getting lost

The art of getting lost...seems like I am always in a hurry to get somewhere, be somewhere else, do something else. Who has time to get lost anymore? Rebecca Solnit wanders through the urban and suburban cultural landscape in her new collection of essays, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, which appears to be a treatise on taking the time to roam and wander and just get ... well, lost.

Hitchfest

Thanks to Arts & Letters Daily for the New Statesman review of Christopher Hitchens' latest book, Love, Poverty & War. Now I know that I should NEVER call him "Chris" if I meet him...

best characters in fiction

Who is your favorite character from fiction? NPR reproduced a list of the 100 Best Fictional Characters since 1900 and I must ask -- Hana from Ondaatje's The English Patient???? I'm not sure she would make my top 100 if I was asked to choose...

lovin' Lolita

Ok, I've got to admit, I felt some sympathy for poor 'ol Humbert Humbert. I'm almost done with reading Nabokov's Lolita, (two pages left for crying out loud!) and the novel is hysterically sad -- you may ask, "is there such a thing?" -- but try reading a novel about a delusional pedophile who goes to extraordinary lengths to get the girl of his dreams (albeit a 12-year old) and you, too, may want to laugh and cry. The obvious problem with this is that Humbert is a pedophile, so why would you feel sympathy for him? But he narrates the story with such obvious desire and this crazy sense of self-importance, not even realizing Lolita's a person, not in any conscious way, that you only feel sorry for him. Must find a copy of the movie and see how someone else visualizes the story.

do you know the most harmful books of 19th & 20 C.?

Apparently, reading Democracy and Education by John Dewey and The Feminine Mystique are harmful to you...

writer bio

Interesting article about writer Mark Helprin I found through Arts & Letters Daily today...

Shelby Foote obituary

Shelby Foote, noted Southern writer and Civil War historian, has passed away at age 88.
Read obituaries here: NY Times, The Washington Post, LA Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, International Herald-Tribune, Boston Globe, StarTribune.com, CNN ...

Oprah's baaaaack...

Yes, its true -- Oprah's Book Club is back and better than ever! Bookninja rhapsodizes about why those in the literary community are obsessed with this woman and her book club ...

free books

Well...sorta...
More like free in the sense that these are books in the public domain and available for anyone to read or download...

beach reading

Books you need to bring to the beach this summer...
{Note: thanks to LII!}

consumption

What I bought at Borders last night (because I couldn't help myself...)

Small Island by Andrea Levy (recently won the Whitbread Award)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
War Trash by Ha Jin
Trying Again by Ann Douglas and John Sussman
Dead Souls by Ian Rankin

Author of the Day: cranky writers

There is something loveable about Christopher Hitchens, which I have stated before, but now I have proof others love him!
Here are selected articles & interviews: The Atlantic Monthly (must be a subscriber to read), The Guardian Unlimited: Books, History News Network, Identity Theory: the narrative thread, Stop Smiling Magazine, The Village Voice, The Weekly Standard

Gabaldon update...

I am so excited -- it looks like the next book in Diana Gabaldon's wonderful Claire and Jamie Fraser series will be published in September 2005...just in time for my birthday!

Orange Prize winner

The 2005 Orange Prize winner for Fiction is Lionel Shriver's novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin...

Keillor fans

Any Garrison Keillor fans out there? If you are, then you probably will be interested in The Writer's Almanac, "a daily program of poetry and history hosted by Garrison Keillor" usually found on public radio stations across the country. Today's entries include a poem, literary trivia and a short essay by Keillor...

mocking me

To Kill a Mockingbird is that one great American novel I have never read, but always meant to. Maybe I'll try to dig into it this summer while sitting by my brand new pool...
In the meantime, I should check out this resource guide to start thinking about the larger themes of the novel.

Potter parties

Can't wait until the new Harry Potter book comes out? Check out this site which keeps track of "Potter Parties" happening all over the world... {Note: thanks to ResearchBuzz}

literary maps

What a neat idea ... The New York Times created a literary map of Manhattan, designating all the great literary landmarks. Thanks to Susan who let me read her copy of the Book Review!

tricky evolution topic

Apparently children are not supposed to know about evolution...picture book author Lisa Westberg Peters has written a book about evolution for children and was told not to talk about the book at an elementary school in Stillwater, Minnesota, where she was invited to speak. She refused to visit the school...

sex scenes worth mentioning

Nerve.com has a monthly award for the best literary sex scene, called the Henry Miller award. Sue Miller won for May, with her novel Lost in the Forest...