January 2012
11 posts
NYC book swap tonight.
7pm at Library Bar, details here.
If you’re interested in coming but worried you won’t know anyone, this is not at all a cliquey meetup, plus you have a built in conversation starter—books!
Don’t let social awkwardness stand in the way of free new books. One of your New Year’s resolutions was probably to make new friends, and to that I say carpe diem.
If you...
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1Q84 Post-Mortem.
Based on the buzz surrounding 1Q84 I expected a departure from Haruki Murakami’s standby themes. I stopped reading him a while ago because after six or seven novels it felt like I was reading the same repackaged story, the innovative and exciting qualities that struck me after first discovering him now seemed stale. Within the first few hundred pages of 1Q84 I found myself distracted by mentions...
1 tag
A Bookworm's Guide to Casting The Corrections →
I put on my Hollywood director hat and wrote this for Flavorpill.
Using Pinterest as a visionboard for writing your... →
I love this.
1Q84.
Another race against time: I am halfway through 1Q84 with 400 pages to go and it is due back at the library on Saturday. Who knew checking out library books could be stressful? I have a lot of Thoughts and Opinions on Mr. Murakami’s latest, review to come!
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63
The number of pages it took for Haruki Murakami to mention a cat in the 925 page long 1Q84.
Most Anticipated: The Great 2012 Book Preview →
Comprehensive preview of notable 2012 releases from The Millions.
December 2011
7 posts
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next...”
– T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding.”
3 tags
The leap.
How I Met Your Mother became available on Netflix Instant a few weeks ago and having missed most of the first few seasons save a rerun here or there, I have been watching the show from the beginning. I love this show because I can relate to the characters and their struggles, young professionals in NYC trying to figure out who they are versus who they expected to be, and who they’re going to...
December reading notes
This month I’ve been tearing through my stack of “to-read” books in a race against time to pad the amount of books I’ve read in 2011. Since I started tracking the books I read each year in a spreadsheet this has become a sort of December tradition for me, albeit a deranged one.
I started off the month with Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan, for which I could write a six page essay about the problems...
“As I see it, the problem with Amazon stems from the fact that though it started...”
– Richard Russo, “Amazon’s Jungle Logic.”
November 2011
7 posts
100 Notable Books of 2011 →
Just in time for holiday shopping—thank you New York Times.
NYPL.
I started using the library again about a month ago to tourniquet my budget. Let me tell you, the holds system at NYPL is quite competitive. I put Mindy Kaling’s book on hold two weeks before it was even released and I am still #179 on the list. My hold positions on my other picks The Art of Fielding, Blue Nights, IQ84, and The Marriage Plot are #209, 7, 350 and 604. Unfortunately the holds...
1 tag
Penguin Launches 'Penguin Shorts' E-Singles Series →
The program is launching in the UK first, with nine titles being released on December 1. All are priced at £0.99 ($1.58) or £1.99. ($3.17) In the U.S., Penguin has been publishing short-form “Penguin eSpecials” since 2008, and those will be rebranded as Penguin Shorts next year.
National Novel Writing Month.
A few months ago I started working on a young adult novel. I had the plot mapped out in my head start to finish, a detailed chapter by chapter outline, and had done the necessary research. Even with the skeleton of the story sorted out, I couldn’t bring myself to sit down and start writing. I’m rusty, I haven’t worked on any creative writing projects in years and I was scared to...
October 2011
11 posts
“All the discarded sketches that went before made the picture what it finally...”
– Willa Cather: On the Art of Fiction
“Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death...”
– Caesar (via hera11)
“I think writers were viewed and treated as far more powerful beings in the...”
– jennifer egan
Rebecca Skloot Inks Deal for Book on ‘Human-Animal... →
As a pet owner, I am really excited about this announcement. If Skloot can make biology and chemistry interesting to a humanities major like me, I can only imagine how much I will enjoy her sophomore effort.
“Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose...”
– steve jobs.
1 tag
September 2011
12 posts
5 tags
“If you want to write, read a lot, then write a lot. Write all the time… and...”
– Maureen Johnson via Shelf Awareness
(from bookish)
1 tag
1 tag
a few people asked what i thought of the magic...
i didn’t like it. none of characters resonated with me, the plot felt stagnant, and there was too much description for my taste—to the point that after slogging through the first 500 pages i started skimming pages at a time to get to the next bit of dialogue or action.
why did i stick with it? it came heavily recommended by a few people whose literary taste is usually in line with my...
seven weeks later
i finally finished the magic mountain. absolving myself of any self-imposed responsibility to read the classics for the remainder of the year.
2 tags
“I’m not lonely, and I think that has a lot to do with what’s on my bedside table...”
– Michelle Williams, 2011 10 Vogue (via jjoongie)
The Paris Review: Dorothy Parker, The Art of...
INTERVIEWER
What, then, would you say is the source of most of your work?
PARKER
Need of money, dear.
INTERVIEWER
And besides that?
PARKER
It’s easier to write about those you hate—just as it’s easier to criticize a bad play or a bad book.
4 tags
“We are all at risk of something. Of ending up exactly where we began, of failing...”
– DEAR SUGAR: The Distance of the Leap.
slumping.
guys, i have been reading the magic mountain by thomas mann for 5+ weeks now. this is the longest a single book has ever taken me and i still have over 200 pages in size 8 font to trudge through. i keep contemplating chucking it but now that i am more than halfway done i am too stubborn to quit.
i’m resolving to power through the last of it by the end of this week so i can move on to...
“Publishing world mainstay Peter Mayer toasted Cole Stryker’s book, “Epic Win For...”
– Getting a Read on Anonymous ‘Hacktivists’ - WSJ.com
Cole: “Hey guys, my tome comes out today. Buy my tome.”
(via nickdouglas)
i just ordered my copy on amazon and apparently there are only 5 copies left?! get at it people!
August 2011
14 posts
“It has been a fascinating phenomenon in the discussion around publishing how...”
– richard nash interview on revaluing the book.
ann patchett's lessons on writing →
this article has some key excerpts from her piece on byliner, the full text of which is being sold as a kindle single for $2.99.