Monthly Archives: September 2009

Best of the National Book Award

You might have heard something about the National Book Foundation picking the best of the best this year. They started a special blog featuring a past winner each day. Now they’ve opened the polls. You can pick from 6 books which is the best National Book Award book. It’s a tough one. Right now Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man leads the pack. The winner will be announced at the 60th National Book Awards ceremony on November 18th.

Good News Everybody!

From the Boston Globe:

Google Inc. is giving 2 million books in its digital library a chance to be reincarnated as paperbacks. As part of a deal announced Thursday, Google is opening up part of its index to the maker of a high-speed publishing machine that can manufacture a paperback-bound book of about 300 pages in under five minutes. The new service is an acknowledgment by the Internet search leader that not everyone wants their books served up on a computer or an electronic reader like those made by Amazon.com Inc. and Sony Inc.

On Demand’s printing machines already are in more than a dozen locations in the United States, Canada, Australia, England and Egypt, mostly at campus book stores, libraries and small retailers. The Harvard Book Store will be among the first already equipped with an instant-publishing machine to have access to Google’s digital library.

From Wired:
Starting Sept. 29, Bostonians can stop in the privately owned Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and have their books printed in front of them. Or they can order it over the phone and have the store deliver it — by bicycle.

There’s a certain irony to that, too, according to Google spokeswoman Jennie Johnson, since the bookstore is right next to Harvard’s library, one of the libraries that partnered with Google to turn its millions of books into an online library of the future.

“Most people can’t get into the Harvard Library, but you can print their books next door,” Johnson said.

So yes, we’re getting one of the machines. I can’t wait to see it work!

Weekend Reading Report

Whew, I’ve read a lot in the past four days! I saw a copy of John Burdett’s latest in his series featuring Thai detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep titled The Godfather of Kathmandu. I couldn’t resist reading it right away. I think the first and third in the series are best, but this fourth is still worth reading. There was a finality to the end too that leads me to think the series is at an end. It’s another mystery which features the many ins and outs of mysterious Thai culture with dollops of otherworldlness tossed on top.

Then I finally sat down to read Stitches, David Small’s memoir of his awful childhood. I’d been avoiding it precisely because I didn’t want to read anything too depressing. Realizing how stupid that sounded, I gave it a go. I’m glad I did as it’s such a beautiful nuanced portrait of a truly troubled family. David Small’s website has a trailer and some of the artwork which you should check out. He captured his childhood memories with such precision, you feel like you are there. It’s truly an awesome book.

I finished this last book late last night. I’d been hearing some buzz about it from other booksellers, particularly Daniel Goldin. The book I’m talking about is Michelle Huneven’s Blame, which features Patsy, a sottish history professor who wakes up in jail one morning only to learn that she has struck and killed a mother and child while drunk driving.The accident changes her life forever. She spends several years in prison and spends the next decades seeking atonement. I found the novel incredibly compelling. What are the moral consequences of what Patsy did and how long does she have to feel to guilty about it? The story gets more complicated at the end with a twist tossed in but don’t let that put you off. It’s a remarkable novel!

Report: Dinner with John Irving

Last evening I was lucky enough to be invited to a dinner with John Irving, thrown by Random House, to celebrate the forthcoming publication of Last Night in Twisted River. About 16 booksellers and a handful of publishing people joined Irving and his wife at a restaurant in Boston. I was not expecting him to be so charming. What normally happens at these dinners is that the author rotates from table to table between courses. My table got him for the entree. I learned a lot of things last night, such as that he writes the last sentence of a book first. Writing seems to be a laborious process for him. Often things come to him while he’s doing other things. Also he knows a lot of famous people. He mentioned Michael Ondaatje and Edmund White. And he thinks Hemingway is way overrated. Because he worked on the screenplays for some of the movies made of his books, he’s spent a lot of time with celebrities too. Wilford Brimley took men to brothels! Who knew! My brain is still trying to wrap itself around last evening, hence once long paragraph here. I left the restaurant thinking that John Irving was perhaps one of the most charming authors I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Now I have to go back and read his older books again.

Back to Work!

  • Sara Nelson picks her 15 top books of the Fall over at the Daily Beast. Some are obvious, but there are a few surprises in there.
  • A library without books?
  • The Man Booker Prize shortlist was announced today.
  • Papercuts has a cool video of a sentence from a Lydia Millet short story animated.
  • I read  David Liss’ latest in his Benjamin Weaver series called The Devil’s Company. I can’t praise this one highly enough–a fantastic portrait of 19th century London, great characters, with a good plot thrown in there. Now I’m tackling John Irving’s forthcoming novel Last Night in Twisted River. I’m having dinner with him tonight and of course, I’m not that far into it. My boss Carole loves it so far. I believe she said she wishes she could sit in the corner and finish reading it. That’s high praise from a bookseller!

Wednesday Miscellany

  • Gastronomer’s Guide lists their Top 5 Books for the Fall.
  • Bookforum reviews Richard Power’s Generosity. I can’t praise that book highly enough.
  • Harvard Magazine’s long article on Atul Gawande reveals what a careful, thoughtful writer he has become. Plus he has good taste in music: “OR teams that work with him are treated to a soundtrack of alternative rock from his iPod (a recent playlist included Tom Petty, the Clash, Modest Mouse, Feist, Dido, and M.I.A.).”

More Stuff

  • Wow, there’s so much material in this article about chick lit and the recession from The Independent. First, let’s discuss the name “recessionista fiction”. That just has to go. I’m not sure why it bothers me so much, but if it were furnture, I’d take it out back and set it on fire. Second, I can’t believe it, but I might agree with Plum Sykes! Read what she has to say.
  • I really enjoyed Michelle Hunevan’s piece at The Millions called “On Walking and Reading at the Same Time.” She argues that listening to books while walking/hiking offers its own rewards.
  • This is only tangentially book related, but this opinion piece from the L.A. Times on processed food is so off the mark. Granted, it’s one person’s opinion, but really? She seems to have missed the point, that the so called “cheap” products she embraces are in fact cheap. There’s a hidden cost to them whether she wants to acknowledge that or not! Man, she hit a nerve with that one.
  • The Guardian analyzes President Obama’s reading list.
  • I finished reading Frank Bruni’s memoir Born Round over lunch today. It’s definitely equal to the hype. His descriptions of his family members shows a genuine eye for understanding how people interact. I wish I could have met his grandmother. I’m going to miss reading his restaurant reviews every week.