February 2012
2 posts
“He’s a Dostoyevskian reader, and though that could mean many things, in...”
– from CIRCULATION in Tim Horvath’s forthcoming short-story collection, UNDERSTORIES.
“So it is that a well-read man will at once begin to yawn with boredom when one...”
– From WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE by Marcel Proust
January 2012
9 posts
“There is no stability in this world. Who is to say what meaning there is in...”
– From THE WAVES by Virginia Woolf. Happy Birthday, Virginia!
“Even from the simplest, the most realistic point of view, the countries which we...”
– From SWANN’S WAY by Marcel Proust
“In that way Vinteuil’s phrase, like some theme, say, in Tristan, which...”
– From SWANN’S WAY by Marcel Proust
“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal,...”
– The Fault in Our Stars, John Green (via twenty4mixtapes)
[i think i feel the second more than i feel the first…] (via prolixcorpuslibris)
yesyesyes!
“It is the same in life; the heart changes, and it is our worst sorrow; but we...”
– From SWANN’S WAY by Marcel Proust
“For even if we have the sensation of being always enveloped in, surrounded by...”
– From SWANN’S WAY by Marcel Proust
“What an abyss of uncertainty, whenever the mind feels overtaken by itself; when...”
– From SWANN’S WAY by Marcel Proust
“Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1)...”
– C. S. Lewis, in a letter to Sarah, his godchild, on 3 April 1949 via Stan Carey (via bobulate)
So true.
“She remembers sitting in an armchair with Agnes reading the nature encyclopedia,...”
– From GLACIERS by Alexis M. Smith
“I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of...”
– Anaïs Nin
December 2011
4 posts
“She found consolation in being sad. Not desperate, for she was much too modest...”
– from THE HOUR OF THE STAR by Clarice Lispector
“The simple things come back to us. They rest for a moment by our ribcages then...”
– Colum McCann, LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN
November 2011
3 posts
“You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk...”
– Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum (via proustitute)
Hell yes.
“Nevertheless, I am afraid of the country night and its honest slumbers, uneasy...”
– from SLEEPLESS NIGHTS by Elizabeth Hardwick
August 2011
4 posts
“It wasn’t only that this writing seemed beautiful to Madeleine. It...”
– from page 49 of the Advance Reader’s Copy of THE MARRIAGE PLOT by Jeffrey Eugenides
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/from-booksell... →
amNY included me in an article about booksellers “who may have book deals in their future.”
http://www.full-stop.net/2011/08/07/features/alex/y... →
I was interviewed recently for Full Stop’s “Young Critics” series.
July 2011
11 posts
“If you put ice on your skin, your skin turns pink. Your body sends blood there....”
– Kay Ryan, from a 2008 interview in The Paris Review (via proustitute)
Ask Me About… →
…a new series presented by McNally Jackson and Time Out New York!
mcnallyjackson:
timeoutnewyork:
Very, very excited about this: TONY is teaming up with McNally Jackson to present a new event, Ask Me About…. Hosted by our Books editor, Matthew Love, the series gives book casual readers and bookworms alike an excuse to tackle that classic they’ve just never read. The first event...
Geoff Dyer on "the magic of a summer dress." →
Earlier this afternoon I tweeted about how much I love sundresses. Thanks to @Nosowsky for telling me about this great article by Geoff Dyer. I really need to read his latest book. He read at McNally Jackson recently and he was completely charming and brilliant.
“The jagged mountains were pure blue in the dawn and everywhere birds twittered...”
– from page 90 of BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy
“They rode on and the sun in the east flushed pale streaks of light and then a...”
– from pages 45-46 of BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy
“His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the...”
– page 5 of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
January 2011
6 posts
W. W. Norton: It is the Medium's Fault When... →
wwnorton:
The life span of black ink in disposable plastic pens is estimated to be about four and a half years. The blue ink in plastic pens starts to fade away in two. And newsprint is only intended to last for a day.
Already, scientists are experiencing difficulty in deciphering the technology that’s…
“At first things collide, collude, drive you along. Only later do they begin to...”
– From “Sleep” by Brian Lennon. It’s in The Next American Essay, edited by John D’Agata. I’m a sucker for anthologies, and this is a good one.
“Sometimes, in his attic room at night, he would look up from a book he was...”
– John Williams, STONER
“When it comes down to it, what are you given other than words? … And how...”
– My review of Stone Upon Stone for The Star Tribune.
December 2010
2 posts
Books To Look Forward To in 2011 →
Everyone is busy writing or sharing their favorite books of 2010 list, but I’m already thinking about all of the books coming out next year that look interesting, or that I’ve already read and loved. Here is a very incomplete list.
January
The Diviner’s Tale by Bradford Morrow
The Still Point by Amy Sackville
The Melting Season by Jami Attenberg
February
Swamplandia by Karen Russell
...
The Bare Necessities at The Book Lady's Blog →
I was happy to contribute to my friend Rebecca’s fabulous blog. She has a fun series where writers and readers share annotated book lists. Here’s the beginning of what I wrote:
Some people read to be entertained. I read like a prospector, searching for that perfect nugget of a sentence or paragraph. Although I don’t need a book to be entertaining in order to enjoy it, it’s...
November 2010
7 posts
“I’ve always loved books, all my life. When I was a clerk at Scribner’s bookstore...”
– Patti Smith, accepting the National Book Award (via austinkleon)
http://www.algonquinbooksblog.com/2010/11/19/bookse... →
Over at the Algonquin Books blog: I talk about fake mice, air guitar, The Apples of Happiness, and some of the best books I’ve read recently.
The latest Bookrageous podcast is now up! This...
“In my teens I gave up Catholicism, and at the same time I started writing....”
– Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 200, John Banville (via ayse)
“Maybe instead of strings it’s stories things are made of, an infinite...”
– Paul Murray, Skippy Dies