paperbackgirl.

Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood to score film of Haruki Murakami novel

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:25:00 -0500

Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood to score film of Haruki Murakami novel:

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood will reportedly return to film scoring, writing music for an adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood. The score will be based on a composition Greenwood wrote for the BBC Concert Orchestra—Sean Michaels.

"i think it can be tremendously refreshing if a creator of literature has something on his mind other..."

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:00:24 -0500

“i think it can be tremendously refreshing if a creator of literature has something on his mind other than the history of literature so far. literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.”

- kurt vonnegut, the paris review interviews, I.

"i am a completely horizontal author. i can’t think unless i am lying down, either in bed or..."

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:57:02 -0500

“i am a completely horizontal author. i can’t think unless i am lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy. i’ve got to be puffing and sipping.”

- truman capote describes his writing habits. the interview following capote’s in the paris review interviews, I is with hemingway and he reveals that he only writes while standing up.

"i have to add up all numbers: there are some people i never telephone because their number adds up..."

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:26:24 -0500

“i have to add up all numbers: there are some people i never telephone because their number adds up to an unlucky figure. or i won’t accept a hotel room for the same reason. i will not tolerate the presence of yellow roses—which is sad because they’re my favorite flower. i can’t allow three cigarette butts in the same ashtray. won’t travel on a plane with two nuns. won’t begin or end anything on a friday. it’s endless, the things i can’t and won’t. but i derive some curious comfort from obeying these primitive concepts.”

- truman capote on his personal quirks, the paris review interviews, I.

"We have giants or nothing. There are no mediocre writers. It is like the Easter Island statues are..."

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:28:47 -0500

“We have giants or nothing. There are no mediocre writers. It is like the Easter Island statues are standing behind us saying ‘what have you done little man?’”

- John Banville on the anxiety of influence as an Irish writer.

Colum McCann and John Banville at the 92Y.

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:25:00 -0500

Last night I attended the John Banville and Colum McCann reading at the 92nd St Y. Banville kicked things off by reading from his latest novel, The Infinities. This was my first exposure to Banville’s writing and the passage he selected to read was both lyrical and hypnotic but maybe not the wisest selection for reading aloud to an audience. I typically do not have a problem staying engaged at readings but my thoughts kept wandering elsewhere and for the first time at a 92y reading I did not feel compelled to add the accompanying writer to the ongoing “books to buy” list I track on my BlackBerry. This feeling was dispelled during the q+a session at the end but more on that later.

Next, Colum McCann took the stage and I was surprised to find that he was not the graying, subdued older man I had pictured him to be. McCann addressed the audience before diving in, admitting that he was feeling nervous and providing some background on his decision to write a book about New York and 9/11 as an Irish immigrant. McCann put it eloquently, that when he moved to New York he could not stop thinking about dust, how in New York City there is a lot of dust and dirt, and that the dust can be someone’s curriculum vitae or an eyelash. He read from three sections of Let The Great World Spin, first setting the tone by introducing the allegory of the tightrope artist walking between the Twin Towers that is the common thread throughout the kaleidoscope of narratives in the novel. McCann also read from sections about a Park Avenue housewife who lost her son in Vietnam and a prostitute from the Bronx.

The q+a session rounding out the evening had everyone in fits of laughter thanks to Banville’s dry wit and McCann’s gregariousness. The first question was directed at both writers and focused on the anxiety of influence as Irish writers. Banville leaned toward the mic and said, “We have giants or nothing. There are no mediocre writers. It is like the Easter Island statues are standing behind us saying ‘what have you done little man?’” Banville’s q+a made me more interested in reading him than the excerpt from his new novel—now I am determined to check out his books.

Next up at 92^nd St Y: The Critic’s Voice with James Wood on 3/22 and Ian McEwan on 4/6.

"It’s my story, and at some point, it does need to be told. That point is getting closer, I..."

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:49:37 -0500

“It’s my story, and at some point, it does need to be told. That point is getting closer, I think. When [the archive material] was in cardboard boxes and dead computers, it would have been very, very difficult, but now it’s all organised.”

- salman rushdie discussing future plans for a book about the ten years he spent in hiding after the satanic verses resulted in a fatwa against his life.

tiffany: When I shoot an event, before I start deleting and...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:30:12 -0500

tiffany:

When I shoot an event, before I start deleting and editing, I like to take all the photos and flip through them quickly to see the event as a whole. I recently started making videos of it. So here is Tumblr Reads at Housing Works.

tumblr reads piece: interloper

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:58:00 -0500

I bought a book explaining the science of memory and now can’t remember where I put it. I figured that if traces of you are going to stick with me like undigested gum, clinging to my entrails for eight years, I would like to intellectualize the hows and whys. I know that you’re squatting in my hippocampus. Interloper, you will sit heavy on me until my ribcage cracks or something else gives.

There was no method for deleting the framework laid down, this is not like that. Don’t get me wrong—if science could go there, I would follow in two beats. Instead I brought someone new into the foreground and shifted you to stage left. Reworking the formula. The scientific method, discarding what did not work and experimenting with the variable’s opposite.

So I am in Vermont, a guest in a new man’s second home.   

He drops our bags on the floor of his kitchen and busies himself to setting the scene. He lights the fireplace by flipping a switch. We cross paths on the stairs and I raise my eyebrows at him. He smiles. I can see that I’ve done that thing where I have already realized I am likely not in love with this man but still came along for the weekend anyway, “just to see.” Did I talk myself out of him? For a second I think maybe, maybe I am too buried in my head about this, but then he flicks on the stereo to set the mood with Dave Matthews. I glance at him suspiciously for any sign of hemp necklaces.  

While he putters around opening mail, turning on lights, closing blinds, I pad around the bottom floor opening my investigation. His hallway is decorated with posters from movies he has worked on, programs, playbills signed by cast and crew. “Is this YOU?” I ask, gesturing to a photo of someone twice his current heft in a cap and gown. “Yeah. I lost a hundred pounds since then doing weight watchers.” This is new information. “Oh,” I say, trying to keep my expression neutral. “I only really follow the program now during the week,” he says quickly.

The next morning I roll over and his side of the bed is a pile of rumpled sheets. Downstairs pots and pans are clattering and I can hear cabinets slamming shut. I wander down and perch myself on a stool at the kitchen counter. He sets a plate of wheat pancakes in front of me along with a tub of I can’t believe it’s not butter. I try to picture him explaining weight watchers to my father after being asked about the sports he plays and push the food around my plate.

On our first date he warned me that he isn’t very cultured but he is cute, tall and has all of his hair so at the time I smiled this away. He says he has zero time for pop culture, including television. People who contend they are too busy to watch TV should be studied under a microscope. I neither trust nor believe anyone who claims to be too busy for TV—even Obama made time to see the wire. Extra shades of disdain if the last book they read was The Da Vinci Code or Malcolm Gladwell’s latest.

I spend the next two days with a knot in my stomach. After we’ve packed up our things on Sunday night we sit down to dinner. I am in high spirits at the prospect of heading home but he wants to talk. “I’m very effusive,” he says. I smile. I’m not, and I see where this is leading. “I don’t know how you feel about me, I mean I feel like you do but maybe you don’t. Maybe I’m wrong. I can’t tell.”

“I am here, aren’t I?” The verbal trap rings in my ears as the words exit my mouth but I don’t want to have this discussion before we depart on a five hour car ride. He doesn’t seem to notice and continues to talk in my direction. I’m sure his tax accountant is just as awesome as he says he is.

-bailey kennedy

staff: See you tonight! i am very excited/nervous to be...

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:33:09 -0500

staff:

See you tonight!

i am very excited/nervous to be reading at this tonight! i will post the text of my story to paperbackgirl.com tomorrow for anyone interested in checking out my piece.

"i did not just cry. i WEPT."

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:23:00 -0500

“i did not just cry. i WEPT.”

- 41 year old male coworker in response to me teasing him for crying while reading the time traveler’s wife.

staff: Join us Friday the 19th at Housing Works Bookstore! We...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:42:00 -0500

staff:

Join us Friday the 19th at Housing Works Bookstore!

We are excited about this for many reasons including but not limited to:

There is an open beer & wine bar from 6:30-7:30!

The first 50 people through the door get a free Tumblr tote bag!

The fine folks at Ecosystem are giving everyone a custom Tumblr notebook!

Look at the lineup!

We love to read!

if you aren’t following this blog, you absolutely must!...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:55:09 -0500

if you aren’t following this blog, you absolutely must! just yesterday i was thinking how great a literature flavored post would be and lo and behold…

covert ops.

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:39:00 -0500

when i was eight or nine my dad clipped a desk lamp to the side of my bed for nighttime reading. after catching me reading when i was supposed to be sound asleep a few times, my parents started to patrol the hallway to make sure that i wasn’t still up and buried in a book. i became a pro at detecting the first signs of movement on the other side of the house—my ears would perk up at the slightest sound of feet flattening carpet fibers. i figured out how to click off my reading light silently (the trick was turning the knob counter clockwise), stash my book under the pillow and then roll over to face the wall feigning sleep. after the shadow in the doorway had lingered for a few seconds and then retreated to the living room, i would pull my book back out, heart pounding.

i was thinking about this a few nights ago, about how it felt when books and reading was a discovery, a new thrill. i am reading the girl with the dragon tattoo right now and it is the first time in a while that after shutting off the lights and trying to sleep that i can’t stop thinking about what is going to happen next and inevitably the lights go back on and i devour twenty more pages. at least now i don’t have to worry about getting in trouble for it with mom and dad.

92y: Jamaica Kincaid at the 92Y Poetry Center in January of...

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:50:59 -0500

92y:

Jamaica Kincaid at the 92Y Poetry Center in January of 2009 reading from her short story Wingless and novel My Brother.

Download the MP3.

[92Y Literary Readings]

"when you were six you thought mistress meant to put your shoes on the wrong feet. now you are older..."

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:36:06 -0500

“when you were six you thought mistress meant to put your shoes on the wrong feet. now you are older and know it can mean many things, but essentially it means to put your shoes on the wrong feet.”

- lorrie moore, self-help.

"that is what is wrong with cold people. not that they have ice in their souls—we all have a..."

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:32:00 -0500

“that is what is wrong with cold people. not that they have ice in their souls—we all have a bit of that—but that they insist their every word and deed mirror that ice. they never learn the beauty or value of gesture. the emotional necessity. for them, it is all honesty before kindness, truth before art. love is art, not truth. it’s like painting scenery.”

- lorrie moore, self-help.

late to the lorrie moore party.

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:19:00 -0500

i started reading self-help a few nights ago and oh my word i am in love.

look at what came in the mail; magic molly’s...

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:50:00 -0500

look at what came in the mail; magic molly’s troubleshooting. you can buy your copy here.

of teen angst and an author's alienation

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:26:00 -0500

of teen angst and an author's alienation:

michiko kakutani explores j.d. salinger’s legacy of rendering the complexities of adolescence.