November 2009
25 posts
“i will offer help. delete the need to understand. in this world and that of...”
– rabih alameddine, the hakawati.
i have $82.10 in books in my amazon cart.
and only $20 can be attributed to christmas gifts. self-control fail.
92y:
In September of 2002, before a reading from...
“The villains are evil, all right, but very stupid and self-thwartingly prone to...”
– christopher hitchens.
the author who played with fire →
christopher hitchens on stieg larsson. i recently acquired the first book in the series and this article was an interesting introduction.
file under morbid curiosity.
i want to read sarah palin’s book going rogue but refuse to deepen her pockets by purchasing it.
“I’m not poking fun at my own image but at how insistently book reviewers...”
– john irving, from this interview.
in a sketchy hall of mirrors, nabokov jousts with... →
michiko kakutani reviews nabokov’s last novel.
How Junot Diaz, Kazuo Ishiguro and Orhan Pamuk... →
92y:
(via anin)
Mr. Pamuk writes by hand, in graph-paper notebooks, filling a page with prose and leaving the adjacent page blank for revisions, which he inserts with dialogue-like balloons. He sends his notebooks to a speed typist who returns them as typed manuscripts; then he marks the pages up and sends them back to be retyped. The cycle continues three or four times.
Pamuk makes his first...
edith wharton.
i didn’t start out as a huge edith wharton fan as my first exposure to her writing was ethan frome as a junior in high school. my classmates and i were disgusted by how heavy and depressing the book was. after reading the age of innocence and the house of mirth, i can’t say i would call wharton’s writing uplifting or even in the ballpark of “sunny” but i love her...
“even under the most adverse conditions, that pleasure always made itself felt:...”
– edith wharton, the house of mirth.
Secrets of the Stacks →
happycap:
Selected highlights and facts about the beloved New York Public Library courtesy of the Times. A few favorites:
THE FIORELLO LA GUARDIA IMPACT - La Guardia, New York’s loquacious Depression-era mayor, renamed the famous lions that guard the Fifth Avenue entrance. The mayor decided that Patience and Fortitude — survival qualities essential during a depression — made better sense than...
exhibition review- 'a woman's wit- jane austen's... →
edward rothstein reviews the new jane austen exhibition at the morgan library and museum in new york.
for those of you not in new york city, you can get a taste via the online exhibition.
“i’ve no doubt the rabbit always thinks it is fascinating the anaconda.”
– edith wharton, the house of mirth.
“it is less mortifying to believe one’s self unpopular than insignificant,...”
– edith wharton, the house of mirth.