Category Archives: Literature
People Who Died: Jim Carroll
Sad. Punk poet Jim Carroll, author of “The Basketball Diaries,” died of a heart attack in his Manhattan apartment on Friday. He was 60. I happened to see him read, or rather struggle and shuffle and digress in the attempt … Continue reading
Ephemera: Forgotten Bookmarks
If you are the kind of person who frequently acquires your reading material from libraries and used book stores, as I am, likely you find, stuck between the pages of your recent acquisition, random scraps that have served as the … Continue reading
For When You Want to Share Your Dream Cast of a Mary Higgins Clark Book With the Internet
Paul Constant at the Slog does not think much of Storycasting, the site where you can play casting director with your favorite books. “What a weird, unnecessary little website” he says. Which is not untrue! But then: welcome to the … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, The Internet
Tagged books, casting, I've totally played this game, time wasters
4 Comments
The Sexy Doodles of Branwell Brontë
Poor sad, alcoholic, tubercular — also probably gay, and most certainly libidinous — Branwell Brontë. How was he to ever shine when those bitch sisters of his kept hogging the spotlight? Is it a wonder he shambled off this mortal … Continue reading
Reading Is For Elitists Who ‘Don’t Know How To Live’
Did you know that Mary Gaitskill has a new short story collection, Don’t Cry, out? I very much look forward to buying and reading that. I’ve heard good things about John Wray’s Lowboy recently. I’ll probably read that too. Why? … Continue reading
Posted in Leisure Time Pursuits, Literature
Tagged elitism, reactionary rants, yes I'm part of the problem
4 Comments
Because They Don’t Sell Smack at Gristedes
Literary Outlaws: They’re just like us! They shop for sundries! Here is, purportedly, a grocery list of deceased author William S. Burroughs, which is being sold on eBay for around 500 bucks. Cat food! Waffles! Vodka! In the world … Continue reading
Whale Songs
My sister, quite the scholar and more knowledgeable about literature than I could ever be, refuses to read Moby-Dick. In fact, she even claimed so in that gonorrhea-like 25 Things Facebook meme thing that everyone seems to have contracted. So, … Continue reading
I’ll Drink What He’s Writing
Bookninja suggests — in a refutation of the Book Examiner’s pairings of booze and books — to match your tipple to the writer rather than their works. For instance, “Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood … Continue reading
Posted in Booze, Literature
3 Comments
The Art is Deceitful Above All Things
Over at the Times’ Paper Cuts blog the spectre of JT LeRoy is once again raised. You’ve got to hand it to Laura Albert, her machinations have ensured that this whole succès de scandale will not die, even though the … Continue reading
Book Nookie
On the back page of the New York Times Sunday Book Review is a cute-ish illustrated Q & A with various bookstore clerks in New York — “the quiet gatekeepers of literature” — wherein they ostensibly share anecdotes about the … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
Tagged anecdotal evidence, bookstores, gatekeepers of literature, in the stacks, jobs
2 Comments
A Gay Hero? Super!
It is being reported that Hero, the novel by Perry Moore about the world’s first gay superhero, is going to make its way to television. It is a book I read and enjoyed thoroughly, being that I like both superheroes … Continue reading
A Swift Kick to the Nuts Might Do
On the matter of the current crop of “It” Lit boys and why they can only churn out flaccid prose comes an alternate solution, this from Powell’s blog: We could also up the ante a bit. Today, for instance, a … Continue reading
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