ultimate Viewers. I make no secret of my love for The Oprah Winfrey Show and the Oprah Book Club in particular. I have read every single title and they have each had such a tremendous impact on my life at the time I was reading them. Well, sticking to that devotion, I am now reading Jonathan Franzen’s FREEDOM and have to say it might be one of the best books I have read all year! It questions how we look at our own freedom and challenges the belief that freedom is the path to happiness. I highly recommend you pick up this book because it will change the way you look at your world and make you see things in a completely different light. It is also a beautiful exploration into the way an ordinary life is actually extraordinary.
And finally, there was an interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal about the perceived stigma of paperback originals. The writer points out that one book, in particular, that could change the way we look at paperback originals is David Nicholls critically acclaimed ONE DAY which was released in the US as a paperback original and has gone on to sell incredibly well.
0 Comments on Australia, Freedom and the Power of Paperback as of 1/1/1900
I haven't yet read FREEDOM, but from the early reviews this novel is everything that our Internet-manic, high concept craving, supposedly dumbed down culture is not. It "[deconstructs] a family’s history to give us a wide-angled portrait of the country as it rumbled into the materialistic 1990s." (NY Times) It explores "the unresolved tensions, the messiness of emotion, of love and longing, that possesses even the most willfully ordinary of lives." (LA Times).
You can't exactly Tweet a summary of what this book is about. Whether you like Franzen's books or not (as you can probably tell: I'm a big fan), it's a novel that punches a gaping hole through the remarkably persistent idea that the publishing industry, and the culture as a whole, is only interested in high concept schlock and the lowest common denominator.
On the other hand, FREEDOM, in its bigness, in its You Must Read This To Be a Thinking Person in America, is already a novel of the times - the big books getting steadily bigger, accumulating hype with gravitational pull, and then there's everything else fighting for attention.
We seem to be a culture that is simultaneously craving books that fit our exact specifications at the same time that we want the shared experience of reading something, loving it, and sharing that experience with our friends (virtual and real life). Culture seems to be moving two contradictory ways - fracturing into ever-smaller niches at the same time that it's coalescing around a few massively popular books and movies. We normally think of the blockbusters in terms of James Patterson, Suzanne Collins, and Stephenie Meyer, but even in literary fiction you have your FREEDOMs and OSCAR WAOs.
And in a still further sign of the time, even though Franzen once said of his disdain for novels in e-book form, "Am I fetishizing ink and paper? Sure, and I'm fetishizing truth and integrity too," FREEDOM is available for sale as an e-book simultaneously with the hardcover.
President Obama is taking a ten day vacation in Martha’s Vineyard with his wife Michelle and their two daughters. The President stopped in to the Bunch of Grapes bookstore in Vineyard Haven for some summer reading. He bought “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Red Pony” by John Steinbeck for the girls, as well as Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.
For himself, he picked up the eagerly anticipated, highly praised and aptly titled “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen. (This book does not go on sale for another two weeks but the store owner gave Obama an early review copy)
He even signed a copy of his book, “Dreams from my Father,” for a fourteen year old boy.
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There were a few controversies this week in publishing. Firstly, if you have ever attended a conference with the fabulous YA Author Ellen Hopkins, you know that in addition to being a brilliant writer and storyteller she's also a terrific, honest, and inspiring speaker and devotes a huge amount of time to mentoring up-and-coming writers. So it was very distressing to hear that she was dis-invited from the Teen Lit Fest in Humble, Texas, due to a librarian's complaint. In the wake of the news about Hopkins, several additional writers subsequently withdrew from the event in protest.
Secondly, bestselling author Jody Picoult made some waves this week when she accused the NY Times Book Review of a white male literary fiction bias in the wake of Michiko Kakutani's rave about Jonathan Franzen's upcoming novel FREEDOM. While I leave it to you the reader to agree or disagree with this characterization of the NYTBR, PWxyz's Jonathan Segura recalled the Kakutani/Franzen spat of 2008: After Kakutani slammed Franzen's memoir THE DISCOMFORT ZONE, calling it, "an odious self-portrait of the artist as a young jackass: petulant, pompous, obsessive, selfish and overwhelmingly self-absorbed," Franzen shot back, calling Kakutani "The stupidest person in New York City."
And in further controversy (or is it?), industry sage Mike Shatzkin wrote a post that characterized print books, as "On a path to oblivion." The crucial takeaway: "Indeed, the insistence by some people that they will “never” give up the printed book — which leads to rather ludicrous glorification of the smell of the paper, ink, and glue and the nonsensical objections that the screen would be unsuitable for the beach (depends on the screen) or the bathtub (I can’t even imagine what the presumed advantage of the printed book is there) — must ignore the fundamental dynamic. Print books aren’t getting better. Ebooks are." No doubt there will be lots of reactions to this article, and we have already been discussing this in the Forums.
@Mark Terry - you've got some fantastic ideas, maybe you should find a way to facilitate this venture. ;)
SB said, on 8/20/2010 11:59:00 AM
Your quote from the Shatzkin article (the "rather ludicrous glorification of the smell of the paper, ink, and glue") struck me as even more ludicrous given something that occurred to me earlier this week.
I was driving up the east coast from Florida to D.C. and passed at least three paper mills -- I know this because I could smell them through the car's closed windows. It is a scent reminiscent of burning tires, nail polish remover and rotten eggs. This scent plagues entire communities that are downwind of such plants, not to mention the sickening effects of living near the particulate air pollution caused by the milling process.
As a writer, I was saddened. I asked myself, "Do I really want to write books when the publishing process requires the existence of plants like these?"
As a technologist and scientist, I know that other products can cause just as much pollution, and that environmentally-informed consumption really just requires choosing the lesser of many evils.
But as a serious e-book devotee, I was comforted by the fact that I am able to buy e-books, supporting the book industry without supporting the paper industry.
In the future, I will suggest to anyone who tells me that "real" books are better simply because of their scent to spend a day next to a paper mill. After that, the scent of all that paper might just make them ill.
On the other hand, we mine a lot of heavy metals (or rather, miserable people in even more miserable third-world hellholes do) or strip the metals from garbage heaps for the metals used in the batteries of e-readers and other devices. It's not clear at all if e-readers are "greener" than books. Probably not.
I definitely would not say the case for e-readers is overwhelmingly clear cut, but there are quite a few problems with that article. The transportation section doesn't taken into account that books are often printed overseas in Asia, shipped to distribution centers in the US, shipped to bookstores, then a good chunk shipped back to bookstores, then pulped. That article treats transportation as if the book is printed in the bookstore.
Anonymous said, on 8/20/2010 12:20:00 PM
Ellen Hopkins joins Tom Green in being too controversial. Pretty good company.
I've read John Green. He's amazing (a-man-zing). I haven't read Ellen Hopkins. What are the controversies?
About agents and companies who passed on projects that later became successful.... it's all very well for them to be supportive and such, but I betcha that the other, still unidentified agent and the 11 publishing companies who turned down the then-unknown JK Rowling have been kicking themselves for years.
It took a couple of decades, but the record company that declined on the Beatles because "guitar groups are on their way out" finally admitted it was the dumbest thing they'd ever done.
I think it's an incredibly complicated issue, whether books are greener than e-readers. Well, like most issues when it comes to the environment. But I think there are plenty of reasons (I think) to get an e-reader--I've got a Kindle and my wife has an iPad, and I've got an iPhone and probably will buy an iPad in the next year, although not necessarily as an e-reader--but because it's "greener" than books probably isn't one of them.
I really don't understand why print book lovers are made fun of so viciously, like we're crazed glue-sniffers obsessed with the smell of books. Why can't we like print books? What's the big deal? Ebooks have their place and no one's trying to get rid of them. I'm all about adapting, but I don't think print books should just disappear. I personally NEED to have a book in my hand and carry it around with me and lend it to friends and relatives to read. I've tried reading on a Kindle and it was a frustrating experience for me. If people prefer ebooks, that's great! But some of us don't and never will. Why can't there be room for both?
I'm still where I've been on this whole issue for a while. I don't think that Books/eBooks = CDs/MP3s. There is a difference in the actual experience of reading in the former, while there's no difference in how you listen in the latter (well, okay, not totally, because audio quality is worse than it used to be with the latter).
I think eBooks will grow to become a substantial portion of the book market but that there will still be a greater number of paper books sold, at least for the next couple of decades.
And I still don't know what eReader I'd like to buy.
SB said, on 8/20/2010 12:47:00 PM
Mark - I completely agree that it's hard to decide which is greener. Like I said, trying to consume more eco-consciously is really just trying to pick the lesser evil -- not consuming at all is better for the environment, but that's not going to sell us any books.
But I also don't know anyone who is sticking their nose in an e-reader and telling me that it's better because of its delightful, plasticky scent. :) Arguments like the one you pointed to are much better arguments in support of the whole e-book vs. "real" book debate -- I'd be very interested to see a comprehensive review of such studies.
Maggie - Yes, this whole glue-sniffer thing is rather ridiculous. My comment is just that the scent of paper-making makes this argument even more ridiculous. I am totally open to other arguments -- the comfort of a real book is definitely one of them -- and I agree that even arguing is a tad pointless. Of course there is room for paper and digital books. As long as books are being bought, we should all be happy, right? :)
I agree with you, Maggie. I find comfort reading printed books--so easy, no hassle, and I do like sharing them with people after I'm read them. I don't understand why e-enthusiasts are so quick to put down people who aren't embracing the eworld wholeheartedly. I use my ereader and sorta like it, esp when I'm stuck in a motel room and need something to read. But I prefer books--just love the whole experience of reading printed books.
No doubt. I do wish there were some more comprehensive studies, because it's an important issue.
Maggie-
I actually think there's hostility on both sides (inasmuch as there even ARE sides). I mean, look at this post from the Seattle Post Intelligencer in response to Shatzkin's article. This person says Shatzkin doesn't know what he's talking about, then goes on to say a bunch of wildly inaccurate things, like if you lose an e-reader you lose every e-book you've ever bought (not true at all - every e-book company I've bought from has stored my purchases and with Amazon and iBooks you can download them across devices.)
I can't speak for Shatzkin, but every time I post about e-books the same arguments keep coming up: smell, bathtub, I'll go blind. At some point I do start feeling a little frustrated, like, look, reading in the bathtub isn't going to stop this change! We need to be ready!
Of course on the individual level it's totally fine for people to prefer paper books and there's no reason anyone should be rude to one another. I want bookstores to succeed, I don't think it has to be either/or, I like paper books too. It's not that I look down on people who read print books, but if I had a nickle for every person who told me they would never read an e-book and now has an e-reader I'd already be a rich man. I know it's not for everyone, but to a certain extent I don't think people yet realize the extent to which their own habits will inevitably (yes inevitably) change.
Just a small point to add to the e-book/paper book discussion:
Have you ever gone on vacation and stayed a hotel or inn and they had an available library where you could basically take a book and leave a book? I like those. Sure, e-readers can store enough books that you wouldn't NEED to do this just because you finished a novel early, but it's fun to see what people leave behind. Sometimes there are notes and other weird items in them, too.
Speaking of which, do e-readers have a way of annotating margins?
I personally think the glue-sniffing, feel-of-paper thing is a bit overrated, but I confess to liking books as "objects." That is to say, I like the covers, I like the feelings of the heft, the layout of the print on the page (not so much on the Kindle, that's for sure). I like bookshelves and the look and appeal of books on those shelves. Each book casts a memory and an experience and I don't have that same sort of thing with an e-book.
So far with the Kindle I buy some e-books and some paper books. Of course, if market pressures push up the price of paper books (I don't see how they can't, actually), I suspect I'll be buying more and more e-books. I still like music CDs and I still like DVDs over just having a video file, too, because they seem more tangible and are even more portable, but the handwriting's probably on the wall (hey!, a new format) for them, too.
Thanks for the links, as always. I don't agree with Picoult, but even if her assertion were true, I don't know why she'd care. If you've chosen to be a commercial writer-- well, then, success is measured by sales and by what the public thinks, not by what the critics write. So, clearly she has succeeded. Why even bother herself with this?
Oh boy! Look at all the wonderful links. You outdid yourself outdoing yourself last week, Nathan.
Fun, fun, fun.
I'll come back and comment after I've READ them. But I did want to weigh in on the conservation issue. Although I suspect neither is good for the environment, I do think e-books win. One reason for that is sheer volume. I will only buy one I-phone, probably every five years or so. I've bought....what hundreds? A thousand? books over my lifetime.
On another note, I couldn't help bu notice that Mark Terry got Comment of the Week and not me. I totally agree he made a great comment and he said tons of things I agree with.
But it made me ponder. Why? Why didn't one of my ten comments on Wednesday alone win? (Epecially the one about my profile picture). What am I missing here? I scratched my head and then it came to me! I realized that, like with most things of this nature, winning comment of the week is a numbers game. If I post often enough, I'm bound to hit on a good comment through sheer statistical probability.
So, I'm thinking of 25 as a good round starting amount of comments to any post. If I do that daily, that's 150 comments a week. (I'll give Nathan Saturdays off.) Surely, with 150 posts, something in there will be coherent.
I'll be back to comment more later on the links (was there ever any doubt?)
Hope everyone has a truly great weekend!
SB said, on 8/20/2010 2:38:00 PM
Mark - It's funny -- I feel the exact opposite about books. I think we are a good case study for the two sides of this debate. Call me lazy and wimpy, but I seriously dislike the heft of a real book. I love the fact that my Kindle takes up almost no room on the bookshelf (I've gotten rid of most of my bookshelves and those that I have, I simply consider to be "shelves" as there are hardly any books on there). I love that I can read in bed without getting fatigued from holding it open, that I hardly have to move to turn the page, and that, when it's lights-out time, I can read on my iPhone without needing a booklight. I do get attached to my e-books, in that I have my favorite parts of favorite books bookmarked so I can flip to them easily whenever I want. If I want to see the cover, it's either already in the e-book book (in full color on the iPhone), or I look it up online. When I get tired of the layout on Kindle or iPhone, I change the colors or type size. I am seriously in love with e-books. I feel the same way with other file types -- hand me a CD or a DVD and I'm already looking for someone to pawn it off on. I'll keep a digital file forever (or as long as the DRM lets me, but that's a whole other issue).
I HAVE been accused of being a little too much of a techie.
I appreciate your openness to changing formats because, like Nathan, I think it's an inevitable shift.
Nathan - I hadn't realized how many people who said they'd never read an e-book are now reading e-books -- excellent point. I think your take on this is very optimistic: Just because you say you won't change doesn't mean it's true. Why not prepare?
And, incidentally, I stopped reading in the bathtub when I dozed off and saturated the bottom half of Harry Potter 5. Nothing is safe in there! :)
I'm in the Kate and Mark Terry camp. The books I really love I consider objects of art. I love the art work on the cover and often consider this part of the book. Call me old-fashioned. And as Kate mentioned, when I see someone reading a book I try to look at the art work on the cover and figure out what sort of story they are reading. After all the hub-bub of the transition is over, and both are alive and well, it seems the marketing of e-books will be the interesting game.
p.s. Nathan, I hope you know that I'm just playing. I don't really care. I just thought for a moment you might get worried I was serious. I promise I won't post 25 times in any particular post.
24 is my absolute limit.
J. T. Shea said, on 8/20/2010 3:02:00 PM
Jody Picoult vs Michiko Kakutani re Jonathan Frantzen etc.!? And we Bransforumites were complaining recently about unpublished writers being nasty to each other! It seems publishing success does not mellow some people.
Relating the Ellen Hopkins and Mike Shatzkin links presents another powerful argument against E-books. You can't burn them! You could burn the aptly-named Kindle, and I-Pads and Nooks, but somehow it's not the same. Not to mention 'Smell, bathtub, I'll go blind'.
In Ireland, you pay extra for plastic bags. That has solved all the country's problems, and Jeremy Irons lives here in a pink castle.
On the subject of e-Books versus printed paper books: reading large volumes of text on screen makes my eyes hurt; reading a paper-printed book does not.
Consider the flicker factor--the monitor refreshes itself several times a moment as you look at it, meaning your eyes are refocusing refocusing refocusing refocusing refocusing refocusing refocusing refocusing to keep up with it. It's a tiny movement, but too much of it causes eye strain.
Since we spend much of our time during work days at a computer terminal, then in front of the TV at night, isn't it nice to know there is at least one form of quiet entertainment that doesn't require yet another monitor?
SB said, on 8/20/2010 4:40:00 PM
I think I am commenting too much on this post, but...
Jeanne- You are right about staring at LCD monitors, but this is precisely why e-readers such as Kindle and Nook use e-ink. The e-ink displays do not constantly refresh like an LCD monitor and therefore do not cause flicker-related eyestrain (see blog post).
Like I said before, I'm not anti-paper books. I'm just a big e-book fan trying to stick to the facts. :)
Ami said, on 8/20/2010 4:54:00 PM
Hilarious video! You know what else should be eliminated?
Lawns.
They waste TONS of water, give us unnecessary work on the weekends, and are completely useless.
Rock lawns ftw!!!
reader said, on 8/20/2010 4:56:00 PM
Re: Franzen's newest novel FREEDOM -- NYT book reviewer Michiko Katutani says this:
"...While “The Corrections” attested to Mr. Franzen’s discovery of his own limber voice and tamed his penchant for sociological pontification, the novel was something of a hybrid in which the author’s satiric instincts and misanthropic view of the world sometimes seemed at odds with his new drive to create fully three-dimensional people. It felt, at times, as if he were self-importantly inflating the symbolic meaning of his characters’ experiences, even as he condescendingly attributed to them every venal quality from hypocrisy and vanity to paranoia and Machiavellian conniving..."
I've read it three times and still have no clue what it means. I like my reviews in English, please.
Also, and not that I have to worry about it, but if TIME magazine called me the greatest anything, much less writer, I'd think I'd suffer a nervous breakdown from the expectation. Come to think of it, I wouldn't want to READ anyone who thought he was the greatest writer. I like humble writers. Their books are much more authentic, I think.
Speaking of the plastic bag and human ingenuity, someone recently drew my attention to one of the greatest obstacles to the modern city, if not the biggest obstacle to the modern city. Come-on Manhattans, kick-in! One of the biggest obstacles to the modern city was...Poop! The modern city almost didn't exist for this reason. But humans are very ingenious when their life is on the line. So, now we can brag about the our chic skylines, but what is going on under the ground made it all possible. You gotta love it!
Nathan, Thanks for the video link in your post, which spurred me to write a blog about plastic bags that's been simmering for a few days. It is timely with the ban in California pending. http://dawnpier.blogspot.com/2010/08/screwing-planet-with-plastic.html
Read the Ellen Hopkins' posts and I sympathize with her comments and attitude. Small-town censorship is alive and well in the USA -- and always has been. Some states are worse than others. It's more an affliction of the small-town protective mentality, than indicative of the USA or any other country. Small minds can proliferate anywhere.
Also read the Jodi Picoult incident. Interesting but not surprising. Reviews are the OPINIONs of the person writing them. They may or may not be FACT. I can't see that it's to Picoult's benefit to challenge them. But, it's her choice.
Eric's interview by Tahereh was great. I like his attitude, and he remains respectful of his following. A good blog check out.
Thanks for the links,Nathan, and the interesting reading. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Well, I'm for paper, but it's the books that matter. I want paper, but if the books I want end up (at some point) only coming out as ebooks, I'll probably get a reader and be happy enough reading. But I still prefer paper.
And I'm not entirely sure about the inevitability, still. Certainly ebooks will get bigger. But in the near future how much bigger will they get? Yes, I hear stories of people who said they will never take up ebooks and now love them. But for every one of those stories I also hear one about how someone bought an ereader and no longer uses it. They've gone back to paper books, and their ereader is one more gadget sitting on a shelf.
I hear a lot of both, and it makes me think this really is a shifting demographic. People are adopting and leaving, adopting and keeping, not adopting at all... it's pretty early in the game, really, and so much is speculation and curiosity. People are trying to feel out what's best for them. It's gonna be interesting to see where it all goes. I'm hoping for multiple reading platforms myself -- a nice balance where everything is available to everybody in whatever format best suits them.
I don't ask for much, I know.
Anonymous said, on 8/20/2010 7:29:00 PM
I agree, Byran. I have friends who were incredibly excited about reading books on their iphones, but they've mostly gone back to reading printed books. My ereader gathers dust most of the time...I do think there's a lot of hype out there generated by Amazon (for the Kindle), Apple (for the ipad, iphone). Not everyone is going to drink the Kool-Aid...nor should they be compelled to do so.
Anonymous said, on 8/20/2010 7:35:00 PM
Nothing about the continuing Dorchester saga? After going completely ebook, it appears they are downsizing the staff:
Ami: With the exception of a narrow strip of grass between my house and my neighbor's driveway (a concession because we share use of that strip of land), my husband and I have eliminated our front lawn. I spent all of May stripping off the grass, laying landscaping fabric, putting in native plants, and spreading soil and mulch. We have had nothing but compliments from the neighbors. And I didn't have to work out at the gym.
D.G. Hudson: "It's more an affliction of the small-town protective mentality, than indicative of the USA or any other country."
A-MEN!
Regarding the e-book vs print book debate, I think that there should be room for both. And I hope that the shift toward e-books isn't inevitable; thinking of it as such makes me sad.
I look at it this way. When an artist paints a picture, they are not just thinking about color and composition and content, which are the two-dimensional elements of a painting. They are also thinking about brush strokes, thickness of the paint, layering, texture... These are three-dimensional elements, and they are lost when a painting is translated to an electronic medium.
I think of books in a similar way - each book is set in a certain type, printed on specially selected paper, and bound in a certain way, with a cover that may be flat and smooth or have raised lettering or other three-dimensional elements. The cover is designed to look a certain way when positioned spine-outward on a shelf, and to look another way when positioned facing out. A lot of careful thought goes into all of these elements, and they are all lost when a book is translated onto an e-reader.
We wouldn't malign an art lover for refusing to give up all of his paintings in exchange for bare walls and an e-reader full of flat images. Why denigrate book lovers for feeling similarly about their carefully arranged shelves of beautiful, colorful books?
Also: I disagree with the idea that e-readers will be a wonderful thing for picture books. I give my children actual physical toy cars and trucks and sticks and blocks and dolls to play with, and I do not think that artificial interactions with an electronic interface is healthy play. Books afford the opportunity to utilize the imagination to picture whatever the words conjure up, and giving children e-picture books that move and dance and do the imagining for them is akin to sticking them in front of the television with subtitles running along the bottom. So in that regard, I hope that the shift to e-books is NOT inevitable.
The Feds, in very heavy-handed fashion, have made it clear that colleges cannot use e-readers for textbooks and cannot distribute any ereader to students that is not completely accessible to the blind.
The motto is that if blind students can't have Kindles then no one can . . .
On the other side of the plastic bags issue...an Australian show, The Gruen Transfer, each week challenges 2 advertising companies to come up with an ad for something really "unsellable." Here is one of the ads created to sell plastic bags. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npf6qns0JhU
flibgibbet said, on 8/21/2010 1:38:00 AM
Getting rid of heavy text books sounds like a good thing to me. Kids can now excuse themselves from homework assignments by complaining about battery failure, etc. The dog will no longer have to take the blame.
I personally have no need for an ereader, but I can see why others love them. For me, reading paper books (fiction mostly) is a non-problem, something I don't need to spend $ to solve. In fact, I want the actual object, one that I can loan out without someone else's permission, one that I can add to my library and enjoy regardless of the newer, better, must-have tech toy.
I completely understand Picoult's rant. We live in a patriarachy where men still make up most of the rules. And the minority of women who get to participate are still working off of those same male standards as if there's no other paradigm. So good for her.
Really sad to read about the censorship in Houston, but not surprised. People tend to hide behind "the children" when they have a personal beef with public content.
In ireland they reduced plastic bag usage - not through banning but by charging 22c government levy on each bag! Government makes money and reduces usage :)
When I lived in Korea they started charging for plastic bags in the stores there too. I think it's a great idea. I think charging for bags may be less controversial than banning them completely. It works for reducing usage.
Okay Nathan so a couple of things I am going to take from your post today are: Ellen Hopkins should publish on ecologically sound stone tablets therefore she can pitch them at the superintendent's thick skull, and regarding the plastic bag issue, how about shopping with the always reuseable shopping tote made form Shatzkin Butt Hide.
It's a shame I just missed the author top ten earnings list but then again who would want little old self-absorbed, pompous me... oh wait that was last year. This year I'm into screenplays, ever heard of Oscar?
Okay, if there's an e-reader with intuitive note-taking capabilities to replicate my margin scrawling... I would bite. Especially if you could keep it all one place on a computer.
I noticed, at an agent's contest, that there was an entry from a "Marjorie" at 2:38 PM. My entry was from me, Marjorie, at 9:43 PM.
If you click on the first "Marjorie" to view her profile, you are are taken to a page that shows the name was created this month and the blog has under 10 visits and no listed personal blogs.
I want to state that I am not that person and I did not create that profile. My comments will always take you to my profile which lists my blogs and over 6,000 visits.
I do not know if this was coincidence or deliberate... but I do not appreciate it because the same name, Marjorie, makes it appear as if I am the author of the comments or contest entries posted.
I wanted to post this so in some way I can disassociate from a name that may have been created to impersonate me and may be leaving comments on blogs that appear to have been written by me.
This is what happens on the internet I suppose, but with this post I have taken some proactive step to clarify what does concern me and make others aware.
Elle: At our house, we use the emptied bags/packaging that we end up with when we buy loaves of bread, apples, potatoes, onions, toilet paper... You'd be surprised how much plastic the average family disposes of when you really stop to look at it.
Anyone who cannot see the value of a paper book over an e-book when reading in the bathtub has clearly never dropped their book in the water. Likewise with beach reading, frankly. Even though I have switched to e-books, I will still buy and check out paperbacks from the library for reading in those "high risk" places. I can afford $5.00 to replace a mass market paperback; I cannot afford $150 to replace my Kindle or $300 to replace my iPhone.
Spam and rejections Rejections and spam Waiting for the windfall Yes ma’am I am Books in the hardrive And backed up on disc When the call comes I’ll take the risk Cuz query I may And query I might It all comes down to How well I can write. (titled writers prayer) Thought you'd get a kick out of it. Just killing time waiting for replies to my queries.
I want to clarify my comments on e-readers. For practical reasons, I have actually made the switch to e-books. I believe most of my book purchases in the future will be done through the Kindle store. However, I still find there are times when only print will do, and it frustrates me when that is completely blown off.
I know it must get old to hear the same arguments over and over, but that doesn't mean they are invalid. Perhaps if those arguments were acknowledged, we wouldn't feel the need to repeat ourselves. Perhaps if members of the e-book revolution spent as much energy finding an answer to the Bathtub Dilemma as they do mocking those who mention it, the problem would soon be resolved.
I do believe in e-books; I read them and love them. That doesn't make me blind to their limitations, however.
sooper said, on 8/22/2010 1:51:00 PM
re: e-books vs. print books:
I'm an orthodox jew and I do most of my reading on saturday when I can't operate any sort of machinery or appliance or what have you. Maybe there aren't many of us but there are certainly people out there who prefer print books for more than just aesthetic/nostolgic reasons. Plus, until I can afford to quit the library,there's no way I'm getting an e-reader.
That's a solution I hadn't considered. It amuses me that you recommend plastic bags two days after you posted that fantastic video, but I assume you mean a Ziploc bag--something that could be sealed. In that case, vive la'revolution!
J. T. Shea said, on 8/22/2010 4:44:00 PM
Don't mind the Bathtub Thong Dilemma, what about EMP? Electromagnetic pulse. Your new-fangled E-readers and E-books won't survive World War Three! Us paper fans, on the other hand, will still be able to enjoy reading (in between hunting and eating each other and dying of radioactive suppurating sores and the usual post-apocalyptic stuff).
LOVE the Plastic Bag mockumentary! I have watched Planet Earth and Blue Planet so many times with my kids that I have a special appreciation of the genre.
JaimeLoren said, on 8/23/2010 8:37:00 AM
Man, the whole 'ridding the world of plastic bags' thing sounds good in theory, but we've been banned from using them here in South Australia, and let me tell you it sucks. Not only do you have to add a new room onto your house to store the new 'environmentally friendly' bags, but you also have to remember to TAKE them with you to the shops so that you don't have to keep buying MORE 'environmentally friendly' bags (hence the addition of the new room).
Also, the new 'environmentally friendly' bags are not so environmentally friendly. It takes longer for them to break down than plastic bags.
As someone who owns two dogs, plastic bags are sorely missed in our household.
Here in San Francisco stores just use paper bags, which we then re-use to hold the recycling. They're also compostable. So if you forget the re-usable bags you don't have to buy more. It's really not that big of an inconvenience, if at all, considering that collectively San Francisco is saving 180 million plastic bags a year from landfills/ocean.
I am quite aware, Mr. Bransford, that you are trying to out-link me. You believe that if you place oodles and oodles of wonderful links within one post, I shall fail in my ablility to comment on them all. It is a diabolical plan - but ha! Ha, I say. You gravely underestimate my ability to ramble, Mr. Bransford.
It may have taken me until today to READ all the links, but I shall now commence to comment upon each and every one of them.
First up: Censorship. Censorship is bad. Seriously. You may have the right to guide the reading of your own children, but you do not have the right to control the reading of mine. So good for those who boycotted the conference that banned Ellen Hopkins.
I haven't studied the printing habits of the NYTBR, but I did notice she accused them not only of giving favorable reviews to white males, but giving them more review space in general. My educated opinion is this - of course there's a white male bias. Where isn't there? Besides, like all ethical issues within publishing, publishing is notable for having almost no accountability and/or sanctions when it comes to both covert and overt discrimination. I also noticed that the Time Magazine covers were - (wait for it) - almost all white men.
Mike Sh. is right on the money about how e-readers are getting better and paperbooks are standing still. I loved what Saundra Mitchell said about ad placement: that integrated product placement should be extremely expensive and acceptable to the author. Yes!
So, I have this new idea about helping agents not overlook bestsellers. I think literary agencies should get organized. They should find out what agent has an eye for what type of writing, and that agent only represents that genre. All YA queries get sent to Carol, who represents YA, and all Literary queries get sent to Tom, etc. Doesn't that sound organized and efficient? I thought so, too.
James Patterson makes alot of money. Know what else James Patterson does? Advertise on T.V.
Oooo. Research. I get to critique research!! Here we go: The movie research looks interesting, but it appears to leave out some important variables like cultural context and economic factors.
I'd better hurry if I'm going to buy Barnes and Noble. I still only have 44 dollars. I wonder if they'd accept barter? I'd be willing to critique some research for them - I'm good at that.
Cute article by Natalie Whipple. Tahareh asks the BEST interview questions I've ever seen. Eric is charming and funny, even if he is wrong about the self-publishing thing; I disagree with him every time on that! Good article by Jennifer Hubbard, except I don't agree. I think agents should be at their writer's beck and call night and day to meet every little whim that passes through their client's mind. I think the reasons for that speak for themselves. Every book I write will have the same first line: "If you don't keep reading this book, your hair will fall out." That should keep them reading.
Funny and quite pointed video. I like the English accent. Adds just the right touch.
Ha! I'm done. It may be too late - you might have posted Monday's post as I write - no one may read this - but it's the principle of the thing. I shall not be out-linked!
Thanks for all the wonderful links, Nathan. Hope everyone is having a happy Monday!
J. T. Shea said, on 8/23/2010 10:49:00 AM
Mira, don't read all Nathan's links. Just PRETEND you did.
White men on Time covers? Like Hitler and Stalin? Not necessarily an honor. And I'm a white man, but I've never been on the cover of Time(yet)!
$44? Does that include my $22.50? In which case, what did you spend the other dollar on? As for B & N accepting barter, I have a great collection of plastic bags.
'If you don't keep reading this, your hair will fall out.' Brilliant! 'But if you're already bald, reading this book will make your hair regrow.'
SB said, on 8/23/2010 11:23:00 AM
Nancy and Nathan -
Re: The bathroom thong. The first time I tried the plastic bag thing, I was using a box of cheapo plastic bags (who can afford Ziplock brand?). When I dropped my Kindle in there, the bottom of the bag broke open and my Kindle fell to the floor. Insert trombone sound effect -- lolarious.
The baggie totally works, but proceed with caution. :)
I usually forget to baggie it, though, and bring it to the beach anyway. I've done this at least a dozen times and it's remained in pretty good shape. I even checked my email on for free from the beach in France using the 3G. That was pretty sweet.
And also, I live in a nice metro area where I can check out e-books from the library. Any regular library users should check to see if this awesome feature is available for them. Some of the books are also available as audiobooks to download to my iPod. Libraries rock.
SB said, on 8/23/2010 11:27:00 AM
Ha! I meant "bathtub thong", as in, the derivation from "bathtub thing". If anyone else refers to the "bathroom thong", though, I suggest changing it to "bedroom throng" or "bathroom throne" or some other happy alternative ;)
JaimeLoren said, on 8/23/2010 6:09:00 PM
Nathan -
Your Mayor's people should call my Premier's people and do lunch :)
According to MediaBistro’s GalleyCat, Jonathan Franzen has become the first living novelist to grace the cover of Time magazine in ten years. Novelist Stephen King was the last writer to hold to coveted spot, back in 2000.
Here’s an excerpt: “Franzen is a member of another perennially threatened species, the American literary novelist. But he’s not as cool about it as the otters. He’s uneasy. He’s a physically solid guy, 6 ft. 2 in., with significant shoulders, but his posture is not so much hunched as flinched. At 50 (he turns 51 on Aug. 17), Franzen is pleasantly boyish-looking, with permanently tousled hair.”
A complete list of all the authors that starred in Time cover stories follows below. Sarah Weinman reminds us that the online edition Lev Grossman’s cover story about Franzen is abridged. The online article explains: “This is an abridged version of an article that appears in the August 23, 2010, print and iPad editions of TIME magazine.”
Here is a list of author’s who have graced the TIME magazine cover.
Virginia Woolf (1937)
William Faulkner (1939)
Robert Frost (1950)
James Baldwin (1963)
John Updike (1968)
Norman Mailer (1973)
Alexander Solzhentisyn (1974)
John Le Carre (1977)
Michael Crighton (1995)
Toni Morrison (1998)
Stephen King (2000)
Jonathan Franzen (2010)
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Memorialized this past week at New York University, David Foster Wallace, who recently died of an apparent suicide at the age of 46, was brought to fleeting life once more by those who knew him best—those who had received from him, learned from him, studied him, been sustained by him.
There is this line in the New York Times coverage that stopped me just now:"Mr. Franzen said he and Mr. Wallace, over years of letters and conversations about the ethical role of the novelist, had come to the joint conclusion that the purpose of writing fiction was “a way out of loneliness.”
I hold to that, too. I hold to fiction as a cure, or partial cure, or cause for hope, or essential distraction from the rain you wake up to, the doubts in your head, the daily desolation that you have not yet said what is most true, you have not yet crafted the story that reveals you. And therefore something waits. Therefore you must wake and you must write and you are not alone.
I fully agree with you. When I was younger, My older brothers and sisters were out of the house off to college and jobs, so I wrote. I had friends; I wasn't antisocial. Nonetheless, writing was my only really outlet for everything I couldn't let go.
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The New Yorker will give Facebook fans free access to a Jonathan Franzen essay about his relationship with the late David Foster Wallace. 
Today A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan has won the 2011 Tournament of Books at 
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President Obama is taking a 
I have not heard of this book until now, but I love reading "hard-to-read" books...they're so challenging and worthwhile. Thanks for the review...and calling my attention to the new edition
I enjoy your 'reflections'. Something about that festering wound intrigues me. It does sound like a hard novel but I like those.