When you look at this picture, what do you see? People reading, yes. Are they reading together or alone? I get a sense of alone-together from this group. Each is absorbed in his reading but it’s a companionable solitude, or so it looks to me. In a sense, though, every reader is always a solitary… Continue reading »
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Bookstores Say “Boo!” to Amazon
Today’s Washington Post has a fascinating little story, tucked into the Style section, about some bookstores refusing to shelve books produced by Amazon. The boycotters include Washington’s own indie stalwart, Politics & Prose. If I go to P&P, I won’t find a copy of what sounds like a charming new novel, Care of Wooden Floors… Continue reading »
Let Content Dictate Form
One of the latest books to find its way into my house is Stephen Sondheim’s Finishing the Hat, a collection of his lyrics fortified with anecdotes and commentary and thoughts about writing. For Sondheim, that means writing songs, of course, but right off the bat he lays out some guidelines that almost any kind of… Continue reading »
“The End of Men,” or What Makes a Book Big?
I wasn’t going to write any more about Hanna Rosin’s new book, The End of Men. I already had my say. But the book and the response to it has got me thinking about what counts as a Big Book. Consider this a postscript to my WaPo review. If you follow bookish or pop-culture chatter… Continue reading »
I, Reader
I read a lot of fantasy as a kid: the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula LeGuin, Anne McCaffery’s Pern books, lots of C.S. Lewis (even The Screwtape Letters, oddly enough) and Tolkien (everything except The Silmarillion, although I tried). I read A Wrinkle in… Continue reading »
