If Dr. Seuss Books Were Titled According to Their Subtexts
Mr. Gonzalez rubbed a rag over his desk and thought, as he did every morning at this time when the office was still chilly and deserted and the wharf rats played frenetic games among themselves within the walls, about the happiness that his association with Levy Pants had brought him. On the river the freighters gliding through the lifting mist mellowed at one another, the sound of their deep foghorns echoing among the rusting file cabinets in the office. Beside him the little heater popped and cracked as its parts grew warmer and expanded. He listened unconsciously to all the sounds that had begun his day for twenty years and lit the first of the ten cigarettes that he smoked every day. When he had smoked the cigarette down to its filter, he put it out and emptied the ashtray into the wastebasket. He always liked to impress Mr. Levy with the cleanliness of his desk.
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| — | A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole |
I recently finished Tina Fey’s Bossypants. It was a lot of fun. The book mostly consists of short autobiographical essays arranged chronologically. It reminded me a lot of David Sedaris at times, but without any of the smugness and over-preciousness that can sometimes weigh him down.
4 out of 5
Amanda Hocking sells her novels through Amazon, without any publisher or agent, for 3 bucks each. She has almost no overhead and has made millions.
Can anyone present me with an argument against Kindles and ebooks that isn’t based in “But I like the way books smell” nostalgia?
I’m really not trying to be snarky here. It’s just that every few weeks I feel like I see something like this post, in which someone waxes poetically about how many fond memories they have with books. I have those too, but I also have them for VHS tapes. I don’t remember anyone being so up in arms about the arrival of DVDs.
The Great Gatsby Game! It’s like Super Mario but with more cultural subtext!
No seriously, it’s a game. You can play it (for free) here.
This is amazing. Even if I do think the book is kinda overrated.
David Foster Wallace: Infinite Jest
New Favorite Blog- Better Book Titles. Some other favorites are here, here and here.
Book Review: How I Became a Famous Novelist By Steve Hely
This is a novel about a twentysomething office schlub in Boston who decides to bang out a novel and become a bestselling author in 6 months in order to make his ex-girlfriend jealous at her wedding. It’s the first novel I’ve finished since grad school and I really enjoyed it.
According to Prof. Joe Nugent, James Joyce’s Ulysess is mostly about the following things
- Philosophy
- Education
- The Common Man
- Drugs
- Death
- Advertising
- Publishing
- Eating
- Father/Son Relationships
- The Anxiety of Influence
- Dublin
- Journeys
- Music
- Nationalism
- Discrimination
- Anti-semitism
- Pop Culture
- Ladies’ Magazines
- History
- Language
- Pregnancy
- Sex
- Tiredness
- Water
- Knowledge
- Names
- Feminism
