When Stephen Crane Was My Age, He’d Been Dead for 26 Years
As I'm writing this, the New Yorker has just released their "20 under 40" list of young writers to watch. That such a list exists at all is a comfort, I think. It's nice to see 20 talented and youngish...
View ArticleBook News Friday: Potluck Edition!
It's so heartbreaking to discover something new and exciting, only to learn moments later that it really sucks. To wit: I didn't realize someone was developing a PC game based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's...
View ArticleIn Our Time
The prose is clear and simple, and the stories are fresh. In Our Time is a book that will clear your reader's palate. Books mentioned in this post
View ArticleA Clean, Well-lighted Place
It was late and every one had left the café except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light. In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew...
View ArticleRoger Ebert: The Powells.com Interview
Roger Ebert, beloved film critic, writer, and, these days, social-media maven, has written a beautiful and moving memoir in Life Itself. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, described it as...
View ArticleBooks That Belong Together
I'm a big believer that books, like people, can have partners: there are pairs of books that complement each other and belong together. With some books, as soon as you mention one, someone is bound to...
View ArticleSilent Plains
There are seven stories I read at least once a year, for pleasure and in the same very rational spirit that infertile males of certain old (and new) world tribes have eaten rhinoceros horns and tiger...
View ArticleWhat’s in a Book Title?
Naming a novel is painstaking, agonizing, delicate. But does the title matter? It certainly feels consequential to the author. After several years' battle with your laptop keyboard, after 100,000 words...
View ArticleThe Sun Also Rises
I read this book during my senior year of college to take a break from my business reading requirements. It inspired me to buy a plane ticket to Spain as a graduation present to myself. I went and ran...
View ArticleRequired Reading: Books That Inspire Travel
Ahead of a trip, many of us gravitate toward books that depict the history and culture of our travel destination. But it can work the other way around, too. Sometimes a book provides such a powerful...
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