Now we know why the creative team nicknamed the season finale “frozen donkey wheel.” Who knew it would be so literal? More discussion of the final two thirds of the LOST season 4 finale (including spoilers, of course) after the break.
(more…)

On the morning of Dec. 4, 2007, I listened to the Postal Service album “Give Up” for the first time. I was on the commuter bus and for some reason the combination of music and movement always spurs creative activity in my head. I had, of course, already heard the first two singles (which are also the first two tracks) from the album before. In fact, I had been obsessively listening to “The District Sleeps Tonight” for several months. As I worked through the tracks I had never heard before, I got this weird feeling that the album was science fiction. And by the time I got to “Brand New Colony” I was convinced. And then I got this image stuck in my head that turned into the phrase “Up in the Aerie, the Poet’s lover.” I dismissed it, but it returned. I thought it a bit precious, but then more started showing up. And then I got this idea. Why not write a cycle of connected short short stories based on each track on the album? I wrote a few notes on my PDA (a hand-me-down from my boss that I mainly use for calendar and tasks) and a few more when I got to work. (more…)

Films I have never seen: (more…)

I’ve been reading these really popular teen novels by Stephanie Meyer: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse. They’re not just any teen novels, though—they’re vampire romances. Uh huh.
(more…)

This week, Amazon introduced a gadget that has the potential to change our world—or at least the way we read about it.

(more…)

I hate Harry Potter movies. I always have. In fact it took some strong persuasion for me to even read the books. Boy was I shocked. The books, while definitely juvenile literature, are great. Yes you have to turn your mind off on a few matters. (Like the very idea that not only these wizards but all these magical creatures could exist undetected in our world and without significantly affecting our world) But they are great. Perhaps not quite up there with classic literature of my childhood like The Hobbit or The Phantom Toll Booth. But I definitely think they deserve the place in popular culture they hold. But then we come to the movies…
(more…)

This thread is for discussing the last Harry Potter book. It’s meant for those who have read the book, and may contain spoilers.

I can’t believe Hagrid was a WOMAN!!

The only thing better than watching TV is snarking about it. Trust me on this one. And although I do consider myself a brown belt in snarkery, I kneel at the feet of the true masters, Tara “Wing Chun” Ariano and Sarah “Sars” Bunting of Television Without Pity. Consider their new book, Television Without Pity — 752 Things We Love to Hate (and Hate to Love) About TV, as the Chicken Soup for the Snarker’s Soul. (more…)

In the Shakespeare Top 10 thread Tracy suggested the top five canonical but unread works of literature. This is a hard one simply because some works are reasonably well read whereas others are on lots of shelves unread.

(more…)

1) Macbeth
2) Hamlet
3) Much Ado About Nothing
4) Romeo and Juliet
5) Henry V

Runners up: A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and The Tempest.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. - 1 Corinthians 13:11-12.

During a recent attempt to tighten household expenses, I discovered that I’m currently spending about $200 a month on gasoline and about $80 in tolls just to get to and from work every month. The only upside I’ve been able to uncover in this situation is that it also means I have an opportunity, should I take it, to listen to audio books during my daily commute. Recently, I finished listening to the unabridged audio book version of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly.
(more…)

The title of this book gives the impression that within its pages you will find the reasons that Krispy Kreme will help you lose weight, badmouthing other people strengthens them and playing Halo makes kids more intelligent. (more…)

“In 1909, Sigmund Freud, accompanied by his then-disciple Carl Jung, made his one and only visit to the United States … Despite the great success of his visit, Freud always spoke, in later years, as if some trauma had befallen him in the United States.  He called Americans ’savages.’  He blamed America for physical ailments that afflicted him long before 1909.  Freud’s biographers have puzzled over this mystery, speculating about whether some unknown event might have happened in America that could make sense of his otherwise inexplicable reaction.” — Introductory note to The Interpretation of Murder.

In his soon-to-be released (and first) novel, Jed Rubenfeld uses this biographical anomaly as the foundation upon which he builds a immensely entertaining potboiler of a murder mystery.  (more…)

I need your help. It’s Friday, my last day at the university before I move to Vienna. I just walked into the library to do some work. Sitting on the table is a copy of a William Gibson novel. I do not know how it got there amongst the books on Egyptian hieroglyphics, but it has reminded me that it has been years since I read a sci-fi novel. Years.

I don’t read novels anymore as I’m always reading academic stuff. When I try to crack open a novel, I usually go high-brow, because, after all, I’m damned smart and must be able to say I have read the classics, man. But this summer, I want to read some sci-fi. Classics or pulp. Don’t care. Fantasy will do, as will comics. So, sci-fi gang, give me your best. As I’ve got this Gibson book here, should I be reading Neuromancer for starters?

On a whim, I decided to check out the poet and novelist, Henry Charles Bukowski. Actually, the whim was provoked by me watching the movie “Sideways”, where hapless Miles bemoans his sorry existence to Jack, who tries to cheer him up after Miles’ book was rejected for the third (fourth?) time:

Miles: “Half my life is over, and I have nothing to show for it. Nothing. I’m a thumb print on the window of a skyscraper. I’m a smudge of excrement on a tissue surging out to sea with a million tons of raw sewage.”
Jack: “See? Right there. Just what you just said? That is beautiful. ‘A smudge of excrement surging out to sea.’ I could never write that.”
Miles: “Neither could I, actually. I think it’s Bukowski.”
(more…)

If you haven’t read any Neil Gaiman, you should. If you have, but wonder what all he’s up to, this post is for you. (more…)

Slate is publishing in bi-weekly installments a novel “written in real time” by Walter Kirn, who must be somewhat important because otherwise I wouldn’t have heard of him. You can read about the concept here. You can read the first nine installments here (they’re short).

Briefly, here’s what’s going on: Kent works at AidSat, a commercial remote monitoring service that, via a disguised transmitter/communication device, tracks its clients’ every move, monitors their vitals, looks for signs of distress or danger, provides emotional support and advice (deluxe package), and generally keeps a constant vigil to ensure their safety and happiness. Kent has the hots for a neighbor named Sabrina, an AidSat client, and uses his AidSat connections to his advantage. Sabrina is a friend to a senile old man who is paranoid about a future event that he refers to as “the unbinding.” (more…)

I was struck by a story in this weekend’s NY Times Magazine (registration required, yadda yadda) about a missionary family in Africa. It made me think that they were living the story from The Poisonwood Bible, and that it would be fascinating to revisit this family in ten years. Of all the books to re-enact, that’s one of the worst, IMHO (though I guess re-enacting The Stand would be bad as well).

Some familiar names among the winners: Norton Juster (his first picture book!) and Chris Raschka (who won a Caldecott Honor a few years back) took the Caldecott medal, Cynthia Rylant won the Theodore Seuss Geisel award for beginning readers with another Henry and Mudge book, Julius Lester won the Coretta Scott King award, which he can add to his collection of book awards. And some not-so familiar names: Lynne Rae Perkins for her second novel, John Green for his first.

The complete list, including the Caldecott Honor books, is here.

I knew it!!! When I finished reading James Frey’s book “A Million Little Pieces” a few days ago, I couldn’t shake the feeling that, somehow, it just didn’t add up. (more…)

I love books, but I’m a prisoner of the English language. With the exception of reading Stephen King’s short story “Quitters, Incorporated” in my third-year German class in high school (what were you thinking, Frau Nicholsen?), I’ve never read anything other than books written in English (the five pages I suffered through of “The Tin Drum” do not count).

Being uni-lingual is (um, obviously) a huge disadvantage when it comes to discovering and reading great works of literature in other languages, because only the blockbuster writers are ever translated for English readers (Garcia Marquez, Dostoevsky, etc.). I know there are many, many brilliant writers I’m missing, and I’d love to hear recommendations (classic and comtemporary, fiction and non-fiction, etc.) of books to read from foreign writers around the world.

Thanks!

I freely admit that I have never read or seen any of Harold Pinter’s works. But still. Are the members of the Swedish Academy really sure that they picked him for this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature? Didn’t they really mean, I don’t know, say, Phillip Roth or Orhan Pamuk?

(more…)

Hollywood is panicking because attendance at movies is down again this summer. I’m afraid I’ve gone along with the trend; while in past years I would go to one or two, I can’t remember having seen a single film in the theater this summer.

I do make frequent visits to the local library, however . . .

(more…)

While trying to wrap up the pre-nap story time with my toddler boy today, and while absently reading Goodnight, Moon in a mock-enthusiastic voice for the third time in a row, I started to wonder what on earth I’ll be reading to him in, say, three years.

(more…)

One of my favorite pop writers interviews one of my favorite pop musicians. Enjoy.