Archive for the ‘reads’ Category
Excerpt: A Fraction of the Whole
… a birthday party. The host was turning five, a big occasion. I’d missed my own because of the coma, but I wasn’t looking forward to it because I anticipated a sombre affair, you know, when a child’s innocence shows signs of strain and the five-year-old begins, with sadness and alarm, to question why he’s […]
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Tags: a fraction of the whole, booker, excerpt, steve toltz
Old men and books
I was trying to get a feel of whether I should go and read Philip Roth’s American Pastoral (just because I’m madly in love with the title) so I went to Amazon and found the above gem. Yes! Truth! These old-male-writers-as-institutions thing is a bit annoying. There’s a good reason why I never touched them […]
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Tags: coetzee, cormac mccarthy, franzen
Chickens in New York A choice quote: “This crazy guy keeps buying them from the market — some animal-rights guy, but I think he’s messed up in the head — and he keeps leaving them here,” Mr. Newcomb said. “He thinks he’s saving them, but it’s not like they’re safe around here. Somebody told me […]
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Tags: chickens, new york, nyt, regina spektor
NYT stuff
on a morning where I’m half doing work and half listening to 42. The Initiation of a Young Rock Impresario As always, I flinch when I read about someone who’s younger than I am (Sean Carlson is 23) but I am trying to turn that response into something useful. Carlson likes to give hugs. (watch […]
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Fish sauce
Books always make me hungry. I read Carson McCullers’ The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (I will never stop pointing out how beautiful that title is) and I desperately needed some ice tea. I’ve been reading Rattawut Lapcharoensap’s Sightseeing, which made me seriously want that fried rice that Thai Express claims was Chulalongkorn’s favourite dish. […]
Filed under: distraught, going somewhere, reads | 4 Comments
yes
“We were discussing happiness, I believe. I was telling you about myself. Incidentally, I just used the word ‘happiness’. Tell me, why is it that even when we are enjoying music, for instance, or a beautiful evening, or a conversation in agreeable company, it all seems no more than a hint of some infinite felicity […]
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Tags: james meek, russian lit, turgenev
insert 80s song lyric here
slate (!) is partnering with nyu’s creative writing program (!) for a writers on writing video series. yay. first up is the dude who wrote my favourite book so far this year: See interview here. I’m currently reading William Boyd’s Any Human Heart, which I bought on a whim a couple of months ago … […]
Filed under: going somewhere, reads | 10 Comments
Tags: domo, junot diaz, oscar wao, slate, tokyo, william boyd
he looks so cool. (no matter what i’ve said of him in the past) also, what a great concept in general. this is how you sell a magazine.
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Tags: ebony, magazines, obama
Little obsessions
Christoph Niemann blogged over at NYT about how his sons are obsessed about the New York subway. Cute! A chaperone on one of Arthur’s school trips told me something he overheard when all the kids were neatly lined up in rows of two. The girl holding Arthur’s hand asked him, “Have you heard of Peter […]
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Tags: new york, nyt
This is seriously the cutest article ever written. It starts by focusing on an artist who lives on a farm infested with woodchucks, also known as groundhogs (see above), who were ruining his garden, so he decides he has to do something to make them go away. After trying a few non-violent methods, he decides […]
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Tags: disney, groundhog, nyt
roti ajaib 