Books

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Remember That Joke About the George W. Bush Presidential Library Burning Down?

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 9:04 AM

George W. Bush Presidential Center
Joker: "Did you hear about the George W. Bush Presidential Library burning down?"
Jokee: "No! Really?"
Joker: "Yeah. They said that all three books were completely destroyed."
Jokee: "Ha!"
Joker: "And he hadn't even finished coloring the third one!"
Jokee: "Haha!"

The third punch line to that joke, until yesterday, was that no such presidential library even existed. The recently-unveiled plans for the George W. Bush Presidential Center (pictured) at Southern Methodist University in Dallas show that there will probably be at least twice that number of books in the 225,000-square-foot building, and that it will never burn down no matter how many drunken SMU frat boys attempt to light their farts next to it, because it's basically a red brick fortress.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your 2009 Bad Sex in Fiction Shortlistees

Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 12:59 PM

The god Pan looking on from a distance with his spying, lascivious gaze.
  • The god Pan looking on from a distance with his spying, lascivious gaze.
London's Literary Review has announced the shortlist for this year's Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Philip Roth, who following the death of John Updike must now surely be America's most hopelessly priapic writer, is on the list, for his new novel The Humbling, in which a blocked actor begins an affair with a dildo-wielding lesbian.

The rest of the shortlist:

Paul Theroux, A Dead Hand
Nick Cave, The Death of Bunny Munro
Philip Roth, The Humbling
Jonathan Littell, The Kindly Ones
Amos Oz, Rhyming Life and Death
John Banville, The Infinities
Anthony Quinn, The Rescue Man
Simon Van Booy, Love Begins in Winter
Sanjida O'Connell, The Naked Name of Love
Richard Milward, Ten Storey Love Song

Some hot girl-on-girl action with Philip Roth, after the jump...

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

So Now Who's Going to Run the Paris Review?

Posted by Mark Asch on Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 2:05 PM

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Well, whoa, Philip Gourevitch announced last week that he'll step down as editor of the Paris Review next year, having decided he can't dedicate his time to both editing the last lit mag standing in the national conversation, and working on long-form reporting about Africa.

Over his five years as editor of the Review, Gourevitch was the late George Plimpton's spiritual if not immediate successor (everyone seems to be leapfrogging the brief Brigid Hughes reign; the first editor following Plimpton's death was rather quickly dropped, on account of the then-30-year-old was running the Review like it was, well, a lit mag, and not a black-tie literary institution. She now runs the lit mag A Public Space, which is basically the Paris Review for Brooklyn, and with fewer full-time employees). The handsome lit mag is distinguished for its canonical interview series and, under Gourevitch, an increasingly global eye: photojournalism, travel writing and reportage to go alongside stories from, more and more, foreign authors and lesser-known Americans.

Anyway, whoever succeeds Gourevitch—I'm assuming they're hiring from outside rather than inside—should probably be a renowned writer in his or her own right, and well-connected in the American and European literary community; but also someone with experience in the world, through writing (as a critic, reader and editor) and as a traveler and/or reporter, with a wide-angle view of world politics and literature. Someone of both life and letters, basically.

The first name that comes to mind is Aleksandar Hemon, for some reason. Thoughts?

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End-of-the-Decade Micro Fiction Competition!

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 1:07 PM

Micro Fiction
icon magazine just announced the rules of their 2010 micro fiction competition, Stories for the End of the Decade. Here's the gist of it: a 100-word story about the decade that's ending or the one about to start, somehow pertaining to architecture, design and urbanism. The deadline for submissions (to be sent to this fellow) is December 7.

The editors' favorites will be published in icon's February 2010 issue, and the grand champ (chosen we're-not-sure-how) gets a free one-year subscription and a copy of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice. So start writing! (But take your time because, you know, it's just 100 words, how hard could it be?)

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Is Stephen King on the General Mills Payroll?

Posted by Henry Stewart on Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 4:25 PM

Whered you get the money for that motorcycle?
  • Where'd you get the money for that motorcycle?
For television viewers and fans of Hollywood blockbusters, product placement is unavoidable: you either accept it or abandon those media altogether. But, even if we reluctantly consent to such crass advertising assaults so we can watch otherwise distinctive fare like 30 Rock or Mad Men, that doesn’t mean we should condone their appearances in other art forms—like literature, into which they seem to have begun to creep.

Well, if you want to call Stephen King “literature”.

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Dumbo's P.S. Bookshop Moving to Bigger Digs Just in Time for Independent Bookstore Week

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 8:46 AM

First Independent Bookstore Week NYC
In the bizarro land under the bridges known as Dumbo, independent bookstores are thriving. Friday the Brooklyn Eagle reported that P.S. Bookshop, the sweet little bookstore at 145 Front Street where neighborhood toddlers play and Max Fischer goes regularly to research beekeeping, will soon be moving into a much, much bigger space on the other (fancier) side of the tracks at 70 Washington Street.

As luck would have it, this happy news coincides (more or less) with New York City's First Independent Bookstore Week, which runs November 15 to 21. There are events at indie bookstores all over the city (click here for a schedule), but even before the festivities begin another Dumbo bookshop, powerHouse Arena, is hosting the opening party tomorrow with live music, food and drink, a raffle and an impressive slate of speakers including authors Kurt Andersen, Michael Greenberg and Jennifer Egan, and Macmillan CEO John Sargent. Click here for details and RSVP info.

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Friday, November 6, 2009

Colin Meloy to Write a Children's Book

Posted by Mike Conklin on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 12:25 PM

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Today in "Things that seem strange at first but actually make a lot of sense, come to think of it," word comes from Tripwire that the Decemberists' Colin Meloy is teaming up with his artist wife, Carson Ellis, to work on a children's book called The Unfortunate Demise of Whitley Rackham. No release date has been announced, but it warms my heart to think of how many young children will undoubtedly soon be heard saying things like, "Mommy, what's a palanquin?" or, "Daddy, why don't we have a parapet?" or, "When I grow up, I'm going to fetishize antiquated language and objects in hopes that it masks the fact that I don't have any real insight to offer about, you know, people. And on the off chance that anyone calls me out on it, it won't really matter because they won't be able to deny that I am awesome at writing melodies."

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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Dude Liked Roberto Bolaño Before You Did, Says You Are Waaay Lame

Posted by Jonny Diamond on Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 3:44 PM

Roberto Bolano
In Canada, where I come from, we have something called "tall poppy syndrome." This means that when anybody becomes too successful—especially outside of the frozen north—we cut them down to size. Viciously. This inclination is similar to being a zealous fan of an obscure rock and roll group who lashes out at said group when it becomes popular, deriding its newly converted fans.

Which brings us to this grumpy-ass piece at Guernica by Honduran-in-exile writer Horacio Castellanos Moya. Moya's upset that North Americans occasionally drop lit-star Roberto Bolaño's name, and thinks, grumpily, that:


...the construction of the Bolaño myth was not only a publisher’s marketing operation but also a redefinition of the image of Latin American culture and literature that the North American cultural establishment is now selling to the public.

I am wary of any argument that cites a "North American cultural establishment" acting with the sort of predatory agency that's implied here. But let's, for a moment, concede that the NACE [pronounced Nah-tsee] supreme council came up with a unified plan to profit from a densely challenging 670-page work of metafiction-in-translation by a charismatic/dead Mexican-Chilean. Yes, let's.

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Bushwick Indie-Rockers Set Up Indie-Rock Book Club for Indie Rockers

Posted by Robert Tumas on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 4:15 PM

softmachine.jpg
Tonight, the Bushwick Book Club hosts its second-to-last reading and discussion of the year, at Goodbye Blue Monday. The meeting will discuss Darwin's Origin Of Species, which, if you've never read it, is actually a bit of a slog. How are they going to spice it up, you ask? Well, the Club's "discussions" are more performances than anything else, with participants writing songs that are inspired by or directly referencing the book of the month. The songs are recorded and posted on the Club's MySpace page, with titles ranging from "James Arriving" (inspired by James and the Giant Peach) to less obvious titles like "The Ballad of Francine Pefko," which takes its inspiration from the same Vonnegut novel as the venue in which it was originally performed. One can only imagine what kooky songs those krazy kids are going to come up with for Darwin.

So, in the L Magazine/Listicle tradition, we've assembled a few other songs inspired by books—some are obvious, some are not, but most should be locked away forever, and never listened to again...

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Your L Magazine Guide to "Adult Situations"

Posted by Mark Asch on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 1:31 PM

The current issue of Harper's reprints, in the Readings section, "Adult Situations", by Brett Fletcher Lauer, a poet and friend of the L. It's a found literary object, of sorts: a poem comprised of movie synopses drawn, occasionally slightly paraphrased, from online viewer guides such the imdb TV listings, and places like this. (Sample: "Rival reporters mix romance with work as they hunt an apartment-house killer.") It's a terrific compendium of inadvertent artistry and endlessly suggestive description. (It's also rather reminiscent of John Ashbery's "They Knew What They Wanted", in which every line is a movie title.)

The poem was originally printed in the lit mag jubilat, and in fact is online there now. Go, read it, and then come back.

Now, if you are like me, you probably took a minute to appreciate the piece, but mostly tried to figure out which movie each line describes. Some of them are comically straightforward descriptions of classics; there's some straight-to-cable dreck, soon-to-be-forgotten recent releases, and neglected late-show classics. So, as a public service, we have provided an answer key for you, after the jump. (In the interests of full disclosure, I correctly guessed 10 of the movies. You?)

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Friday, October 30, 2009

Kanye West Makes Book Trailers the Way Most People Make 3D Sci-Fi Movies

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 5:01 PM

Kanye West's photo book Glow in the Dark (not to be confused with Through the Wire) supposedly features images from the eponymous world tour, but if the promo is anything to go by it's actually about Kanye traveling through hell and space while fighting dinosaurs and a malevolent HAL-type supercomputer. All of which is to say that it's the most epic video of any sort that you will ever see. (Fubiz)

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Your Halloween Reading List

Posted by Robert Tumas on Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 3:27 PM

monkeys-paw.jpg
As Halloween approaches every year, one is bombarded by a plethora of different forms of media evoking the spooky feel of this pagan celebration. There are the endless new and rediscovered horror movies, the inevitable playing of certain ghoulish anthems, and even the odd Halloween pageant. But what about the written word? With literature often being the underappreciated stepchild in multi-media holiday roundups, we decided to give some love to orphan Annie, and put together a quick list of must-read verbiage with a decidedly Halloweeny feel.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Cookin' With Coolio, the Book!

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 2:25 PM

Cookin with Coolio
Though it was probably the most entertaining web-based cooking show ever, Cookin' With Coolio, which ran for a few months last year, was never all that helpful when it came to teaching viewers how to actually cook a dish. The weird fusion of cooking show and hip-hop video was especially heavy on the latter, making it nearly impossible to follow an actual recipe.

Still, if you ever wondered how to make Coolio's Fork Steak (a chunk of beef so tender, he claimed you could cut it with a fork), or his Westside Tilapia, a new book will make the whole process much clearer. Cookin' With Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price by "Coolio the Ghetto Gourmet" hits bookshelves on November 17 and will feature those recipes and more, as well as additional content, like a chapter entitled "How to Become a Kitchen Pimp" and another devoted to cooking "Pasta Like a Rasta," which is something I've been attempting for years with only limited success.

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Monday, October 26, 2009

New Illustrated Book Helps Us Make Sense of Kanye West's Lyrics

Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 12:51 PM

Through the Wire
Renowned illustrator and Academy Award-nominated animator Bill Plympton has collaborated with Kanye West on a forthcoming book project, creating a series of 12 drawings that match the lyrics of 12 Kanye tracks, all of which add up to something like an autobiography in lyrics, music and images.

The two worked together once before on the music video for "Heard 'em Say", and of course Kanye is quickly stacking up a sizable bibliography, including his book of quotables Thank You and You're Welcome and the volume of photographs of the pop star, Glow in the Dark. Through the Wire: Lyrics and Illuminations hits shelves on November 10 from Atria. For his next book project, maybe Kanye can get Takashi Murakami to animate an anime series about his exploits called "The Good Life." (NOTCOT)

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Friday, October 23, 2009

Have You Noticed That There's a New Independent Bookstore In Fort Greene? Because There Is

Posted by Mark Asch on Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 6:01 PM

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Every neighborhood needs a bookstore, really, especially when that neighborhood already has a number of organic wine and dinner-party provision stores, interdisciplinary performance spaces, eco-friendly outdoor Cuban restaurants and flea markets, et cetera et cetera. So Greenlight Bookstore, on Fulton Street across from Habana Outpost and just above the Lafayette C and Fulton G, had its soft opening last weekend, giving Fort Greene its own BookCourt/McNally Jackson/Three Lives/et cetera equivalent.

There is a launch, tomorrow, with a kid-lit reading in the morning, and a reading and free champagne toast in the evening. And then, presumably, they'll keep funneling more and more alcohol down your gullet until you can't help but buy everything you see, and the evening descends into a free-for-all, well-dressed young parents clawing at each other for the last copies of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, chaos reigns.

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

"Suggested for Young Readers Aged 26-34"

Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 3:55 PM

gossipgirl.jpg
In last week's New Yorker, Rebecca Mead writes (subscriber-only, sorry, but doesn't everyone subscribe to the New Yorker anyway? Anyway, I'll tell you what you need to know) about Alloy Entertainment, an editorial factory that produces franchise-able Y.A. lit series (Gossip Girl, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Vampire Diaries, etc). Especially including some marvelous brainstorming sessions during which the Alloy team arrives independently at a Blow-Up-meets-Chappaquidick plot, and a girl-goes-back-in-time-and-befriends-her-young-mother plot, it's a great piece, with lots to reveal about the marketing of art to children.

Mead discusses the evolution of Sweet Valley High into Gossip Girl—"'We thought consumer were more sophisticated... They wanted their book to feel like Mom's book... with a cover that looked like it didn't have to come from the kids' section... and it wasn't embarrassing to be seen with,'" says Alloy's President—but one thing Mead doesn't go into is the ever-increasing adult readership for Y.A. literature. But looking at the Gossip Girl TV show's target audience, the subway ubiquity of Twilight and Harry Potter, et cetera, had me thinking again about Where the Wild Things Are—"There is no difference between childhood and adulthood" being an operating principle for this film that cozies up to the sensibilities and sensitivities of twentysomethings making less than a wholehearted commitment to adulthood.

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I Love a Good Donald Barthelme Anecdote, Don't You?

Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 1:33 PM

Teachings of Don B
From a Times Magazine profile of Padgett Powell, a student and later friend of Bathelme's at the University of Houston in the early 1980s:

"'We have wacky mode,” Powell remembers Barthelme saying to his class, a writing workshop Powell was taking. “What must wacky mode do?” The students, clueless, stayed quiet. Barthelme said, “Break their hearts."

In this, Wacky Mode serves a similar function to a strange object covered with fur.

(Incidentally, Powell's new book is The Interrogative Mood: A Novel?, 165 pages of which every sentence is a question ("Should it still be Constatinople?" "Why won't the aliens step forth to help us?" "Do you dance?"). We'll have a [glowing] review in an upcoming issue of the L, but in the meantime, he reads tonight at 192 Books. Will he point to a different a different audience member after every question?)

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Now the World Knows the Story of How Robert Altman Tattooed Harry Truman's Dog

Posted by Mark Asch on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 2:12 PM

Robert Altman Oral Biography
Appropriately, reviews of Mitchell Zuckoff's new Robert Altman: The Oral Biography are accruing into an overlapping portrait of the ornery bastard; in times like this, we turn to reviews of new biographies for anecdotes and quotes suitable for bloggy excerpt.

It's touching that Shelley Duvall used to call Altman "Pirate", and weedy, boozy testimonials from coconspirators Tim Robbins and Michael Murphy are fun but hardly surprising (neither are their unpleasant, ugly flipsides); and Altman's alluded-to affair with Faye Dunaway has apparently been a matter of public record since at least 1989—though if this comes as news to you, as it did to me, you're going to want to take a minute to really fully consider the implications here, because seriously, what?—so in looking for something new to post here we turn to Dana Stevens, at Slate, who has already taken the trouble of typing up the section of the book in which Robert Altman tattoos Harry Truman's dog.

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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Jonathan Lethem's New Audiobook, Or Something Like That

Posted by Robert Tumas on Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 12:56 PM

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Fiction and poetry readings are for the people (even if there's only two of them), and therefore cannot be self-indulgent. Or at least a regular reading can't.

Enter Jonathan Lethem, who, god love him, has found a way to read fiction for the people while simultaneously indulging his ego. Starting on Friday (at the New Yorker Festival no less) Lethem will begin to read from his new novel, Chronic City, and will continue to read it, from start to finish, over eight nights and seven NYC venues, until he has read the whole damn thing. The little tour will culminate at BookCourt, in an evening offering "prizes and absurdities," for your trouble, whatever that means. Anyway, I'm just glad I won't have to buy the book now, 'cause I'm poor.

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Friday, October 9, 2009

VIDEO: Is the Book Object a Thing of the Past? (An Uncomfortable Question at the NYC Art Book Fair)

Posted by Jonny Diamond on Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 8:49 AM

My Mom doesn't use a computer, so every now and then I have to print out online stuff I've written and put it together in a little package. Does this mean that printed matter will always be around? I don't know, but the artists at the New York Art Book Fair certainly have an opinon.



Filmed and edited by Emmanuel Cruz.

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