Reading update

I added several books to the reading queue today. In New York last weekend I found a half price paperback copy of Jon Lee Anderson's Guerrillas: Journeys in the Insurgent World. As you may know, Anderson is a stellar war reporter for the New Yorker. His writing combines thrill and adventure and danger with an unmatched depth of knowledge on the conflicts he covers. Guerrillas collects his reporting on "the mujahedin of Afghanistan, the FMLN of El Salvador, the Karen of Burma, the Polisario of Western Sahara, and a group of young Palestinians fighting against Israel in the Gaza Strip." A few weeks earlier, at Myopic Books, an unbelievably well-stocked used bookstore in Wicker Park, I picked up a couple of late 20th century classics, Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow and Winter's Tale (on Emre's recommendation) by Mark Helprin. I was also lucky enough to receive in the mail from my publisher friends: The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson (I'm a big Ronson fan), Rick Moody's upcoming novel The Diviners, and the Booker longlister The People's Act of Love by James Meek, which I'm a quarter of the way through. Recently, I finished the five LBC nominees for the fall, and in the meantime, with the additions of the books listed above, the queue has ballooned to it's largest size yet, 48 titles - so much to read, so little time.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:43 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

National Geographic's Africa issue

I got the most recent National Geographic in the mail yesterday. The issue is devoted entirely to one subject, Africa, and, according to the AP, is notable for being the first one-topic issue in the magazine's history and only the second (since they started using cover photographs) to not have a photo on the cover. National Geographic always provides broad, colorful stories, but never before have they delved so deeply on a single subject, and having read through this issue, I think they ought to do it more often. Some notable names make appearances in the Africa issue. Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse) pens the issue's introduction with a discussion of why Africa has fallen behind the rest of the world but is not doomed to this fate in the future. Joel Achenbach, Washington Post reporter - and blogger - looks at some of the current shortcomings of paleoanthropology. And Alexandra Fuller (Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight) returns to Zambia, the country of her youth, in a piece that is more personal and less straightforward than a typical National Geographic article.

- C. Max Magee @ 8:03 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Daniel Alarcon interviewed

The Loggernaut Reading Series has a truly exceptional interview up with Daniel Alarcon author of the acclaimed collection, War by Candlelight. He touches on many topics: the Iowa Writers Workshop, Peruvian literature, falling out of love with the New York Yankees. There's also this bit about being on book tour:

I like readings. I like meeting people, and generally it works this way: folks that don't like your book or don't like you as a person stay at home. The folks who are likely to enjoy it are the ones who show up. So of course it's very gratifying to have ten or fifteen or however many people buy your book and tell you they think you're very smart, write well, smell good, etc. Still, I can't say that I really enjoy traveling, though these days I seem to do a lot of it. When I started the tour I'd been traveling already for three months in Latin America, didn't really have a place to live in the US, and still had books and clothes scattered in the apartments of various friends, my parents' place in Oakland, my sister's house, and elsewhere. I felt incredibly un-tethered to anything, which is exactly the wrong time to be spending nights in hotels, airports, and shopping malls: the trifecta of sad American non-destinations. They bring out the very bleakest in people who are prone to be depressed from time to time.

The best readings were in places I've lived before - New York, Iowa City, the Bay Area, Birmingham - where friends showed up and brought their friends, or where peruanos showed up just to say they were proud of me and whatnot. Chicago was also excellent, lots of fun. In Boulder I started my reading with two people in the audience. I introduced myself to both of them and shook their hands. The reading was fine, I think they both enjoyed it, and actually a few more people showed up by the time the story had ended. They asked me to read another story and I did. Then afterwards some dude wanted me to sign a galley, an advance reader copy, the one that says very clearly "not for sale, uncorrected proof" on the cover. He told me with an innocent smile that he'd bought it used on Amazon. I was like, Are you fucking kidding me? I think he expected me to congratulate him on having found such a bargain. But he was so earnest and excited to meet me that he even had his two daughters pose for a picture with me. Maybe he'll buy my next book. Or not. I don't even know why I was mad; it's not like I don't buy used books.

- C. Max Magee @ 9:54 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Freelancing woes

The Hag points us to this humorous but heartbreaking article about the declining fortunes of freelance journalists. Though I'm not at the moment trying to make it as a freelance journalist, I've always thought it something I might like to try. You know: the freedom, the romantic life of the roving freelancer, the potential for glory on glossy pages, all that. But, according to Ben Yagoda, things aren't as they once were. Even the quality of the rejection letters has declined substantially:

A friend of mine, who never got published in The New Yorker, still treasures the bunch of hand-typed and personal rejection letters he got in the late '70s and early '80s from William Shawn. That's so 20th century. These days, you're lucky to get a form letter. The pocket veto - that is, the unreturned e-mail, letter, or phone call - has become an accepted way of turning down ideas and submissions, even from longtime contributors.

- C. Max Magee @ 9:33 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Kate Atkinson at the LBC blog

Kate Atkinson has begun tentatively posting at the LBC blog. She'll be discussing her book Case Histories and answering questions from readers. Feel free to join in.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:50 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Hurricane blogging

Perhaps you've seen it on the news. A historic and potentially catastrophic storm, Hurricane Katrina, is about 24 hours from plowing into New Orleans. If there ever was a "big one," this is it. Sustained winds are at 175 mph, and some experts think it may maintain this strength all the way to landfall. Despite the fact that New Orleans lies below sea level and needs levies and pumps to keep out the water, Mayor C. Ray Nagin has only just now ordered a mandatory evacuation. Many experts think it's already too late. If you want to keep an eye on this storm here are some links. Blogs: Dr. Jeff Masters, Steve Gregory, Eye of the Storm, Brendan Loy, Fresh Bilge. Links to TV coverage on the web at Lost Remote. The National Hurricane Center. I may add more to this post as I find more links.

- C. Max Magee @ 10:18 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Amazon shorts: a good idea, but a missed opportunity

One of the bigger stories in the literary world this week was the launch of Amazon Shorts. As you may have read, the program allows authors to sell short works (the program offers many varieties of fiction and non-fiction and includes essays, book chapters and short stories) at the flat rate of 49 cents a piece, and it allows readers to access these works in three different formats with relative ease. Amazon has long been innovative in how it sells books, but its execution is sometimes clunky. In this case, it looks like Amazon has done some things right, but they are, perhaps, missing a big opportunity.

First, the good. The downloads are offered in three formats: well-formatted HTML for on-screen reading, PDF for printing out and plain text email, so that you can have it with you always. Every account I've read has described the purchase and download process as easy. What's really remarkable, though, is that Amazon has decided not to worry about "evil" customers copying and distributing these shorts all over the world. There is no clunky anti-piracy system, and the "shorts" do not expire. As with many successful online initiatives in recent years, Amazon has decided to trust its customers rather than fight them (if only record labels would start thinking like this.) Which is not to say that Amazon is simply making a statement about the good of humanity here. If these shorts were the only products that Amazon sold, they might be more reluctant to distribute them in such an easy to copy format, but, you may have noticed, Amazon sells books, too, and they're a lot more expensive.

So, while Amazon Shorts are certainly legitimate content and probably worth 49 cents to their readers, Amazon is also, in effect, selling advertising for its other products. Give the readers a cheap taste of an author and see if they take the plunge on a 25 dollar book. Quite brilliant really, but herein lies Amazon's great missed opportunity. The program launched with just 59 authors, all of them with some level of name recognition, and with other, longer works to sell. Take a look at Pico Iyer's essay "A Place I've Never Been", and notice how prominently his "Complete Works" are displayed on the page - even for Amazon, they take up a lot of real estate. The page feels like a publicity package for the works of Iyer. This will work just fine for established writers, but it seems like there probably won't be much room in the program for newcomers trying to reach a wide audience. On the "Shorts" page, it asks "Are you an author, publisher, editor, or agent who would like to participate in Amazon Shorts?" and, perhaps I'm reading between the lines here, but I can't help but see the word "established" sitting in front of the word "author" in my mind's eye.

This is where Amazon's vision falters. Rather than marketing longer works through the "Shorts" program, Amazon could become the great digital marketplace of ideas. A young fiction writer could sell a short story directly to readers, rather than waiting weeks for rejection letters from small literary magazines with limited reach. An amateur scientist working outside of the academic mainstream could try to fund his research by selling his theories at Amazon. the possibilities are endless. If 50,000 people each sold an average of 50 copies of their "short" a year, the revenues would be above 2.5 million dollars - and that, to my mind, is a conservative estimate on the number of potential participants. Sure, they wouldn't want to set the bar too low - you don't want the Unabomber selling his manifesto on Amazon - but the intellectual wealth of an inclusive marketplace is a tantalizing prospect. The one caveat here is that "micropayments" for digital content have failed to take off as a successful model, but if anyone could make it work, it's Amazon.

For more on the topic, have a look at John Scalzi's post (and check out the comments, too.)

- C. Max Magee @ 11:11 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

In Britain, size matters

The plight of the literary magazine and the demise of the short story are often bemoaned here in the US, but compared to the state of things in Britain, America is paradise for short story writers and readers. So says a recent essay in the Guardian, which hopes that a newly announced short story prize - worth 15,000 pounds, the world's richest - will ignite a passion for short fiction in that part of the world. According to Aida Edemariam, who penned the essay, in Britain, size matters:

The British attitude to the short story - that it is somehow lesser, a practice space for the real thing, which is, of course, the novel; that you can perhaps start out writing a collection of stories, but you have somehow failed if you don't graduate to a minimum of 200 pages - has always baffled me. I cannot comprehend the underlying assumption that a particular kind of stamina is somehow better, of more value. It's like privileging the marathon, or the 1,500m, over the 100m.

After citing several examples of the form, Edemariam goes on to write: "I know these are North American examples, but it is there where, as (Dave) Eggers points out in his introduction to The Best of McSweeney's Volume I, there 'are probably over a hundred high-quality literary journals,' that the short story is truly alive; disdain for the form is a British phenomenon."

Who knew we had it so good?

- C. Max Magee @ 7:57 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

The links

The Telegraph links all their reviews of Booker longlist titles from one page. If you want to get a look at these literary hotshots, there's a photo gallery, too.

Ed has read Chuck Klosterman, and he's not very happy about it.

The First Post, a new British online magazine leads with John Irving's book reviewer-bashing.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:38 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

The novel race

Michael J. Arlen's 1958 humor piece "Are we losing the novel race?" (which can be found in the New Yorker's anthology of humor writing) starts out thusly: "As if things weren't bad enough already, word has just reached me that the Russians have recently published a 1,600 page novel." The amusing little piece, published at the height of Cold War hysteria, spoofs both the nation's fear of an impending nuclear war and the literary world's longtime obsession with heft. The Cold War is over now, but people are still fascinated by really big books.

The latest really big book is a 1,360 page debut novel called Hunger's Brides: A Novel of the Baroque by a Canadian named Paul Anderson. An article in the NY Times - which includes this quote from Anderson's publisher: "I told him, 'You can't not go there.' And that's how it got longer." - is dutifully descriptive on the subject of the book's size: "It weighs 4 pounds, 9 ounces, equivalent to two and a half copies of The Da Vinci Code, and it is thicker than Verizon's Manhattan telephone directory (either the white or yellow pages)." Luckily, the author seems to have a sense of humor about having published such a, shall we say, weighty book: his official Web site includes a slideshow of "safe reading positions". And if you're really curious, there are several excerpts up as well.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:49 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Kate Atkinson to visit the Litblog Co-op blog

Mark your calendars. As promised (many months ago) Kate Atkinson, author of the inaugural Litblog Co-op selection, Case Histories, will be stopping by the LBC blog to discuss the book with readers. If you got a chance to read the book - or if you just want to see what all the fuss is about - be sure to visit the blog on Monday, August 29th.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:19 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

New book previews: Mohammed Naseehu Ali, Christian Bauman, T.C. Boyle, Jill Ciment

The Prophet of Zongo Street is the debut collection by the Ghanian writer Mohammed Naseehu Ali. The collection of ten stories has garnered a number of high-profile reviews, including in the NY Times, the SF Chronicle and the LA Times, in which Merle Rubin wrote, "Although many in these stories are misled by philosophies, faiths and ideas that promise to provide all the answers, Ali shows time after time how ordinary human kindness is the one quality capable of redeeming it all." You can read an excerpt from the book here, and Ali's story "Mallam Sile" was in the New Yorker a few months back.

Christian Bauman's new novel features a prominent blurb on the front cover from Robert Stone - a good sign if you put stock in such things. Bauman's first novel, The Ice Beneath You, was "a war story for the new millennium," according to PW, about the US effort in Somalia. Bauman's new book, Voodoo Lounge takes on similar themes, set this time in Haiti. From the review in Booklist: "The term 'voodoo lounge' refers to the machine-gun nest on the port bow of a ship. Reading this startling novel is the literary equivalent of standing watch on that perch." Bauman's Web site is here. The book comes out around Sept. 1.

T.C. Boyle, an old favorite of mine, has a new collection of stories coming out shortly called Tooth and Claw. All of these stories have been previously published in various periodicals, including several in the New Yorker - here, for example, is the collection's title story. Boyle also has an excerpt up at his Web site. And, by the way, if you are a fan of Boyle at all and haven't visited his site, I suggest you check it out. It features a very active message board that includes frequent appearances from the author himself.

John Irving isn't the only one who's written a novel about tattoos lately. Jill Ciment's latest, The Tattoo Artist, is about an artist couple - Sara and Philip, enmeshed in Manhattan's avant garde scene in the 1920s, who travel to the South Pacific in search of inspiration. Once there, they are forcibly tattooed by the natives and then trapped by WWII - a castaway story. The book has recently been reviewed in the NY Times and somewhat more favorably in the SF Chronicle.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:16 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

A reading journal continued by Emre Peker (The 4th and Final Part)

I went back home to Istanbul for my cousin's wedding (yes, a lot of weddings indeed, fun nevertheless, and may all of them be happy) and there picked up Tuna Kiremitci's third novel Yolda Uc Kisi (Three People on the Road). I had briefly mentioned Tuna Kiremitci's first two novels in my Year in Reading for 2004. I had found both very pop but at the same time sincere and interesting. Yolda Uc Kisi has an interesting storyline, but it does not explore feelings, ideas, conflicts, and desires as strongly as its predecessors. The author's involvement as the narrator was also too cheap and easy at times, helping Kiremitci to skim over facts that could well make the novel more interesting. I understand that he is a poet and would rather take the short cut, but Yolda Uc Kisi was a disappointing read with certain highlights and no identifiable resolution. I would recommend Orhan Pamuk's Sessiz Ev (also reviewed last year) for those interested in the divide between the understanding of revolutionaries and consumers, as well as young and old, and the political life in Turkey before the military coup of 1980, it goes much deeper than Yolda Uc Kisi, and actually presents a full story.

Funny book given as present by my friend Roland at the Virginia wedding: In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot by Graham Roumieu. Absolutely hilarious, from the myth to pop culture, everything that Bigfoot presents in his broken English puts a smile on your face or makes you laugh out loud. You will read the whole book in 5 minutes and then rush over to your friends to read what you thought was the funniest, realizing soon thereafter that you have read the whole thing to them, too. Go to a bookstore, pick it up, and see if it makes you smile. [Ed. Note: I'm also a big fan of the Bigfoot book. Go here to get a taste of Roumieu's art.]

Next I turned to Danyel Smith's Bliss, which hit the shelves on July 12 to great acclaim. Smith takes the reader through the booming world of hip hop in the late '80s and the '90s, through the experiences, ambitions, and personal conflicts of Eva Glenn, a successful executive at Roadshow Records. Although fairly well concentrated on her career and personal freedom, Eva actually has little time to focus on her real problems as she juggles Sunny, her successful, multi-platinum artist; Ron Lil' John, her rival record executive and part-time lover; Dart, Sunny's manic-depressive brother and manager; and all other rivals in the cut-throat recording industry. Bliss is very pop and fun to read: Eva's constant musings over songs - relating developments in her life through verses from artists like the Temptations and Tupac - her constant inner dialogue, which explains the real motivations behind her actions, and stories of making mixed tapes from radio broadcasts make for a novel that captivates the reader. Bliss is very similar to Syrup by Maxx Barry in both style and context. I had enjoyed Syrup a lot when I read it and think that it covers personal vice and dynamics of a cut-throat industry - marketing in this instance - stronger than Bliss does. Nevertheless, it was really entertaining to read about the recording industry especially when the story is of success, competition, music. If you are headed to the beach before the summer is over, or have a sweet life like Eva Glenn and will be traveling to an exotic island, take Bliss with you and marvel at how, maybe one day, your life can be like that too.

Previously: Part 1, 2, 3

- C. Max Magee @ 9:23 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Advice for small bookstores

Derek Dahlsad has never owned a bookstore and does not have "significant bookselling experience," but he has, nonetheless, put together some very compelling thoughts on how to make small bookstores more successful. In his article at The New Publisher's Journal, he lays out several ideas, some of which are very good ("3. Magazines are impulse buys; do not devote floorspace to a 'magazine area.'" and "7. Store hours can be from 2pm - 11pm."). It's a worthwhile read for anyone considering getting into the bookselling business or if you're just wondering what might keep all those little bookstores from going under.

- C. Max Magee @ 9:13 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

The beauty of British book design

If you've ever been to a bookshop in the UK (or to one of the few bookstores in the States that imports British books), you've probably noticed that the books on the shelves look stunning compared to their Yankee counterparts. At the bookstore where I worked in LA, I encountered authors who hated their American book covers but adored the British ones. Why the discrepancy? I don't know; I suspect it has to do with the fact that books are marketed by entertainment companies as "entertainment products" here in the US, while elsewhere, books are treated simply as books. To illuminate the differences in book design, I've placed some American books (on the left) side by side with their British versions (on the right). (click on the images to enlarge).

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt

The American cover looks like an ad for insurance, while the British version is more vivid and features nifty pixel art.

Until I Find You by John Irving

The American version is flat and looks like a promotion for the "John Irving brand," while the British version is slick and sexy.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

US version: as dull as a textbook. UK Version: so groovy, you want to dive right in.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

The US versions of Zadie Smith's books look nice, but they are quite pale compared to their British counterparts.

Slow Man by J. M. Coetzee

This time the US version gets the better of the British one with mysteriously iconic silhouette of the broken bicycle.

If you are interested in book design have a look at my long ago post about superstar book designer Chip Kidd, and you'll also enjoy the book design blog Forward.

- C. Max Magee @ 8:39 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

A reading journal continued by Emre Peker (Part 3)

Looking for a Ship by John McPhee pulled me straight out of the vertigo that was The Corrections. After I read the review on The Millions, read how journalists interviewed in The New New Journalism discussed McPhee, and found a cheap used copy on Amazon, Looking for a Ship made it to the top of my reading list. I started the book on my way down to a wedding in Virginia and finished it on the way back. Looking for a Ship struck me as a very nostalgic piece, with romantic characters, and a simple, fluid style. For all Maqroll fans out there, Looking for a Ship is a good insight to the way of the sea, as well as the tradition that is the U.S. Merchant Marines. John McPhee discusses the decline of the U.S. Merchant Marine, the shifty economics of commercial shipping, and the hazards and wonders of Latin American ports with a journalist's matter-of-fact clarity and through the delicate eyes of an aging crew. The personal stories are heartwarming and interesting: sometimes they reflect on a sailor's love for the sea, at other times on his contempt and wish to be land-bound; they scrape off all romantic ideas of working on a ship and demonstrate the hard tasks - 145 degree engine rooms, being the lookout from 4AM to 8AM, working 16 to 20 hour days, union laws restricting time of employment and the difficulty of finding a ship once allowed to work again, and pirates to state a few; and still it provides hope for the aspiring sailors with stories of finding the route using the constellations when the ship's power fails - hence annulling the compass and the radar - or of one of the captains not trusting the tug boats, hence docking the ship himself at the risk of great cost and insurance liability if something were to go wrong. Looking for a Ship is one of the books I wished did not end.

In the meantime, I also picked up the Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl which includes stories from Kiss, Kiss, Over to You, Switch Bitch, Someone Like You, and Eight Further Tales of the Unexpected. It was quite entertaining reading the discussions about Harry Potter and the possibility of J.K. Rowling writing adult stories on The Millions the other day. Though I am a Harry Potter fan and will make no excuses about it I have no ideas of how Rowling would do with adult novels, but Roald Dahl surely succeeded in both genres. I remember reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I was quite young, but of course, the name of the author never struck with me. So, after reading a couple of stories at random from the Collected Stories, I read Dahl's biography to my amazement and shock. I have yet to finish the collection, yet I already have my favorites: "The Visitor" and "Bitch" (the Uncle Oswald Stories, oh how I wish all 24 Volumes of Oswald were published), "Madame Rosette," "Death of an Old Man," "Vengeance is Mine Inc.," and "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life." I feel that my selections are bound to change as I read on, but for the time being I would strongly suggest keeping a copy by your bed and reading a story each night, starting with the above.

See also: Part 1, 2, 3, 4

- C. Max Magee @ 12:13 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Booker longlist is here

As many other book bloggers have noted, the illustrious Man Booker Prize longlist was announced today:

The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw
The Sea by John Banville
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
Slow Man by JM Coetzee
In the Fold by Rachel Cusk
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
All For Love by Dan Jacobson
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
Saturday by Ian McEwan
The People's Act of Love by James Meek
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie
The Accidental by Ali Smith
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson
This is the Country by William Wall

With four previous winners in the running, the longlist is being hailed as one of the best ever, and it looks like the story this year will be if any of the newcomers can surpass the bigger names. My early pick is the Ishiguro, but we'll see who the degenerate gamblers favor.

As an aside, can I just say that the longlist/shortlist thing that the Brits do is the best way to run a literary prize. The longlist provides plenty of fodder for discussion as well as some insight into the judges' thinking. The controversy that surrounded last years National Book Award finalists would have been much dampened if that short list had been preceded by a longlist.

See also: For complete Booker longlist coverage, visit the Literary Saloon.

- C. Max Magee @ 8:12 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

A reading journal continued by Emre Peker (Part 2)

In the meantime I received William Boynton's The New New Journalism from my old roommate Ayse and started reading it. Boynton's carefully structured questions provide for a similar flow for each author he interviews, thus highlighting the differences in style, discipline, and inspiration in each author. The New New Journalism is a great look into the minds of some amazing authors of our time, providing interesting information as to how they pick their topics, as well as quirky information about how they go about getting their work done. Another great side of Boynton's book is that it ties the New Journalists of Tom Wolfe to today, and provides a great reading list. I already added Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Coyotes by Ted Conover, There are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz and American Ground by William Langewiesche to my already long reading list. Another advantage is that you can pick up the book and read about any author included for a brief period and then rest the book a little.

I wanted to take a break from The New New Journalism and turned to The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, which had been sitting on my shelf since my birthday. Nancy, who presented me with the novel, was upset that the hard cover edition she bought had an unremoveable Oprah's Book Club sticker on it, which I promised to cover with an It was in Nancy's Book Club First sticker, but I did not get around to that yet. Regardless, The Corrections blew my mind. The main reasons I wanted to read the novel were the discussions on The Millions and the fact that almost everyone I know in my age group had laid hands on it fairly recently. So, I turned to it on a hot sticky New York evening, cranked my AC and sat in my room all night reading. The next day was a Friday, and I was so stuck to the story that all I could do at work was sit at my desk and keep reading, pretty much non-stop, until I finished the novel on Sunday night. At about 4 AM on Monday morning, I emailed my boss and let her know that I would not be able to attend work because of the severe depression that The Corrections caused in me. Here is why: I loved the novel and Franzen's style, and although Enid comes across as a very stereotypical bickering mother, and Alfred's dementia - with it's stark contrast to his past - is a common disease in our times, and Chip is readily accessible, lovable, and charismatic, and Denise is righteously immoral in her actions, and Gary is a self-pitying bastard, and that every piece of the story seems banal when looked at from this perspective, the mere reality of The Corrections moved me deeply. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Franzen organized the book and related the individual stories of each character, and how, that, in the very end, reaches a lukewarm resolve. Finishing The Corrections I felt as if I should be happy about the outcome, but the price that was paid, the thought that this story could take place in my life, and that some of the characters - though maybe through different relations - might exist around me caused an inexplicable sadness. All the sobbing aside, I discovered soon upon finishing The Corrections that discussing the cast of a probable Hollywood movie based on the novel makes for a great conversation. I remember reading with great interest when the discussion took place on The Millions and at this point the only person I can contribute to the fray is Sam Rockwell as Chip. That said, The Corrections is probably better off left alone by Hollywood, and a wonderful read for all those who want to glimpse into a bit of Americana, as well as a bit of themselves.

See also: Part 1, 2, 3, 4

- C. Max Magee @ 7:15 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Literary podcasts

I don't have an iPod or any other digital audio device, so the recent craze for podcasts has somewhat passed me by - though I occasionally will listen to one on my PC. I have, however, noticed the recent emergence of literary podcasts. Here are a few I've noticed so far.

• Bookworm: Michael Silverblatt and his one-of-a-kind interviews with authors. From LA's KCRW.
• The SF Chronicle has started producing the occasional book-themed podcast.
• Nextbook, the Jewish literary mag has started including podcasts with many of their features, including Shalom Auslander's recent piece on Leonard Michaels.
• The incomparable Ed Champion is the man behind the Bat Segundo show, which features Jorge, Bat Segundo and a "young, roving correspondent." In the midst of gleeful wackiness, Ed has landed interviews with the likes of David Mitchell and Jonathan Ames.
• And though they aren't really literary podcasts, I have to say that I'm very intrigued by Slate's unauthorized audio tours of museums.
• KCRW's Overbooked: "David Kipen, literary critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and NPR's Day to Day, talks about books and bookishness." (thanks, B Thomas)
• Pinky's Paperhaus: Podcasting writers who rock - including Steve Almond, Meghan Daum and Neal Pollack
• wierd deer
• The Writing Show
• LibriVox
• Word Nerds (via Tingle)
• The Public Domain Podcast (Thanks, Eileen)
• Mr. Ron's Basement (Thanks, Eileen)
• NPR: Books (Podcast feed lives at the top of the list here)
• Average Mortal Radio (thanks, Adrienne)
• New:The Penguin Podcast (via Boing Boing)

Know of any other literary podcasts? Leave a comment and I'll add them to the list.

Update: Check out Ed's very thorough list of literary podcasts.

- C. Max Magee @ 9:22 PM ~ comments: 2 ~ Links to this post

 

What people are reading

Looking at what people are reading while they ride to work on the train is an odd hobby, but I've been doing it for several months now and I can't seem to stop myself. In fact, it's become all the more fascinating now that I've noticed some patterns emerging. Here's what I observed during my travels between the North Side and the Loop on Friday:

Reading for school: This is the broad category that includes everyone from high schoolers reading Shakespeare to the upper echelons of post-graduate academia. Since school's out, you mostly just see the post-grad end of the spectrum at this time of year. Friday's sighting: Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development: The Kansas City Experience, 1900-2000 by Kevin Fox Gotham

Consumers of popular non-fiction: This may be the largest group of readers on the train. Perhaps fiction is too light (or too heavy) for the commute, and these nine-to-fivers require something concrete, yet engaging, to bookend their working day. Friday's sighting: Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich; Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer; Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle

Reading for fun: These people, on the other hand, require a diversion on their way to and from work, something boldly written and fast-paced to inject a little excitement into the weekday. Spotted on Friday: The Broker by John Grisham; Harry Potter #4 and #6 (Potter - and not just #6 - is nothing short of ubiquitous on the train these days)

The readers: These are the people I envy. I like to imagine that they're not on their way to or from work but that they ride the rails, like modern day hobos, all day long, enjoying the gently swaying carriage with their noses buried in books. Spotted on Friday: Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence.

- C. Max Magee @ 6:15 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

A reading journal continued by Emre Peker (Part 1)

[Ed. Note: Emre is back with another multi-part reading journal. Here's the first installment. Enjoy.]

Hello everyone, it has been a long time since I sent a post, but I go in spurts, so here it is. When I last left off, I had just finished reading Walker Percy's The Moviegoer, after which I was thirsty for a piece of non-fiction. What better, then, to turn to Ryzsard Kapuscinski's The Soccer War, which I had knowingly put off in an effort to not finish all his works at once. Upon reading The Soccer War, I understood better why Cem Ozturk, ambassador to Japan, refused to lend me his copy. The Soccer War is Kapuscinski's most romantic work, especially with regards to the unbelievable stories he narrates and the naked truth and language with which it is related to the reader. The straightforward and brief history of the actual Soccer War is so interesting that I ended up going online and researching the event further out of sheer curiosity. Despite the title, Kapuscinski's main focus is, again, Africa, but he also touches on life in Poland and there is a brief chapter on Cyprus after the Turkish invasion. The stories are, as usual, very humane and Kapuscinski's tone and approach to his subjects is awe inspiring. I got the usual urge to go forth with the rest of Kapuscinski's works, but am - probably for the last time - putting that urge aside for later pleasures.

Next I turned to Karen Heuler's Journey to Bom Goody. Forbes, the main character, is an ordinary man living in peace and harmony until one day he loses his family. As a result, he takes on a project long contemplated but never dared. When the reader meets Forbes, he is already in Latin America, traveling up the Amazon River to perform his tests. Forbes, however, is an aspiring scientist who lacks the training, and therefore makes rather ignorant and arrogant moves in the name of bold experimenting. Switching to a guide, Ping, who believes to be the love child of his mother and a dolphin and does not speak a word of English, is the first big move Forbes makes. Along the way, Forbes loses his guide and meets a white woman, supposedly doing medicinal research. While the Tina abhors the chummy, helpless white man, Forbes is both loving, and contemptuous of Tina for being comfortable and fluent in such foreign lands. One day, Forbes realizes that his experiments have long been out of control and starts observing the outcomes which weave together him, Tina, local tribes, Ping and the Amazons. Journey to Bom Goody takes a rather trite idea (what if Latin American natives examined us, instead of the opposite) and creates an interesting story around it. The novel is a mix of ordinary characters in unusual circumstances, usual ego wars in unlikely settings, and fresh viewpoints of the society that we live in.

See also: Part 2, 3, 4

- C. Max Magee @ 8:18 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

More links: numbers, Quills, Potter's defeat, Godzilla

Great posts over at Sarah's blog and at M.J. Rose's about where books sell the most copies (think Wal Mart) and why Amazon rankings don't mean much in the way of book sales. (via Tingle Alley)

They've announced the nominees for the Quills Awards - an attempt to build a book-focused version of the typical, bloated TV awards show. The nominees seem to be stale mix of award-winners and nominees (NBA, Pulitzer, etc.) from the last 18 months and middlebrow bestsellers that aren't particularily literary, but aren't outright trash either. Will anybody watch this? I mean, I like books, but yawn.

For the last two weeks, Harry Potter #6 has "been the top-seller in every single one of The Book Standard's 99 local-area charts. But this week, a glimmer of hope appeared for other authors, as The Book Standard charts registered a change - one single change." How a "conservative talk-radio personality" unseated Harry Potter in the Bristol-Kingsport-Johnson City, Tennessee, area.

Godzilla pauses for a moment before his rampage. Click it. It's funny.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:01 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Brando's pirate tale

"Under a black cloud, the prison. And within the prison, a bright rebel. The walls were extremely high, and although this was not possible, they appeared to lean inward yet also to bulge outward, and they were topped with a luminous frosting of broken glass." This, of course, is an excerpt from Marlon Brando's posthumous (and swash-buckling) novel Fan-Tan. If you really want to get into it, the rest of the excerpt is here, mateys.

Previously: Ask a Book Question: The 29th in a Series (I Coulda Been a Contendah)

- C. Max Magee @ 10:47 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

A Hundred and One Days: a review by Andrew Saikali

In January 2003, Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad arrived in Baghdad on a 10-day visa. With arrangements in place with various Scandinavian print and television media, the freelancer joined the growing ranks of international press who wanted to witness the changes that were in the air. Well, ten days grew to twenty and eventually to a-hundred-and-one. When she finally left, in April 2003, one type of hell had been replaced by another.

Out of all this comes A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal - a powerful bit of reportage that chronicles not only the thuggish brutality of Saddam's regime and the heart-wrenching civilian "casualties of war" caused by the chaotic "Shock and Awe" invasion, but also a gripping behind-the-scenes account of war-journalism which at times plays out like a thriller.

When she first arrives, its still Saddam's show. We see Seierstad working her way through the red tape of the Iraqi Ministry of Information. It seems so much like Soviet-style media control that at times I feel like I'm reading an account of a Western journalist in Cold-War era Moscow. When Seierstad eventually gets the chance to meet people in Baghdad it's always with an official "minder" and the answers she gets are almost always stock answers. These people are afraid. Saddam had instituted a form of domestic terrorism, putting fear into the lives of Iraqis. Even the odd time that Seierstad escaped the watchful eye of her "minder," responses from some citizens showed just how Saddam's cult of personality had indoctrinated them. Saddam was everywhere. Posters, statues, all art glorified this megalomaniac. Seierstad also chronicles the poverty under his regime. The wars with Iran and Kuwait, the first Gulf War, and the ensuing Western sanctions had crippled the country.

But it was early 2003 and something was in the air. Whatever line the Ministry of Information was giving, everyone knew the US invasion was imminent. The closer they got, the more Saddam's regime lost its grip. The reins of government slackened and when Seierstad sneaks out to interview people, they begin to speak a bit more freely, more candidly. Feelings were mixed. The US invasion, just days away, was alternately feared and anticipated, often in the same breath. The common thread through most of the civilian responses was "Well the US is coming, let them sweep Saddam and his regime away and then leave, immediately". Given the hell they'd been living through, no one could be surprised by this kind of resigned-optimism. And given the nature of war, no one can really be surprised that this optimism was shattered.

Seierstad's eye for detail is remarkable. At one point, on the eve of the invasion, she goes to an open-air book market. At that point, it had been a dozen years since the last scientific periodical was available in Iraq, but the Iraqis' thirst for knowledge was unquenchable. There was a boy looking for a book about cloning, and a man seeking any book he could find about structuralism. Another was searching for Sartre. The insatiable quest for scientific knowledge and artistic enlightenment, especially through periods of brutality and oppression, has always been, to me, humanity's saving grace.

Seierstad also shows how the "human shield," that collection of activists who flocked to Baghdad to physically oppose the US invasion, wound up becoming a tool of the Iraqi regime. While the Shield-ers wanted to protect hospitals and orphanages, the Iraqi government instead used them, co-opted them, by placing them in front of Iraqi infrastructure. They became pawns.

Free of the lures and pressures of being an embedded journalist, and providing a clear-headed Scandinavian reasonableness to a chaotic situation, Seierstad's account is unique. And as a Western woman trying to maneuver independently in a Middle Eastern country, even one which is admittedly more tyrannical than fundamentalist, Seierstad's compelling tale becomes a worthy addition to modern reportage.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:31 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Some links

"i need more sprawling post-modern novels NOW!" is the plea at Ask MetaFilter.

Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has thousands of images from their collection online. It's just like being in the dusty stacks.

I've been enjoying emdashes lately. It's a blog about my favorite magazine.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:29 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Ask a Book Question: The 41st in a Series (Inflating print runs)

Laurie noticed that she sometimes sees two different print numbers for the same book and wrote in with this question:

How do you find out how many copies are being printed of a new book? Is there a single website that lists this? I've only occasionally seen the number printed in a first run, sometimes at Amazon, sometimes other sites.

Unfortunately, publishers don't publish that info regularly. You'll see it sometimes in the publishers' catalogs, and Kirkus or PW will sometimes have it in their pre-pub reviews, to illustrate to book buyers if a book is going to be really big... but it's well-known in the industry that these numbers aren't always accurate. For example, a publisher may say that the initial print run of a book is 50,000 when, in actuality, it's much less. They cite the big number in order to generate some hype around the book, though since everyone does it, it's not terribly useful. Sara Nelson, the editor in chief of PW recently addressed this issue. The article isn't available online, but I've excerpted it below. She starts out by saying that Scholastic's enormous print run for the new Harry Potter (10.8 million) is important both because of its size and because it is accurate:

The fact that Scholastic's number is a real one is interesting to the because it suggests that publishing ways are changing a bit. It used to be that the routine inflation of first-printing figures was one of the only ways a publisher could signal enthusiasm to booksellers and the press. "We really, really like this book," a first printing announcement of 100,000 would say. "We have high hopes for it." Never mind that the "real" first printing was probably closer to 20,000; we all nudge-nudged and wink-winked and hoped that the buzz would inspire retailers and consumers to pay more attention. Maybe the publisher would eventually print and sell that 100,000--and if not, at least they weren't going to be left with 80,000 returns.

But with a book like a Harry Potter, you don't have to do that wishful-thinking kind of promotion: the marketplace (and, to some extent, the story-hungry press that begins tracking a big book like this months in advance) has already done it for you. You don't have to tap-dance, you don't have to inflate, you don't have to fudge the numbers.

With smaller books, of course, publishers still do a fair amount of fibbing--and they continue to do so even though they know that nobody--except, sometimes, the naive first-time author--believes them. That darling, brilliant, moving debut novel you're going to love supposedly shipped 50,000? Get real: everybody knows it was probably closer to 15,000.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:37 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Auslander on Michaels

Shalom Auslander (Beware of God) pens a personal piece about his relationship with Leonard Michael's book I Would Have Saved Them If I Could for nextbook: "For Michaels, even happy endings aren't happy. Joy makes you vulnerable. Bad is bad, but good might be worse."

And, while were on the subject of Michaels, I hope his books end up back in print sooner rather than later.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:39 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Summer hours

As late summer sets in, I find myself lazy, distracted. Like the stockbrokers and lawmakers who spend August relaxing or taking their "recess," I, too, will be taking it easy. Expect posting to be lighter than usual in the coming weeks, and try to take things slow, if you can.

- C. Max Magee @ 8:49 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post