Out Stealing Horses, Per Petterson

This one left me speechless, gaping like a fish to find the right words of devotion to this exquisite, beautiful novel. I've been working for weeks to write up a proper review, but it isn't working. And to think, I posted about my favorite novels of late only a week before completing one that must be added to the list. I promise to find better, more accurate words of love for this remarkable, special novel that deserves a cult following into the classics.

Written Nerd's Two Cents

Written Nerd has a great post about the pros and cons of bloggers writing book reviews. Not an attack upon or critical of print book reviews, WN notes the greatest perk of blogged book reviews over print reviews:

Blogs, on the other hand, have the benefits that come from no filter: their passion for or against a book, or their complex thoughts about it, are subject to no one's editing but their own. Most of the litblogs whose reviews are worth reading know more or less what they like and don't tend to write reviews hoping for another free book or a mention in the publisher's catalog. There's no reason for them to write unless they want to, and there's no reason for anyone to read them unless they like what they're writing. That can make for some crazies or duds, but it can also make for some powerful and impassioned writing and some creative ways of talking about books that can't happen in the slower-moving systems of an institution.

My Two Cents on Book Reviews, Written Nerd, 05 May 2007

Of course, the down side is the commercial marketing of blogs with advertising from publishers and Amazon, which may or may not skew a blog in any specific direction. When a LitBlog becomes popular enough, however, the writers/editors can gain the attention of authors and earn clout to post interviews, author penned essays, etc. which are a huge bonus to any blog's readers. Ultimately it depends on the blog writer's goal. That initial goal may morph over time, but I agree with WN that the best blogs are ones focusing on what its writer knows and loves, then writes about it. It's like handselling a book or chatting with a good friend who you know will always give you exactly what you will love to read.

Your 69% Bestseller

So I just tried out the Lulu Titlescorer by entering in three different titles (just for fun, of course they aren't actual titles I have in mind for anything I'm working on) and each one received the same score: 69.0% chance of becoming a bestseller. Can I pick 'em or can I pick 'em?

Anyone need help titling their novel?

MBA Day 1

7am
Officially on the road! I left home at 6am after being up for only 30 minutes. And yet it was way, way too early for me. 7am is too early to wake up and I have to do it several days a week. Bought coffee on the way to meet the charter bus - mostly because I decided I might as well have some boost to the trip since I know I won’t fall back asleep, no matter how badly I will want to (and I do!). I had just sat down on the bus and in typical fashion, promptly spilled coffee all down my front. Right on my nice new striped coffee and cream striped shirt. Although now the coffee on it wasn’t just the coloring. At least we hadn’t started down the road and I was able to scour under the bus for my bag and pull out another top. A light sweater, but I get warm easily. I hope it won’t be a problem.
I do love the golden glow of the sunrise. It makes everything so warm. The music on my current iPod playlist (Amelie, March of the Penguins, Bill Evans) adds an interesting musical undercling to the scenery passing by the window. Corn fields, low shrubs, mown pastures; colors green, red, gold, purple. When did Autumn get here?

1120am
Lunch and on the way again. I read one book already today. I’m still reeling a little from it. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. What a stunning read. I blew through it in under 2 hours. Part of the speed was due to the pacing, to the way the novel pushed your forward out of curiosity and a palpable fear. The other part was the simplicity of the prose. No complicated phrasings to stumble over, no over-descriptive paragraphs to have to re-read several times in order to get a clear picture. And it was over too soon. More lengthy thoughts to come.
Some education sessions to attend this afternoon: events related ones and then a roundtable for your “younger” bookseller/bookstore owner (directed to those of us in our 20s and 30s). A reception. A few headed to author dinners - not me! I will take notes during the sessions because I am, in fact, a nerd.


1230pm ARRIVAL

Simple Update

I have been reading like mad, but have been too preoccupied (lazy?) to share my thoughts here. Recently read and loved:

Smonk by Tom Franklin
Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood
How We Got Insipid by Jonathan Lethem
Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian

This weekend I will be at the Midwest Booksellers Association trade show in St. Paul and will attempt to do some blogging from there. No promises, but the noble vestiges of action will be on my mind.

Galley Giveaway

My store does a galley giveaway once a year where all our extra galleys get set out and customers can take one for every book they purchase. It's a neat thing and people really seem to get a kick out of it. There are a a large number of good galleys hanging around this year because we got moer quantity or we all were interested in slightly more obscure things or we liked the books so damn much we kept the galleys. Currently I'm going through my stock here at home. I have a lot of books that I've brough home over the last year that I was (and still am) truly interested in reading, but doubt I will get around to them anytime soon. A lot of the nonfiction galleys I've brought home will stay with me. At some point I will read them. But the varied fiction types? Probably not. What I hate is constantly picking up and setting down books. Every time I pick one of these sort up, I peruse it, find it vaguely calling to me, then I put it down because I"m not in the mood or it just doesn't speak to me that day.

Then there is the problem of having new galleys every week. Those pile up faster than I can read them. These are books that I find interesting that someone else is not likely to read and rec so I need to do so. But other people keep recc'ing other books to me that sound really good and then I put down whatever I'm working on in favor of something great someone else has already read.

I think I need some steadfast rules to get through the galley dilemma. Some rules that will keep me structured and on pace so I don't feel so biblio-ADD. If I come up with any, I will let you know.

August Book Sense

The Yacoubian Building is a Booksense pick for August and my review was chosen to be featured with the pick! Exciting! I received an email from a representative for the company that distributes books put out by the American University in Cairo Press (English publisher of TYB), so I thought I'd post a link to a site where you can check out some of their other titles.

AUC Listings

(Also: I'm still stuck in the Northwoods and my internet access is limited so don't expect too many more posts just yet.)

One more thing before I go

Okay. this is so cool. I had to share.

The Official Podcast of BookExpo America

John Updike. Amy Sedaris. Barack Obama. Sigh. WIsh I could have gone. Oh well, one day....

Summer Delay

Okay. So a quick FYI. There will be very few (if any) posts over the next two months. I'm heading off for an adventure in the Northwoods and while I will have e-mail access and will bring a bunch of books with me, I may not get a chance to post anything here. So hold tight, don't let the mosquitos bite and we will be in touch again soon. Ta!

Brushes with Writerly Glory

I apologize for being so lacksadasial in my updates. I have been reading non-stop, but an increase in work hours as well as a brief illness has subdued my regular additions here. The increase in work hours was due to accepting a new position at my bookstore. I now get to host and coordinate all in-store author events. In April we averaged 3 a week - many of which brought in several hundred people! So it's been busy.

Needless to say, there are great perks in this new position. Mainly in being able to cavort with writers as brief as their visits to us may be. As a sampling: It has been an honor to host writers such as Christopher Moore, Paul Rusesabagina, Jonathan Safran Foer and DBC Pierre.

Last night when DBC Pierre came in for his reading and we had a light crowd, we decided after to step on down to a local pub for a drink and some highly stimulating conversation. A brilliant, genuinely cool guy that DBC Pierre is. Oh, and his latest novel, Ludmila's Broken English is ridiculously well written.

Also! Not only was I blurbed by BookSense for Ariel Gore's marvelous first novel The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show, but Ms. Gore nabbed my post from this blog and posted it on hers. It's always good to know that your impressions of a book/writer are accurate enough for them to share with the world.

Coming up next week in my hostessing duties? Sebastian Junger and Augusten Burroughs. Then Mark Bowden and Sean Wilsey in early June. I love this job!!!

What I'm Reading Now

More details to follow eventually. But, things I have just read, am reading currently, or will be starting within the next day or two:

The Hearing Trumpet Leonora Carrington
We'll Always Have Paris John Baxter
Ella in Europe Michael Konik
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathon Safran Foer
History of Love Nicole Krauss

This doesn't count the GINORMOUS stack of galleys and finished books I have stacked by my desk that all need to be read...TODAY. Anywho. The only reason I'm neglecting you is that I'm reading too much, working more and not online enough. That's all for now.

illness

I do sometimes think that I sholdn't be around books so much. Here's an example of my literary explorations as of, literally, today.

BOOKS PURCHASED TODAY



~Another blank book with the front and back covers featuring the artist Jean Michael Folon

GALLEYS PICKED UP TODAY

Empress: A Novel by Shan Sa

WHAT I'M READING

Intimidated

I am in the middle of reading both The Penelopiad and The Tent - Margaret Atwood's newest. It's so nice to have one follow so close on the tail of the other when we so often have to go what feels like decades between books from her. I am reading too many books at once right now to just do cover-to-cover, but its working nicely with these two since they are full of short, little chapters of exploration. I probably should be reading about Penelope straight through, but its fun doing it in bits. Makes it last longer. So far, I am liking The Tent more out of the two but that could change. I love the minimalism of it, like eating one oreo at a time instead of trying to down the whole lot of them. You know? And the illustrations are fantastic - all Atwood's of course. Below is a sample from her website where she has several comic strips that are caustically funny.



“All children ‘write.’ (And paint, and sing.) I suppose the real question is, why do so many people give it up? Intimidation, I suppose.”

Margaret Atwood

Tingle Alley: P967

This is the blog I most hope to emulate or at least draw inspiration from.

From one of the most recent Tingle Alley posts:

Pardon the ongoing lapse in blogging around here. It’s not, as you may have imagined, because the proprietress was on some sort of Schnapps Bender (always great fun until one wakes up one morning on a deserted slope in the Alps, wearing nothing but underwear and a sprig of edelweiss, after an ill-advised “field trip” to the schnappsian fount). Rather, I have been up against one of the great labor inequities of our day, namely the prohibition against blogging in meetings. Since I’ve been in meetings all day every day — in Asheville, in Poughkeepsie, across the Atlantic seaboard; sometimes I just wander into strange businesses and go and sit in their conference rooms, looking around expectantly till someone brings in some coffee and lets me show them my PowerPoint — this has radically curtailed my blogging. In an attempt to find a middle ground between business and blogging, I have even volunteered to live-blog the daily proceedings (“10:31 Jack requests materials for project. 10:32 Client asks for clarification on requested materials. 10:33 James Frey breaks into conference room in crack-fueled rage and combats various cops and authority figures placed around the room, wielding a numchuck in one hand and a 1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra in the other. The Powerpoint screen is getting sprayed with snot and vomit and blood. Also, my binder. 10:34 James Frey takes seat and admits that this last bit may have been an exaggeration. He was really just wielding some figures from Accounting. He asks that this remain strictly off the record.”) but so far I haven’t been able to get sign-off.

Source:
Also, JD Salinger? Cancun party animal. Hemingway? Real name: Eunice. And Ginsberg? Whispered..

Funny, funny, funny stuff. If you haven't visited yet, do.