Author Archives: bookdwarf

On the Newspaper Review Controversy

I’ve been silent about the whole subject of the disappearing book coverage in newspapers so far. Usually, I’d be shouting loud and clear about it. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll explain. A few weeks ago, the Atlanta Journal Constitution announced that they would be eliminating the position of book editor. The National Book Critics Circle then announced a campaign to save book review pages. Each day they post comments from well known authors and editors about the value of book reviews. And of course bloggers got on board as well, not without a bit of controversy of their own. Today Motoko Rich has an article The New York Times about the print versus online divide, that includes comments some of my friends Mark, Ed, Maud, Dan, and Jeff.

I haven’t weighed in on this issue yet for a few reasons. One, it feels odd to try and save pages that I regularly complain about (I’m specifically referring to the Boston Globe. I do not want the book review section to disappear, but I lament the often boring nature of the section. I want to save it though. It needs to exist here, as do all review pages, but this should be a chance to for change in the review industry (I hesitate to use that word, but can’t think of a better term). Reviews have gotten stodgy and boring and I don’t blame the internet either. I think people have gotten lazy. Just as scholarship evolves, so shouldn’t criticism. But again, I’m all for saving the review pages.

The other reason I haven’t spoken out yet reflects more of a uncomfortableness that comes from having a blog. The newspapers certainly don’t seem to love the literary blogs and online community. That’s changing I know, but it’s hard to read about saving these pages when meanwhile, they’re trashing what I do, eg Richard Ford’s comments at the end of today’s NYT article.

Mr. Ford, who has never looked at a literary blog, said he wanted the judgment and filter that he believed a newspaper book editor could provide. “Newspapers, by having institutional backing, have a responsible relationship not only to their publisher but to their readership,” Mr. Ford said, “in a way that some guy sitting in his basement in Terre Haute maybe doesn’t.”

I’m not sitting in a basement Mr. Ford. I’m in a book store, where we actually sell your books on a daily basis. So thanks for that. Regardless of how those comments make me feel, I do think it important to state for the record that I believe book reviews should be saved and I’ll do what I can to help.

Rupert Thomson in Cambridge…

Massachusetts, that is. Yes, because I like him so much, we’re getting Rupert Thomson for an event sometime this coming August. I’m ecstatic. I haven’t read his new book Death of a Murderer yet, but a copy is winging its way to me right now. This is the perfect way to end a work week, after such a disastrous day wherein our computer system went down for several hours. Needless to say, I squealed like a girl when Amanda told me and I can’t get the grin off my face. You’d think I had just kissed Clive Owen or something.

The Problems with Embargoes

George Tenet’s new book At the Center of the Storm, which blasts the Bush administration and in particular Cheney for pushing us into the war, supposedly goes on sale Monday April 30th. Yet somehow The New York Times managed to legally get their hands on one. “A copy of the book was purchased at retail price in advance of publication by a reporter for The New York Times.” Uhm, where did you purchase this book? My store has our initial order in the basement. We can’t put them on sale until Monday unless we want to face the wrath of HarperCollins. There are several problems with the NYT‘s buying this book ahead of time. One, some store is selling this ahead of time, which just isn’t fair to the rest of us. Imagine if we put our Harry Potter on sale a few days early? What would the other book stores do? Secondly, we’re going to get a ton of customers in the store this weekend wanting the book and we have to tell them that no, we can’t sell it to them yet. This kind of stunt just pisses me off. They do it all the time and get away with it.

I’m Cured of the Woolf-ophobia!

I finished To the Lighthouse last week in time for class. It was delightful! I’m feeling sort of obsessed now. I’m going to read Mrs. Dalloway next and possibly tackle Hermione Lee’s biography of Woolf. She seems like such a fascinating woman.

As for George Eliot’s Middlemarch, I had stated that I think it’s one of the best books I have ever read and someone in the comments asked me to explain. I’ll have to think about that. It definitely took me the first 100 pages to get into the book, but I think Eliot does such a wonderful job fleshing out her characters. They all seem so human. Virginia Woolf described this book as “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people”. It was a marked change from the writings of Jane Austen.

On a side note, you can read the entire book online here. And a note in Wikipedia said that Sam Mendes, who directed American Beauty, will be directing a version of Middlemarch. Also he’s directing a film adaptation of Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Interesting, not sure what to think about that.

The Pleasures of Escapist Reading

Have you ever read a book that while not the greatest book in the world filled the need for the moment? I suppose in essence I’m talking about escapist reading. Usually about this time of year, I begin longing to run away and travel somewhere. Sometimes I’ll read travel writing to sate this need. Or I’ll turn to some historical fiction. That’s why I read Kate Turnivall’s upcoming book The Russian Concubine—sounds torrid doesn’t? It’s set in China, 1928 in the International Settlement. 16 year old Lydia Ivanova, daughter of White Russian Valentina Ivanova, supports herself and her mother picking pockets while also attending school. She meets Chang An Lo, a handsome Communist (also skilled in Kung Fu of course) who is constantly on the run from Chiang Kai Shek’s troops. There are a few more story lines involving Lydia’s teacher and mistress, whose father happens to head the Triad gang the Black Cobras; Lydia’s mother and a newspaper man, whose pockets Lydia pick; Mr. Mason, whose daughter Polly also is Lydia’s best friend. All the stories intertwine, some of the well, some of them forced.

I might not sound like I enjoyed reading this book, but I really did. It’s like a chocolate craving, you need it that moment and only chocolate will fufill that need. I needed something that I could easily read in a day or two but also immerse myself into a different world. I use sci-fi for this too. While this book fulfilled that need, I’ve have more satisfying books in the past. For one thing, everything wrapped up a little too neatly for my taste. And some of the more serendipitous conclusions were unbelievable. Overall, I enjoyed losing myself in this book for two days even if I have reservations about it. But that’s the point of this type of reading for me, losing myself for a few days in a book.

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand

I might have spent the better part of last weekend watching the Red Sox sweep the Yankees, but I also did some reading. I read Elizabeth Hand’s amazing new mystery Generation Loss and immediately wrote a staff recommendation for the store. Here’s what I wrote:

Do you want to read a smart, dark, literary thriller that will keep you reading late into the night? Do you want to read about a self-destructive photographer who hasn’t done anything since the 70’s, who has spent the years since drinking, doing drugs, and alienating everyone around her, who goes to Maine to interview legendary photographer Aphrodite, but then gets caught up in a case of a missing girl and also discovers a photographic genius who might also be crazy? Do you want to read about how dark a person can go before get to that invisible line and what might tempt you to cross it? Well, here’s your book: Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand.

PEN World Voices

Dang, I wish I was in New York for the week as the PEN World Voices festival kicks off. It starts tonight at Cooper Union with a discussion called Green Thoughts: Writers on the Environment. Speakers will include Billy Collins, Jonathan Franzen, Moses Isegawa, Pico Iyer, Geert Mak, Marilynne Robinson, Roxana Robinson, Salman Rushdie, Gary Shteyngart, Janne Teller, and Colson Whitehead. What a lineup! All of the events are studded with great, talented writers. If you’re in New York, take advantage!