You've got to spend money to make money

What happens when people with a lot of money want to get their hands on a book that they think will make them more money, but that book is out of print and hard to find? That book gets very expensive.

A BusinessWeek article profiles Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor by hedge fund manager Seth Klarman. The book was largely ignored when it was first published in 1991, but it Klarman's ideas have come back into vogue and suddenly everyone on Wall Street wants to read the book, but copies are almost impossible to come by. As a result, the cheapest copy of the book on Amazon (as of this writing) is going for $1750. Not a bad investment if you bought the book when it first came out. (via)

- C. Max Magee @ 6:36 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Serendipitous

I thoroughly enjoyed Pinky's recollection of meeting Rupert Pole, Anais Nin's husband and caretaker, while canvassing door to door in Los Angeles 16 years ago.

- C. Max Magee @ 6:33 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

No More Books in School

Several schools will be getting rid of books. It's not as bad as it sounds though. Pearson a company that publishes educational materials (and owns Penguin, incidentally) has been promoting a plan to replace textbooks with digital materials. The company was able to convince California to try it out, disclosing "on Monday with its half-year results that about half the state's elementary school students will learn about the American Revolutionary War and Thomas Jefferson using an interactive computer program," according to Reuters. Pearson is hoping to expand the program to more states and more subjects.

It's an interesting idea. On the one hand, computer programs probably have the ability to provide a very rich learning experience, especially when compared to some of the unimaginative textbooks that kids are subjected to. It is also probably cheaper than providing textbooks. On the other hand, I have to wonder what might happen if books were eliminated from the learning process. What will kids think of books when it is no longer necessary to carry them around all day. I suspect that books would come to be regarded as even more archaic than they are today. Thoughts?

- C. Max Magee @ 6:20 PM ~ comments: 1 ~ Links to this post

 

Brick Lane sparks a dispute

A row (as they say over there) has erupted over the filming of a movie based on Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane, spurring protests and threats of a book burning. The anger has arisen from the portrayal of Bangladeshis in the book. So far a number of notable authors have come out in support of Ali, including Salman Rushdie, Hari Kunzru and Lisa Appignanesi, as discussed in the Guardian. Now a few weeks old, the dispute is sparking secondary disputes amongst the British literati, who are taking sides. The Independent goes into detail about how "Rushdie has launched an outspoken attack on fellow literary heavyweight Germaine Greer."

- C. Max Magee @ 5:57 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Querying the New Yorker

If you're a New Yorker obsessive like I am, then you'll love the new feature at Emdashes. Emily has lined up a pair of librarians who work at the New Yorker to answer questions about the magazine, and as one might expect, they are very thorough in their responses. The first installment covers A.J. Liebling's start at the magazine, spot illustrations, typewriters, Calvin Trillin's food writing, movie reviews, and fact-checking cartoons. There will be more installments to come, so send in your questions.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:38 AM ~ comments: 1 ~ Links to this post

 

The Mockingbird Roundup

In the Washington Post, Meghan O'Rourke reviews one of the more talked about literary biographies in recent memory, Mockingbird by Charles Shields. In fact, I'm surprised that it took so long for the first serious biography of Harper Lee to emerge, since she is a figure that has long inspired curiosity among readers. One of the big questions the biography tries to answer is why she has never written another novel. The Post characterizes Shields' conclusion thusly:

Shields makes a convincing case that Lee, a standoffish, stubborn woman invested in precision, became too "overwhelmed" by the success of her first novel to finish any of her subsequent efforts... For Lee, he observes, writing was always about capturing the everyday nuances of Southern small-town life she knew so well -- and, in her own way, loved; when she became famous, her relationship to that world was permanently altered.

That certainly rings true to me.

The biography has also prompted critics to revisit To Kill a Mockingbird, as Thomas Mallon did in the New Yorker back in May. He took the opportunity to present a somewhat contrarian view of Mockingbird, essentially calling the widely read novel over-rated.

In the New York Times Garrison Keillor used his review to celebrate Lee and to pardon her sin of not giving us more books to read.

Ahead of her is a deluge of success, a potful of money and some sort of vindication in the eyes of Monroeville. Truman will disintegrate and die at 59 and she will persist. The lady looks around at a room full of books, closes the door, and drives off with her sister to an early supper at Dave's Catfish Cabin, a plate of fish and hush puppies and a glass of tea. Everybody at Dave's knows who she is and nobody asks her made-up questions about writing or fame or how she explains the long run her novel has enjoyed. She is apparently in good humor and enjoying her food and not planning to go on Oprah or Charlie Rose. And so there, dear reader, you will just have to leave her.

Though she has been labelled a one-hit wonder, Shields' biography, and the discussion it has prompted, prove that she has inspired much more fascination than that label would imply.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:58 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Will Apple get into eBooks?

Today, the Publishers Lunch newsletter pointed to a post at Engadget indicating that Apple might make eBooks available through its iTunes Music Store.

How would this work? Well, it wouldn't work on current iPods, but speculation is rampant that the next generation of iPods, likely out in time for the holiday season, will have a much larger screen, one that takes up the entire face of the device. (There's a mocked-up image of what it might look like in the post linked above.) When turned horizontally, the iPod would allow for a screen four inches wide and almost two and a half inches high, not a lot of real estate, but then again, people watch movies on video iPod screens even smaller than that. Some further details:

A separate trusted source let us know that the next iPod will have a substantial amount of screen real estate (as we'd all suspected), as well as a book reading mode that pumps up the contrast and drops into monochrome for easy reading. It's no e-ink, sure, but a widescreen iPod would be well suited for the purpose, and according to our source, the books you'd buy (presumably through iTunes) won't have an expiration -- kind of like Apple-bought music

Now, I know from previous posts on the topic of eBooks, that this news will likely make many readers of The Millions say that they will never read books this way and that they would miss the look and feel that books offer, but I'm curious as to whether this effort would take off amongst the less-discerning broader public.

What interests me in particular is that this offering would differ from previous eBooks that I've talked about. In earlier posts (here, here, and here) about various incarnations of eBooks, I've talked about how useful they might be for textbooks and technical books but also how challenging it might be to get customers to embrace them.

The iPod, however, as it has in other realms, would change the rules. Some thoughts (sorry, but I'm thinking in bullet points today):

• By offering books through iTunes, publishers would suddenly be able to put their books in front of young readers who perhaps never go to book stores
• The marriage of the book and the iPod would launch old-fashioned books into the twenty-first century. The iPod association would up the cool-factor for books big time.
• One of the problems with eBooks is that nobody owns the devices to read them. Obviously that would no longer be an issue.
• Apple already has a distribution system in place, iTunes, that lots of folks are already comfortable using.

Anyway, I'd love to hear thoughts anyone might have on this. I don't own an iPod and probably won't get one any time soon, nor can I imagine myself ever being a serious consumer of ebooks, but I still think it would be cool to see kids (and adults) walking around reading books on their iPods. Actually, maybe I will get an iPod after all.

- C. Max Magee @ 6:22 PM ~ comments: 8 ~ Links to this post

 

Quick Links

• The LBC gets name-dropped by the Inside Google Book Search blog.
• After a too-long hiatus, Tingle Alley is back. Rejoice!
• The seamy underbelly of the celebrity cookbook industry.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:54 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Web site home to New Yorker rejects

The Village Voice has a profile of a Web site called Silence of the City, where stories rejected from the The New Yorker's Talk of the Town section are posted by Mac Montandon, whose own work has been rejected by the section more than once. There's only seven pieces posted right now, but its a fun idea. Among them is an article by Lisa Selin Davis (whose novel Belly I read a while back). Of another NYer reject, M.M. De Voe, the Voice writes that she "finds the experience of submitting her stories to The New Yorker oddly exhilarating in itself. Perhaps it's like that feeling you get when you buy a lottery ticket." I wonder if how many notable folks have been rejected by the NYer. I'd guess quite a few.

(via)

- C. Max Magee @ 5:44 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

LBC Picks a New Book

But you have to go to the site to find out what it is. (I loved this book, by the way.)

- C. Max Magee @ 5:54 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Barracks Reading by Emre Peker Part 3

In the meantime, I also started re-reading Catch-22, probably one of my all time favorites. I made plenty of references to Catch-22 in connection with William Boyd's An Ice Cream War and probably some other novels I read over the course of the last two years. Nevertheless, re-reading Catch-22 was a feast precisely because of all the literary horizons this modest novel created. Never a bestseller, Catch-22 became a cult classic and sold millions despite staying under the radar. Its influence on other writers is, I believe, huge. Aside from Yossarian being my obvious favorite for fearing that everyone, from his own commanders to the German anti-aircraft gunners, are conspiring to kill him, I mostly enjoy Milo Minderbinder's stories. Milo is a good-hearted capitalist who contracts the Germans for the Syndicate he has formed, and no one can oppose him in that - or in bombing his own squadron for a hefty sum paid by the Germans - because everyone has a share in the Syndicate, and "what is good for M & M Enterprises [i.e. the Syndicate] is good for you." Simply brilliant. The tragic story of Major Major Major Major, who became a Major in the squadron strictly due to an IBM deficiency and whose name - Major Major Major - ruined his life at every turn, is a major influence in my father's efforts to name me savci (prosecutor) in Turkish. As some of you might remember, my father hoped that with such a name I could avoid any and all run-ins with the law by declaring my name, which in that case would go "I am Prosecutor Peker!" Luckily, my mother rejected the idea, but in essence that is Major Major Major Major's story. Aarfy with his calm pipe smoking in the plane while flak explodes all around them, Orr with his mastery in crashing planes, Appleby with the flies in his eyes, Nately with his psychotic lover whore, General Peckem with his hate for General Dreedle, Dreedle's hate towards his son-in-law, his son-in-law's affection towards Dreedle's nurse, Colonel Cathcart with his insecurities, Colonel Korn with his tendency to manipulate Colonel Cathcart, Sheisskopf with his love of marches, and many more. There are too many insider jokes and brilliant moments in Catch-22 to write a decent review of the novel. I just believe, like I only do with The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, that everyone should absolutely read this novel and cherish its wonderful moments of hilarity and sad reflections on humanity.

By the time I finished Catch-22 I was already back in Turkey for the summer. I am now done with my paralegal job and await the beginning of school in the fall. Nevertheless, next I picked up Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey edited by Anastasia A. Ashman and Jennifer Eaton Gokmen. I have been meaning to read this collection of essays by expatriate women in Turkey for a long time now. I remember coming to Turkey over a year ago and reading reviews of The Expat Harem in local papers and thinking that it could be very interesting. Right before coming back to Istanbul a month and a half ago I saw my Turkish roommate Uzay's Minnesotan girlfriend Annastacia reading the book and assumed that she picked it out of my library. Wrong! She'd actually bought it and told me that she enjoyed it a lot. I've always viewed Annastacia as a potential candidate for the expat society of Turkey, so her reading the book egged me on and I picked it up. The collection is organized in nine parts, which are unique to Turkey and include various customs that foreign women find especially strange, unique, pleasant or repelling. I started reading the stories at random, there are twenty-nine of them, and realized that each one identifies a unique quality of life in Turkey. Seen through the eyes of an expat who chose to live in Turkey adds a different color to the customs and qualities that I already knew. To a Turkish person the stories are very revealing, flattering and intriguing. It is, after all, very refreshing to see commonalities in society through a different pair of eyes. I imagine that any foreign person reading The Expat Harem would find the stories equally revealing, informative and interesting. Each author employs a fresh style and tone, the stories are fluid and the collection is organized very neatly by Ashman and Gokmen, which creates an excellent journey through the quirky experiences of expats, all women in this case, in Turkey. If you are planning a visit to Turkey I urge you to pick up The Expat Harem to get a solid idea about the country's culture. If not, I believe you would still enjoy the collection for its down to earth tone, accessibility and humane moments.

See also: Part 1, 2

- C. Max Magee @ 5:34 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Weekend Links

• Bat Segundo bags his biggest fish yet: John Updike
• On their blog, the Freakonomics guys are looking for poker players to help them with an experiment, but the bigger news is that the post reveals a sequel to the bestseller is in the works.
• Part one of a interview with book designer Paul Buckley of Penguin Book Group - includes lots of examples of his work.
• John Batelle doesn't mind that pirated copies of his book The Search are being sold on the streets of Mumbai.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:43 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Another opportunity for writers

Last week I posted about the Gather.com contest to get into Amazon Shorts, and yesterday I got a note about another opportunity for writers that sounds interesting. This one is from the very cool online literary magazine Narrative:

For any of you who may have overlooked the Editors' Note in our most recent issue, we're writing to let you know that we are looking for short short stories. In conjunction with Robert Shapard and James Thomas, who edit the popular anthologies Sudden Fiction and Flash Fiction, we're planning a feature in Narrative to coincide with the publication of New Sudden Fiction, which will be forthcoming from Norton in January 2007. Our feature will present a collection of short short stories by both well-known and newer writers, and we're inviting submissions of stories that run between seven hundred and fifty and two thousand words, or no less than three and no more than five pages in manuscript length.

Concurrently, Narrative is also seeking book-length manuscripts for serialization in the magazine. The details are available on their Submission Guidelines page (You'll need to register before you can see this page).

There's also a catch - isn't there always? - Narrative charges a reading fee: $5 for the short shorts and $30 for book-length works. Not being particularly well-versed in the world of literary magazines, I don't know how prevalent such fees are (feel free to enlighten me on this one), but for what it's worth, my understanding is that Narrative uses such fees to pay contributors, fund a prize, and make the magazine free for all.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:23 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

New Pete Dexter Book

I was poking around Amazon today and I came across a listing for a new book by Pete Dexter called Paper Trails: True Stories of Confusion, Mindless Violence, and Forbidden Desires, a Surprising Number of Which Are Not About Marriage. I'm a fan of Dexter's (see my review of Train, my review of Brotherly Love, and my review of Paris Trout), so I'm excited to see he's got a new book, but what has me especially thrilled is that, if the subtitle is to be believed, the book is non-fiction. I had the chance to attend one of Dexter's signings once, and he rattled off story after story, many of them from his days as an old newspaper guy in Philadelphia; it was definitely one of the most entertaining readings I've ever been to. This new book is being put out by Ecco. If anyone knows anything else about the book (or can get me a copy), let me know.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:06 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Barracks Reading by Emre Peker Part 2

After my brief service was completed I spent a week in Istanbul and returned to New York. In the meanwhile I picked up a collection of Yasar Kemal's short stories, Sari Sicak, Teneke ve Diger Hikayeler (Yellow Heat, Tin Can and Other Stories) from my parents'’ library. I was in between cities and about to quit my job, hence a collection proved perfect for the time. Kemal has a very distinct style that reflects an Anatolian tone and includes long depictions of nature and rural life and lengthy character analyses. The collection included some of his most famous pieces such as "Sari Sicak" ("Yellow Heat") and "Teneke" ("Tin Can"), which, as do most of the other stories, reflect on the difficulties of rural life in the southern towns and regions surrounding Adana, a city now known for its cotton farmers and back then for its rice plantations. The backwards methods of planting rice resulted in swamps and an increase in the number of mosquitoes, and therefore malaria. Kemal reflects on the ill approach of the government towards the rural population and the generous benefits it granted to landlords, who, without the slightest regard to the peasants, flooded villages, planted rice, created swamps and did not even wince at the death of hundreds of men, women and children due to malaria. Reading Kemal's stories, the reader easily identifies with the daily troubles of the villagers that believe in a just government and seek help, all to their dismay. Depictions of corrupt and impossible situations reach a new zenith in Kemal's stories, and, hold true even today - despite the changes in setting. Books by Yasar Kemal.

Upon arriving in New York, I received four great books as birthday presents. Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange from Sylvia and Noam Chomsky's Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky and The Best American Magazine Writing 2005 compiled by the American Society of Magazine Editors and published by The Columbia University Press from Selin and Siddhesh. I immediately started reading The Best American Magazine Writing 2005. I am currently reading stories at random and so far I read four out of the seventeen pieces in the collection: Seymour M. Hersch's "Torture at Abu Ghraib", Ned Zeman's "The Man Who Loved Grizzlies", Andrew Corsello's "The Wronged Man" and Samantha Power's Dying in Darfur. I am not sure if I agree one hundred percent with Nicholas Lemann's assertion that this specific collection comprises the best pieces of writing to come out of the U.S. in 2005, but nevertheless the stories are incredibly well written, insightful and fresh. I enjoyed the ones I read thus far and hope that the rest will be just as good.

See also: Part 1, 3

- C. Max Magee @ 6:51 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

The Corey Vilhauer Book of the Month Club: July 2006

Wait a second. No, seriously hold on. Just a few more minutes.

Oh. Sorry. It's you.

I apologize for being late. Well, I only partially apologize. It is to be expected, really, with the Fourth of July striking and the World Cup ending.

Yes. The World Cup. Sorry about my rudeness a little earlier - I've been busy for the past few weeks attempting to will my adopted club (England) to win (they didn't) and commit my arch-enemies (Brazil, Argentina) to lose (they did).

With all of these distractions, both footy-wise and not, it was difficult to get any books read this past month. Yet (you'll be happy to know) I did complete a few. And while the most noteworthy book might have been Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn, I found that my favorite - my book of the month - was Sean Wilsey and Matt Weiland's The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup. By far.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not some crazed soccer fan. Once every four years, I rediscover international soccer - primarily, the World Cup. And every four years, once the tournament is over, I promptly lose the love I had displayed just months before. I always mean to stay in touch once the World Cup is over, but I never do. I don't know enough about European clubs and can't find coverage of United States soccer, so I just lose it all together. But for a month and a half, I'm an expert.

That's what led me to buying The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup.

Wait. What exactly does this "guide" entail? That's easy. It's 32 essays by 32 different writers about the 32 countries that participated in the 2006 World Cup Finals. And of the heavyweights showed up: the essays range from David Eggers' gym teachers (who call soccer a communistic cesspool) to Aleksandar Hemon's unfortunate mix of sex and soccer. Nick Hornby struggles with the choice between club team (London's Arsenal, which employs a vast number of the French national team) and country (England, of course). Does he root for England? Or does he root for his Arsenal players? Sukhdev Sandhu thinks Saudi Arabia's too soft, while William Finnegan laments the loss of Portugal's best surfing spot - thanks to modern culture and, in part, soccer.

But wait - there's more! On top of 32 great essays, Franklin Foer (Jonathan Safran's brother - any regular reader of this column knows of my fascination with the entire family) describes the government most likely to win a World Cup ala his book How Soccer Explains the World. And it's got all the numbers - useful demographic information on each country, past World Cup winners and the records of current World Cup participants, and the likelihood of each team to win. It's great for everyday soccer fans, and invaluable for the every-four-years fan, like myself.

Amazingly, there's a common theme outside of the typical "Go Team Go!" narrative. At the World Cup, everyone, regardless of country, has a chance. Once the ball is kicked off, all teams are on equal footing. No monetary means will secure your team a victory. Rich soccer teams can buy all the talent they want - AC Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea - but only citizenship will get you a World Cup championship. Just the allegiance to your country. And every country can build a team. All you need is a soccer ball and a flat pitch.

It's called the beautiful game because it's the joining of athletics and the pure will to win. Sure, there will be 0-0 ties. But the defensive stops, the fight to get to the goal, the sheer determination that leads to a cross pass that is beautifully set up by some guy that wasn't even there ten seconds before and then kicked into the back of the goal - that's sport.

And that's why this book will continue to be a valuable addition to my library years after France (hopefully) beats Italy (boo!) tomorrow. It's not just a guide to this World Cup, but it's a guide to the desire of winning. The passion of being a fan. The ramifications of a single goal, of a clean sheet, or of a beautiful penalty kick. (Where are you now, David Beckham?) Most of all, it's a beautiful synopsis of the game itself, of its strange gravity and powerful importance.

Because this is more than just a game.

"The joy of being one of the couple of billion people watching thirty-two nations abide by seventeen rules fills me with the conviction, perhaps ignorant, but like many ignorant convictions, fiercely held, that soccer can unite the world."

Corey Vilhauer - Black Marks on Wood Pulp
CVBoMC Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June

- C. Max Magee @ 4:38 PM ~ comments: 1 ~ Links to this post

 

The Big Move

In case you haven't noticed, we have successfully moved. As always the whole experience was rather disconcerting - a several weeks-long build of activity leading into a seriously draining 48 hours, and then, suddenly, it was over.

The move itself involved no major disasters, but couldn't be described as pleasant either. Our first setback occurred when we realized that Penske had rented us a truck with a nail in the tire. Luckily, they sent somebody out to fix it, but we lost a few hours of last-minute packing. Perhaps worse was that the guys I hired to load the truck the next day decided to take their sweet time, so much so that Mrs. Millions and I were forced to jump in and lend a hand. They also ripped the couch.

Everything had to come down the rickety back staircase of our third floor walk-up; not fun. After five hours of heavy lifting, we set off on our 13-hour drive, sore, bruised, and sleep-deprived. Thanks to traffic on the way out of Chicago (the Windy City wouldn't let us go without a fight), we lost some more time and we had to stop for the night rather than drive the whole way through, as we had hoped to do. We we're somewhat constrained since we were traveling with our dog, and we ended up at an Econolodge in Youngstown, Ohio.

Nothing against Youngstown, but I don't think we'll be back any time soon. The motel was situated next to the largest strip club I've ever seen. The place, which would have covered an entire city block, was called "Club 76," named after the highway to which it was adjacent. Our motel was close enough that it could almost be mistaken for an annex of sorts.

The guy manning the motel's front desk was friendly enough, but was regretfully forced to inform us that the only room left had a leaky roof. We took it and kept our fingers crossed, and, thankfully were not awoken by a deluge. Of course, we probably weren't there for more than five hours anyway. The next day we finished up the trip and the truck that it had taken the movers five hours to load was unloaded in half an hour with help from my family. So now we are settled into a temporary home, while we look for a more permanent spot - and hopefully that will be the last time we move for a long while.

- C. Max Magee @ 4:16 PM ~ comments: 1 ~ Links to this post

 

A way in to Amazon Shorts

Gather.com, the folks who put together a chat with Jonathan Safran Foer not too long ago, have announced a new writing contest. Online writing contests are a dime a dozen, but the cool thing about this one is that the four winning short pieces (fiction or non-fiction) will be "published and sold on Amazon Shorts," which would undoubtedly be a terrific venue for any aspiring writer. In fact, it's along the lines of what I hoped Amazon would do with its Shorts program.

- C. Max Magee @ 5:54 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Don't Fear the Pirate

Science fiction author and Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow explains why science fiction writers should be excited that theirs is the "only literature people care enough about to steal on the Internet." Doctorow has made his books freely available on the Internet - while also selling copies through traditional channels - and has been impressed by the results:

I've discovered what many authors have also discovered: releasing electronic texts of books drives sales of the print editions. An SF writer's biggest problem is obscurity, not piracy. Of all the people who chose not to spend their discretionary time and cash on our works today, the great bulk of them did so because they didn't know they existed, not because someone handed them a free e-book version.

The full column is available at Locus Online. For my thoughts on these topics a good place to start is here.

- C. Max Magee @ 5:41 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

More Amazon Wackiness

As anyone who has worked as a bookseller before can attest, book stores seem to attract a disproportionate number of crazies, people with odd obsessions, questionable hygiene, and/or highly developed eccentricities. Some might decry the modern online book store because it does not allow for this unique slice of life, but, as it turns out, even Amazon has its own resident crazies. Check out the reviews by the Amazon.com JFK obsessive. For a quick taste, here's his take on Seven Deadly Wonders, a thriller by Matthew Reilly.

7 Deadly Wonders has America as the Bad Guys and England not even seriously in the race for the Capstone of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. When I read the plot outline I thought the old Gizar is plateauing. On a happier note I had a dream about 4 Year Old Caroline Kennedy describing a crayon drawing to President Jack Kennedy saying "I hope you like me Daddy" The next thing you know I'll be tapped four the Skulls. Well I have always been a Kennedy family loyalist. Thanks to JFK and his clever and beautiful First Lady La Loi Exige. Following your Taft outline of going to Texas Florida Arizona and then back to Texas I am guessing that you are in Texas at a secure bunker Mister Shadow President. As your second in command I would like to join you with my Daughter Julia at that bunker as soon as possible Sir. Thanks to Amazon for allowing freedom of speech like the kind President George W Bush supports.

(via)

- C. Max Magee @ 5:32 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Barracks Reading by Emre Peker Part 1

It has, once again, been a long time since I wrote to The Millions. My hiatus this time around was due to constant travels and lack of time to read. I managed, nevertheless, to read Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment as intended and began David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. I do not dare comment on Crime and Punishment, since it is merely my introduction to Russian literature and so many people and scholars have already done a much better job than I can ever hope to do. Let it suffice that I really enjoyed every word in Crime and Punishment and look forward to continuing my Russian Lit. education through both Dostoevsky - Brothers Karamazov, I think, will be next - and Tolstoy - I have War and Peace in mind, please tell me your suggestions - before I move onto others such as Pushkin and Chekhov - whose The Cherry Orchard and some other plays I have read. Next I picked up Infinite Jest with the naive hope that I could make serious headway into it in one month. I enjoyed the 150 pages that I managed to read in my month-long quest to devour Wallace's little monster. It was, I have to admit, very confusing and I constantly found myself in anticipation of stories that begun and were, in the mere 150 pages I read, not continued. The reason I stopped was not because of my growing frustration with the novel - as happened to a couple of my friends - but because I reported to the army to serve my mandatory military service. Infinite Jest is not quite the light read that I could manage in the barracks after a full day of marching and obeying orders barked at me, therefore I put it on hold. Thus far I have not managed to return to it.

[See Also: Max's thoughts on Crime and Punishment]

While in the army I picked up Turkey's bestseller Su Ciglin Turkler (Those Crazy Turks) by Turgut Ozakman. Ozakman studied both national and private archives related to the Turkish Independence War for over sixty years. About fifteen years ago the premise of his book and most of his research was complete and the novel in progress was turned into a movie script for a four-part TV series. I remember watching the series at a very young age and being very impressed by it. My father had read the newly published Su Ciglin Turkler during my parents' visit to New York in January and left the novel for me to read. I took the novel to the army, where only pre-approved books are allowed into the barracks and subversive writers are banned, and began reading it there. Ozakman's narrative is very simple and fluent. The story sticks to historic facts to the point of making Su Ciglin Turkler more of a history book than a novel. The author avoided writing a history book by narrating the individual lives and adventures of historic characters in fiction. The combination creates a very strong storyline that reflects the historic moments in Turkey's three year long struggle to freedom following World War I and touches a nerve in the reader by relating the greatly humane stories of unheard heroes and heroines. Su Ciglin Turkler makes its readers laugh and cry out loud at certain points, infuses a healthy dose of nationality that makes the reader long for the determination and unity exhibited in the birth of the Turkish Republic - as well as wonder why such stamina and selfless goodwill is missing from the scene today - and provides a great glimpse of the nation's foundations. Unfortunately, as with most Turkish novels I read, with the exception of Orhan Pamuk's novels, Su Ciglin Turkler is only available in Turkish. If you know the language or the novel is ever translated, I strongly recommend it. That was my army novel, and I admit the setting proved perfect.

See also: Part 2, 3

- C. Max Magee @ 8:34 AM ~ comments: 5 ~ Links to this post