Have you ever wondered how they change lightbulbs at the Barnes & Noble? You think some guy is just walking around with a 20 foot ladder and a bag of bulbs? No--that would be too non-invasive. Instead, they drive a cherry picker into the store and let its constant beep-beep-beep echo throughout the store for what was probably the entire morning.
"Charlotte went up to a little table of imitation mahogany with a drawer. She put her hand upon it. The little table was ugly, no doubt, but it had done nothing to her." - Lolita, Chapter 21
No part of saying "this is how much I'll spend on books each month" makes any sense to me. You don't budget; you just buy. The more books the better! Fill up every bookshelf in the house and when you're done, buy another bookshelf.
Presently, the lady herself–sandals, maroon slacks, yellow silk blouse, squarish face, in that order–came down the steps, her index finger still tapping upon her cigarette.Lolita, Chapter 10, Vladimir Nabokov There are plenty of books that might convince you of your mediocrity as a writer, but none so much as Lolita. Reading it is like taking a master class in flowery prose, a lengthy...
I am not a fan of first person POV in the best of times, and the way Weir uses it is super choppy. I did this. I did that. Something happened. The closer I got to the end, the more I found myself skipping lines at a time. That said… great book. Great premise along with an almost unbelievably intelligent and lucky protag. It follows the pattern set up in The Martian while also reminding me...
I mentioned in a previous Thursday Roundup that I had started reading We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor but that after encountering the line the butthurt is strong with this one had completely given up. That's still true. Cringe is one of those things that's hard for me to get past, but after talking it over with a few friends, I was encouraged to give it another shot. I'm happy to...
I was doom-scrolling Twitter the other day and like a sudden ray of light through a storm, I saw an ad for Sara Gran's Come Closer. Normally, I don't pay attention to book ads on Twitter, but this one came with a quote from Bret Easton Ellis, who I don't understand as a person or an artist but whose opinions on books I'll listen to occasionally. Regarding Come Closer, Easton writes "What begins...
One of the best things about Stephen King’s On Writing is the way he breaks down scenes and tells you how they were constructed. Being told not to use adverbs is great and all, but really getting into the mind of a good writer and seeing the process behind the art can be an invaluable experience.
I don't use the highlight feature on my Kindle very often, and when I do it's usually for something funny or interesting I want to remember. Sometimes, it's for a sentence or paragraph I find particularly literary and beautiful and poetic, though that is rare when reading contemporary works. Last night, after a shitty day to end all shitty days, I opened my Kindle to continue reading Henry...