Category Archives: books

Bibliopocalypse Bullshit

If you’re a literature lover, you’ve probably grown weary of false prophets proclaiming The End of the Book. It’s easy to shake your head and smirk at the world’s December 21st doomsday preoccupations, but rumors of the publishing apocalypse have bombarded the literary world for a long time now, and such discussions still make us […] Continue reading

Posted in apocalypse, Authors, books, death of the book, Esquire, Life, Literature, National Endowment for the Arts, Stephen Marche, writing | Comments Off on Bibliopocalypse Bullshit

The Reluctant Read

Have you ever read a book you were certain you would despise? Someone forced it on you, for one reason or another—class or a kindly but pushy relative—and every ounce of you resisted. You took the loathsome lump of a novel in your hands and a frown unfolded from every crook in your body. Your […] Continue reading

Posted in Authors, books, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, Life, Literature, Maile Meloy, Montana, New Yorker, Read Drunk; Analyze Sober, reading, Richard Ford | Comments Off on The Reluctant Read

The Power of Imagination Against Oppression

Why do we read literature? No, really, why? Good literature goes beyond entertainment—it reaches down into the core of us and jerks us back into the heart of the world, into the heart of humanity, into the whirling depths of the human soul. That is what we need to remember. Azar Nafisi, author of Reading […] Continue reading

Posted in Authors, Azar Nafisi, books, C.S. Lewis, empathy, imagination, Iran, Life, Literature, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Short story, story | Comments Off on The Power of Imagination Against Oppression

Fresh Meat for Turtles

Koi don’t go for worms, and they’re not suckers for bait, either. People don’t fish koi because they’re bottom feeders—fish who spend their time nibbling algae from green-fuzzed rocks—and the koi wouldn’t be tempted by the likes of a flashing … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in books, Creative Writing, Grandad, Houston, koi, Vanderbilt University, World War II, writing | Comments Off on Fresh Meat for Turtles

The World Must Be All Fucked Up

“The world must be all fucked up,” he said then, “When men travel first class and literature goes as freight.” – Gabriel García Márquez And with the packing of the books, you know we’ve come to the end of the … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Authors, books, Gabriel García Márquez, Quotes | Comments Off on The World Must Be All Fucked Up

Hunter S. Thompson, American Legend

Last weekend while I was in Austin, I met Alan Rinzler, the man who published and worked with Hunter S. Thompson, Toni Morrison, Tom Robbins, and Bob Dylan, among others. He told me that Hunter S. Thompson was a crazy … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Alan Rinzler, Authors, books, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Great Gatsby, Hunter S. Thompson, infinite possibility, Letterman, Literature, writing | Comments Off on Hunter S. Thompson, American Legend