From the NYT article ‘The New Bodice Rippers Have More God and Less Sex’:

To satisfy that demand, several leading publishers, both Christian and secular romance houses, are rolling out what they call “Christian chick lit” lines. These novels typically feature Bridget Jones types looking for the right man, the right chocolate, the right friends – and the right relationship with God.

I have no problems with religion (well I do, but I don’t want to get into it here. Some people have faith and some don’t. I am in the latter category.) but I find this mix of relgion and chick lit cringe inducing. The Yada Yada Prayer Group makes me shake my head. I feel like such a snob for writing this, but I just don’t get the appeal. Since I am going to hell, it’s no wonder. Just not my cup of bourbon.

One of our favorite blog writers writes on blogging for one of our favorite magazines Maisonneuve (which has a great new issue out by the way).

I haven’t commented yet on the news that a great independent bookstore and also one of our biggest competitors has just filed for Chapter 11. Wordsworth has been in Harvard square for almost 30 years. They are our biggest competition particularly with regards to author events. It makes me sad though that they are in such financial difficulty. I hate to see any independent close. If they leave, it will just be us and the COOP! The COOP is run by Barnes & Noble, for those not familiar with Harvard square, so this is not a good thing. Retail sales have been down all over for the last month, and I know Wordsworth has been in trouble for a while. It has not been determined if they will close or not. They could still find financial backing and remain open. This is why I don’t use Amazon links on my blog (the continuing closing of good bookstores). I can’t in good conscience link books to them while I work here. I hate to give them the business. I’d rather anyone who is interested in a book I mention to buy it locally. I realize that isn’t going to happen always. (And I am not saying that you should never buy anything from Amazon. It’s more complicated than that of course.) Everyone support your local independent!

In his essay ‘The Story Behind ‘The Plot’ in this week’s NYT Book Review, Philip Roth says that he did not write The Plot Against America with today’s political climate in mind.

“Some readers are going to want to take this book as a roman à clef to the present moment in America. That would be a mistake. I set out to do exactly what I’ve done: reconstruct the years 1940-42 as they might have been if Lindbergh, instead of Roosevelt, had been elected president in the 1940 election. I am not pretending to be interested in those two years—I am interested in those two years.”

I read The Plot Against American a few weeks ago and loved it, but I couldn’t help but make the connection to today even if he didn’t intend to make it. Roth’s essay is definitely worth reading. He tells how he crafted his latest novel from its conception to crafting the characters. Plus at the end, he goes off on how unpredictable the world is. “And now Aristophanes, who surely must be God, has given us George W. Bush, a man unfit to run a hardware store let alone a nation like this one, and who has merely reaffirmed for me the maxim that informed the writing of all these books and that makes our lives as Americans as precarious as anyone else’s: all the assurances are provisional, even here in a 200-year-old democracy.” How awesome is that?
Also, as other have already pointed out, check out this lengthy interview with Roth at the Guardian. He’s a fascinating man.

I know parts of the country are suffering from hurrican after hurricane and I am not trying to rub it in their faces, but we are having the best weather here in New England. 60s and 70s and sunny. It’s perfect. So I spent much of the past weekend outside not reading. I did finish Ordinary Wolves a few days ago, though I don’t have much to say about it for some reason. The story follows Cutuk and his family who live in remote Alaska. A great deal of the novel deals with race and places in society. Cutuk’s family is white and they are looked down upon in the mostly native town. As he tries to find his place in the world and some acceptance, he moves to Fairbanks. But he finds his ‘own’ people just as mystifying. There are some beautiful passages and it is interesting to read about someone who has not experienced everyday things we take for granted, such as riding in cars and soda. The vernacular takes some getting used to, but makes the novel more interesting. That’s all I really have to say about it.

I found some great stuff in Used yesterday that I am excited about reading. I’ve been looking for some Nabokov for a while. It’s a huge gap in my education I feel that I haven’t read him before. I found both Lolita and Pale Fire. And I also grabbed a copy of DeLillo’s Underworld. Who knows when I will get around to all of these. My TBR list grows edponentially each day. Sigh.

My birthday is on Friday and I am looking forward to going out for a great meal. And doing some fun stuff this weekend. Maybe apple picking?

I know others have expressed their dissatisfaction with the Book Babes, the Poynter Institute’s answer to Dear Abby. I find them especially irritating for some reason. Today’s column focuses on Jenna Jameson’s newly published bio How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale. The book has generated some publicity, getting lots of reviews even from the exalted NYT Book Review (there is much sarcasm in this sentence). Ellen is the Babe that annoys me the most. Margo seems sensible and even has some good opinions. Ellen, on the other hand, seems like she is way behind the times and has an very high opinion of herself. She spends a paragraph explaining how ‘normal’ ‘intelligent’ people such as herself know nothing about porn:

I should have seen this one coming. In June, at a BookExpo panel spotlighting the hottest titles for fall, the ReganBooks rep dropped one of his company’s autumn bombshells: Stop the presses! We’re publishing the autobiography of Jenna Jameson! Like me, however, most in the crowd looked decidedly underwhelmed. Who? It was the best confirmation I’ve ever had that book people aren’t just talking when they say theirs is the life of the mind.

And then she has the gall to start the next paragraph with this doozy: “By now, of course, we thoughtier types get the picture. Jameson, it turns out, is the queen of porn, a woman who has become rich and famous by doing on screen what most people reserve for the privacy of their bedrooms.” I am picturing her saying something along the lines of “well, I never!”. Of course you haven’t dear. You’re a Book Babe. You probably haven’t gotten laid since the Carter administration. Granted, this all her opinion. Margo at least has a more sensible answer—moral outrage aside, is the book any good? It’s the ‘thoughtier types’ bit that really gets me. What does she mean? It just seems so elitist. I feel bad almost, since most of my scorn is for Ellen, but somehow Margo takes some of it just by writing a column with her. She should break away and start her own gig.

TEV brought up an interesting topic yesterday. He’s noticed that reviewers and bloggers tend to flock to a few new titles each month or so. You can’t throw a stick (metaphorically of course) without hitting a review of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell these days. The same for Colm Toibin’s The Master when it came out.
Its hard not to notice this trend. And I definitely will fall into this pattern myself. I read all of these reviews of a new big book and feel the urge to run out and read it and write about it. I think of how I used to read BBS (that’s before book store). I’d spend hours trolling the aisles for something to read. Randomly grabbing a title off the shelf , attracted to a colorful spine, reading the back and the first few pages. That’s how I came across Murakami.
Now I usually head to the shelves with books in mind already. I have lists of things I want to read. Sometimes I will come across titles that interest me from looking through a season’s catalogs. Sometimes from reviews. And sometimes I will grab books based on the recommendations from other bloggers, e.g. John Banville, whom TEV loves.
I miss the days of browsing. When I go to other cities now, I always am drawn to bookstores. There I can browse without fear of being interrupted by a customer or co-worker. There I can browse without commentary by others (I am a private reader most of the time. I don’t want to have to discuss what I am buying and reading with co-workers). While in Virginia over the long weekend, I came across 2 great used bookstores in Charlottesville. And I went into each of them (partly to try and find some Nabokov whom I embarassingly enough I have never read. Nabokov is almost impossible to find used. I don’t know why.) and every time my boyfriend rolled his eyes. Not because he doesn’t like bookstores or browsing, but because he can’t imagine why I would want to browse in another store when I work in a perfectly good (let’s be honest, it’s one of the best bookstores in New England) store and can browse all day if I like.
So, now that I have rambled for several paragraphs, I suppose what I am trying to say is, how do you decide what to read? I want to support smaller, unheard of books, ones which might not get a review in the NYT or any place else. I want to give them a chance because there are some great books out there. But I also want to read the big popular stuff too. I guess its a matter of balancing. Any opinions out there?