Tag Archives: Books and Reading

Borges Touchstones

Authors Borges notes (in the “Prologue” to the Artifices book in Ficciones) he "continually reread[s]": Arthur Schopenhauer Thomas de Quincey Robert Louis Stevenson Fritz Mauthner George Bernard Shaw G. K. Chesterton Léon Bloy

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Paul Ford’s Ftrain

I’ve been enjoying Paul Ford’s Ftrain site for most of the morning. At its core is a blog of anecdotes, mini-essays, and fictions, as you can see from the front page. But I like the way it provides multiple points … Continue reading

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The Ministry of Reshelving

The part of me that used to work in a library likes this kind of light subversion…

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An Interview with Harold Bloom

Breakfast with Brontosaurus I have only three criteria for whether a work should be read and reread and taught to others, and they are: aesthetic splendour, cognitive power, and wisdom

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The Morning News – Lone Star Statements, by Matthew Baldwin

Lone Star Statements, by Matthew Baldwin “Recently, Time magazine published a list of the 100 best novels. But the praise of professional critics hardly matters to the book-reviewing readers at Amazon.com. A compilation of the best of the worst… about … Continue reading

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The Lichtenberg Figures

Gina at a sad day for sad birds quotes this piece from Ben Lerner’s Lichtenberg Figures, a timely reminder that I really need to get my hands on this book: The dark collects our empties, empties our ashtrays. Did you … Continue reading

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Literary Crushes

One of the recurring, chain-letter-like questionnaires floating around the lit blogs right now asks if the reader has “ever had a crush on a literary character.” If you haven’t, then you either need to start reading books that don’t have … Continue reading

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Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)

QUICK SYNOPSIS: An entertaining look at a fascinating mechanism of the human mind– rapid cognition– and how it works (and doesn’t work) in the real world. A must-read for anyone who has ever thought about how people think, pop-science afficionados, … Continue reading

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Go, Franzen, Go

Booklust asks why Jonathan Franzen’s the author everyone loves to hate. I have no idea. He’s an excellent writer, judging not only by The Corrections, but from his wonderful collection of essays How to Be Alone which was full of … Continue reading

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Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, First Take

I’ve tried like hell to get into Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell which according to many, many review should be something I would really enjoy. But despite great physical production values, a good idea, and generally satisfying writing, … Continue reading

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Best American Poetry Doesn’t Suck?

Hmmm… if Kasey and one of his students are both in the Best American Poetry 2004 Anthology does this mean the post-avant literary elite will have to stop slagging it? Or will it still all suck except for those two … Continue reading

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Pessoa and The Book of Disquiet

I’ve been reading Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet (read an interesting review from the Guardian, see the Amazon listing). Written under the heteronym Bernardo Soares, the Book of Disquiet is a journal of sorts, a kind of writer’s notebook in … Continue reading

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Monkey See, Monkey Do

So who was first? K. Silem Mohammed, John Latta, Nick Piombino, Josh Corey– that’s just from my last 20 minutes of blog-reading… there are probably others. Jonathan would have an interesting list, I bet, if he weren’t busy being snarky … Continue reading

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What Bloggers are Reading

Bloggers are all kinds of people… and they have all kinds of reading habits. What are bloggers reading right now? Phil Gyford decided to find out and then Jason Kottke noticed and garnered more than a few comments of his … Continue reading

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