Category Archives: favorites

June 08, 2010   DG&B   Chasya, favorites, fun, opinion  
9

Reading bad authors

by Chasya

Moby Lives poses an interesting question in their delightfully titled post “When Your Favorite Writer is a Dirtball.” The quandary is pretty self-explanatory: whether to read books by your favorite authors even thought they have unsavory personal views and habits. I, for one, am in the camp that believes that if we limit ourselves this way there would be nothing to read, particularly when it comes to a lot of less contemporary work, written when it was perfectly acceptable—nay expected—to have sexist, racist and homophobic views. William Faulkner, for instance, was a sexist alcoholic, but that doesn’t make The Sound and the Fury any less brilliant in my humble opinion.

Do you agree or disagree, readers? Should we also perhaps be looking at this on a case by case basis?

June 03, 2010   DG&B   favorites, feuds, fun, Jessica, lists, opinion  
10

Authors behaving badly

by Jessica

Abandon all high-mindedness all ye who enter here.

This week the Daily Beast has a gallery of literary feuds, which is as appalling as it is entertaining. How did I miss that Richard Ford spat on Colson Whitehead at a 2004 Poets & Writers event in retaliation for a bad review? That the always pugnacious Norman Mailer head-butted Gore Vidal in the green room of the Dick Cavett show may not be too surprising, but whenever events allow us to spy that (sometimes significant) gulf between an artist and his or her creation, I cannot help but marvel: how is it that the same people who possess such extraordinary insight into human behavior can acquit themselves so poorly? On one hand, given that most of these featured feuds took place before digital media existed to fan the flames, I suppose it’s reassuring to see that people were petty and peevish even before they had recourse to blogs or tweets.

Interestingly, there are those who complain that the current literary landscape has become too genteel and booster-ish, that punches are pulled for fear of censure. (Dale Peck, apparently, missed this memo. So too Paul Berman). In a 2006 article in the NYT Book Review, columnist Rachel Donadio wrote about the literary feud as an endangered species “To some, the paucity of feuds is connected to the larger state of literary culture. ‘It’s not because we no longer have feuds,’ said Fran Lebowitz, the writer. ‘It’s because we no longer have literature.’ ”  This strikes me as somewhat dire—I’m not convinced that there is clear and direct relationship between literary merit and public sniping. What do you think?

Have you any favorite literary feuds?

May 21, 2010   DG&B   favorites, fun, lists, Rachel, reading  
4

Presidential reading

by Rachel

I’ve got to admit, I only picked up a copy of Netherland last year because I heard President Obama was reading the book. Usually I’d give a book a fair go, but I couldn’t get into Netherland at all—I want to say it’s because the main character’s wife was named Rachel (which kept throwing me off), as well as there being too many cricket references in the book (a sport all-too familiar and exhausting for me!). These were incredibly petty reasons not to love the work, though they were enough to make me stop reading. But coming back to why I picked up a copy in the first place—it was because Obama was reading it; I think it’s fascinating to know what a public figure is reading. And not just any public figure, but a president.

So it’s no surprise that I loved this slideshow on the Huffington Post of some of the U.S. presidents’ favorite books. After evaluating their favorites, I think Bill Clinton sounds like the type of person I’d like to sit down and talk books with. And, George W. Bush—95 books read in 2006? That’s a lot of spare time for reading.

How do you rate the presidents’ book choices? And, have you picked up a book simply because a public figure was reading it?

May 14, 2010   DG&B   favorites, fun, Rachel, reading, video  
6

Literary heroes turn plastic!

by Rachel

When I was growing up, I played with Masters of The Universe action figures. My sister and I would play with these action figures for hours until a fight broke out over who would play with He-Man and who would be stuck with Skeletor – because seriously, nobody wants to play with Skeletor when you can be playing with He-Man.

I’ve always been a bit of a fan of action figures, and especially now that you can get action figures of literary heroes. I’m not ashamed to admit I have a plastic Virginia Woolf action hero, or a Chekhov finger puppet in my apartment. My love of good writing knows no end, I suppose.

So, I just loved this video I found on Huffington Post!

Bronte power dolls! I’ve got to get some, though if I do, I’m calling dibs on Emily Bronte—because seriously, again, why play with the other Bronte sisters when you can play with the writer of Wuthering Heights?

I’d like to see literary characters as action figures, too. Maybe Gregor Samsa from The Metamorphosis. He looks like a regular plastic figurine, but with the switch of a button he easily transforms into a monstrous insect.

Got any literary characters you’d like to see made into action heroes?

May 11, 2010   DG&B   favorites, fun, great books, lists, opinion, Rachel, reading  
8

These are a few of my favorite things

by Rachel

I always wonder if my personality reflects my choice in books, and last August, if you were following the DGLM blog, you’ll remember that everyone in the office put together their list of great books and made you—our readers—guess who had created them. Before working at DGLM, I actually read this series of Great Books posts and loved a lot of selections.

It’s difficult to say why I love a certain book and why I can’t get into another. I fell in love with reading Steinbeck novels when I was living in California, so I used to put my love for his writing down to geographical familiarity—Cannery Row and Salinas were places I knew about and so they came alive in his writing—but then I fell in love with Dostoevsky while living in the Midwest, and when I began reading his work there wasn’t anything familiar about his world, yet I couldn’t stop reading.

Anyway, seeing as I’m now part of the team here at DGLM, I think it’s time to give you my best books list. Scrutinize it as you will. I’m up for friendly banter on why you think my choices are terrible, mediocre or just plain brilliant.

John Steinbeck’s East of Eden
Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying
Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Coonardoo
J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace
Albert Camus’ The Stranger
Luke Davies’ Candy
Rawi Hage’s De Niro’s Game
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway
Milan Kundera’s Identity
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

After reviewing my list, it makes me wonder why I enjoy certain books. I still don’t know what it is that draws me to a particular author, or why I get into one story and not another. Years ago I certainly didn’t think John Steinbeck would be my number one writer—reading about farming and migrant laborers?  Are you kidding me? I’m still trying to find out why I love his work so much.

Do you feel at all surprised by your favorite author, or love certain books you never thought you would?

May 07, 2010   DG&B   favorites, opinion, Rachel, reading  
25

The unbearable lightness of not reading

by Rachel

I think most people who love literature have a to-read pile of books waiting for them, but Kirsty Logan takes it to a whole other level in her article for The Millions, where she proudly boasts owning 800 unread books. Yes, 800, unread—I don’t think 800 books could even fit inside my apartment!

I can understand Kirsty’s reasoning behind not reading a book because she knows she’ll end up loving it—though nonsensical, I do this all the time, too. I buy books knowing from reviews, word of mouth, or simply because of its author, that I’ll love reading it, and so I leave them on my shelves for months before I sit down with them. A reader’s comment on her article puts it perfectly: it’s like “savoring the thrill of the unopened present on Christmas morning,”—I get that. But, I do eventually read these books.

What I don’t understand is Kirsty not reading books because she simply worries they’re not the books she thinks they are. I think when it comes to reading, it’s good to have certain expectations, but choosing not to read books because we have expectations and fear disappointment, seems to me, to be a little drastic. Kirsty Logan’s article is titled “The Joy of Unread Books,” but I see no joy in collecting shelves full of books and refusing to read them.

Do you side with Kirsty on this one? Have you ever not read a book simply because you thought your expectations were too high? And if so, what book was it?

May 06, 2010   DG&B   advice, favorites, fun, Jessica, lists, prescriptive, reading  
11

Take two books….

by Jessica

I ran across this article in Salon (which also has a good continuation of the why men don’t read story—see Stacey’s post) in which the author lauds the therapeutic value of the mystery novel, and goes on to recommend several that she promises to have salutary effects. I’ve always been partial to the notion that a book can be the cure for what ails you (or at the very least, provide an excellent distraction). Years ago, a good friend assembled her own book-based survival guide to break-ups; I can’t recall the precise titles, but I remember that it was a blend of commiseration, distraction, and gritty nonfiction–designed to make her unhappiness pale by comparison. Fortunately, I’ve no present need of such heavy duty meds, but when I’m feeling weary of negotiating contracts or listening to the latest Cassandra prophesying doom for the written word, I reach for a work that reminds me of the joy inherent in a great book. I’ve not quite come up with my own diagnosis-driven reading list, but it seems there are those who have: indeed, there is a whole discipline called “Bibliotherapy,” dedicated to the idea that reading carefully selected books can promote physical and psychological healing—have a look at this Guardian article. Interestingly, the books that the bibliotherapists prescribe are not self-help books per se, but serious novels. For a marvelous hybrid of literature and pop psych, check out Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life.

So my question is this: What books do you use to self-medicate? Won’t you kindly share your prescriptions?

May 05, 2010   DG&B   children's books, favorites, fun, lists, Miriam, reading  
13

A horse is a horse, of course, of course….

by Miriam

Sometimes, when watching NickJr. with my four-year-old, certain imponderables are raised: How come there’s a preponderance of cartoon pigs? Why do Little Bear’s parents wear Victorian clothing while LB himself walks around stark nekkid? Why is Dora the Explorer so irritating? One thing that always comes up with either the tv shows or when reading a book with my precocious little fellow is the fact that there are lots of animals who walk, talk, and think like humans. When we recently added a standard poodle puppy to our household, it was funny to see my son addressing himself to her as if she were another kid, explaining why she had done something wrong and he was annoyed or trying to make her understand the rules of a game he wanted to play with her. I wonder whether these interactions were informed by the expectation that Cleo the dog would suddenly respond not with an “Arf, arf” but with a perfectly formed sentence in the Queen’s English.

This lovely piece in the Guardian discusses animal characters in literature. But it doesn’t explain why Little Bear’s parents wear clothes.

April 30, 2010   DG&B   favorites, fun, Lauren  
2

Tabloid lit

by Lauren

While I’ve not been much of a trashy magazine reader since I was a teenager (except for when I lived in Ireland where British tabloids abound, because they really are the masters of the genre!), I loved this Flavorpill post on which tabloid staples our great literary figures most closely resemble.  It’s hard to decide in some cases whom the comparison is crueler to: the fictional trainwreck or the real-life one. 

But I quibble with some of their choices.  Gatsby and Diddy seem similar on the surface, which I suppose is somewhat fitting the themes of the book, but Diddy just doesn’t seem as emotionally damaged as poor pathetic Jay.  For me, Gatsby’s all about the pathos and how poorly the surface covers it up if you really look.  I’d probably have gone for some unloved and unloveable poseur who hangs with the heiress set but is still never totally of them.  Admittedly, I can’t think of someone who fits.  Nicole Richie?  Clearly seems to have her issues, and she wasn’t born into wealth–though unlike Gatsby, she didn’t work her way in either.  Lindsay Lohan, perhaps?  (I clearly love Gatsby, but have never been a fan of Mr. Combs, so perhaps that’s my issue.  Poor little LiLo, though, I’m still giving credit for the sheer watchability of her Parent Trap remake, which I’ve seen roughly 80 million times on television.)

And perhaps it’s just me, but George Clooney oozes charisma, whereas Darcy seems more reserved and steadfast.  Frankly, I don’t see a Darcy type ending up in the tabloids unless he…I don’t know…saves a small child or cute puppy during a slow news week?

But it’s got me thinking, and now I’m trying to figure out who would stand in for some other classics.  Clarissa Dalloway?  Jo March?  And who is John Mayer in the canon?

April 23, 2010   DG&B   favorites, literacy, opinion, Rachel, reading  
11

Read Argentina!

by Rachel

One of the things I love to do when I have spare time on the weekends, is to sit in cafés and read. There’s nothing quite like a lazy Sunday afternoon spent with a good book and hot coffee, surrounded by other readers with good books and hot coffee. So reading this BBC News article made me appreciate my lazy café reading time even more.

According to the article, today only 10% of Argentina’s population buys and reads books because of repeated blows to the publishing industry including the banning of books in the 1970’s, the economic crisis in the early 2000’s, and the recent boom in electronic media which has proved to be stiff competition for publishers. In contrast, a NY Times article from 2009 indicated that 50% of adults in the U.S. had read books in print or online within the previous 12 months.

Wanting to promote reading across the city of Buenos Aires, the government has set out to furnish cafés with books by great writers such as Pablo Neruda and Julio Cortazar. Other schemes are also in place to promote reading, including the giving away of books to school children so they can start to build their own collections at home, and large book purchases for school libraries. This is definitely something I like hearing about!

There’s a long list of authors I’d suggest to promote reading–perhaps Dickens? Camus? Twain?

Which books would you give to encourage new readers?

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