Category Archives: fun

July 29, 2015   Miriam   about us, book ideas, fun, great books, inspiration, Miriam  
5

The book made me do it!

I walked out at lunch time on this scorching, humid day in New York City, and immediately felt like I was in a tropical jungle—only this was the concrete kind.  As I tried to get my errands done quickly so I could scurry back to the relative coolness of my portable air conditioner (my office windows are of a vintage that makes standard units impossible to install)Air Conditioner, I found myself thinking of literary jungle settings—Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Lily King’s Euphoria, Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things, etc.  In part, this had to do with the sliced mango stand I ran across on the corner of Broadway and 14th Street…but I digress.

Back in the office, while eating my chilled pea and mint soup, I happened upon this piece in Galleycat about Riverhead soliciting essays for a collection about “how Elizabeth Gilbert’s famous memoir [Eat Pray Love] served as inspiration for readers to go on life-changing adventures” and, having just been thinking about her recent novel, I had one of those moments where I felt the universe was trying to tell me something.

I decided that what it was telling me was not to pack up my bags and head for the Amazon (where Jane will be in a month or so, btw), but that I should do a blog post about what books have inspired us to do things.  For instance, reading Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak in high school made me want to learn Russian in the worst way.  And, so I took three years of this beautiful, complicated language while in college (I remember nothing, in case you’re wondering).

It’s a great exercise, in my opinion, to consider how books have influenced our actions.  For those of us who are obsessed with literary works, it’s an exercise that can turn up some fascinating (and maybe disturbing) insights into our psyches.  So, have books influenced actions for you?  If so, what books…and what actions?

July 21, 2015   mhoogland   advice, blog chat, chat, competition, contest, controversy, dialogue, fun, Mike H, queries, reading, recommendations  
3

How fast can you read?

There is SO much out there that I want to read and so little time to read it all. It’s one of the universe’s sick jokes. I thought Ken Kalfus summarized it perfectly in the beginning of this piece for the New Yorker.

So wouldn’t it be great if we could squeeze all that reading into our schedules? If we could read a page by just glancing at it? There’s no shortage of speed reading books and websites that claim to be able to drill this skill into you. And of course there are apps that help you speed read too.

A lot of these sources relay a lot of the same information. Focus and block out all distractions. Don’t read sentences more than once. User your peripheries and track your place with a finger or pointer. Don’t vocalize the words in your head, which I am pretty sure is impossible NOT to do.

These are all good tips, but do any of these sites offer any substantial improvement? While I can’t answer that definitively, I can point you to this Slate speed reading piece about the plausibility of speed reading and information retention rates.

So what do our readers think? Any tips you’d like to share?

Take the test here to see how you stack up. I got 567 wpm (and 3/3 answers). Challenge extended.

July 17, 2015   John   advice, audio, fun, ideas, John, suggestions  
5

Audio book ideas

As some readers might remember from past blog posts, my in-laws live in coastal Maine, which is about a 7-hour drive from NYC. Usually, we leave right after the boys wake up and arrive mid-afternoon. However, we’re going up next weekend, and to maximize our time, we’re attempting a night drive next Friday night. We’ve never done this before, but the boys are solid sleepers, and after a full week of camp they’re typically knocked out by Friday evening. So, I’m hopeful they’ll conk out before we hit Connecticut and stay that way!

Okay, what does this have to do with books? Well, typically when we drive up to Maine I get about a half-hour of radio in before the boys demand a DVD, and so most of the entertainment on the trip consists of me listening to the audio of their movie from the back seat. It’s a slightly surreal experience–I could probably recite the dialog of THE LEGO MOVIE and DESPICABLE ME before I’d even seen either movie.

But for the night drive, movies will be shut off by nightfall, and I figure the radio will be too noisy or distracting for the boys. And while they tend to snooze whenever we put on dub or reggae, I’m worried that might be a little sleep-inducing for the driver, too. So it dawned on me–here’s a perfect chance to listen to an audio book! And yet, I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit, I’ve never done an audio book before. Whenever I’m alone in the car, I’m a music guy–either I tune in to the radio or load up the ipod with something new.

So, any suggestions for a good listen? Any readers that I should look for or avoid if I want to stay awake but keep the boys asleep? I was thinking of downloading GIRL ON A TRAIN, since I haven’t read it yet–has anyone listened to it and can recommend? Thanks in advance for the feedback!

July 06, 2015   Jane   fun, Jane, reading  
1

My aspirational reading list

GIRLTRAINThis afternoon I was talking with my daughter who was just returning from her vacation and she told me that among the many things she had done while she was away, she had read a book. That made me think of when the last time was that I read a book for pleasure.

So many people assume that we who work in publishing are so very lucky because we get to read all the time; well, we are and we do, but most of the time we are reading material for our jobs and not what we would choose to read for ourselves.

Inspired by my kid, I started to put together a short list of current(ish) books I would like to read for pleasure if I had the time:

WATCHMANTHE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins

PRIMATES OF PARK AVENUE by Wednesday Martin

IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT by Judy Blume

DEAD WAKE by Eric Larson

THE HUSBAND’S SECRET by Liane Moriarty

THE INVENTION OF WINGS Sue Monk Kidd

THE LONGEST RIDE by Nicholas Sparks

GO SET A WATCHMAN by Harper Lee

I’m curious. What would your aspirational reading list look like if you were to put one together? I’d love to know.

June 26, 2015   Lauren   fun, Lauren, used books  
1

Listen up

It’s no secret around here that I’m obsessed with podcasts—I started a one-woman mission to convert the DGLM staff to Serial fans last year after all.  And you wouldn’t want to get me and Sharon going on You Made It Weird or to get stuck listening to Jim and I dissect episodes of How Did This Get Made.  (I also listen to Undisclosed, TAL, About Race, Hound Tall, Stuff You Should Know, Nerdist, and Serially Obsessed.  Feel free to make me recommendations for others in the comments!!)  My latest podcast obsessions are Mystery Show hosted by Starlee Kine (who you might’ve heard on other podcasts or public radio shows) and Criminal hosted by Phoebe Judge.  In Mystery Show, Kine takes a mystery that cannot be solved on the internet and tracks down answers people have been wondering about for a long time (like how tall Jake Gyllenhaal is really? or who is the rightful owner of a belt buckle found on the street decades ago that has a toaster with toast that actually pops up if you flip a lever?).  It’s weird and hilarious and the stories Kine uncovers along the way have so much charm.

Criminal also often involves mysteries, but much more, well, criminal ones.  The stories are surprising in very different ways from Mystery Show’s, but with a much more serious edge.   Criminal’s latest episode synced itself onto my phone this morning, so I had to give it a listen as I got ready for work.  And you guys, it turns out to be all about books.  And in particular, rare books, plus one particular rare book thief who’s been caught many times but can’t seem to stop.  Give it a listen—you won’t regret it.

 

June 23, 2015   mhoogland   advice, chat, creativity, dialogue, finding an agent, fun, inspiration, memoir, Mike H, opinion, social media, technology, Twitter  
0

The art of storytelling

The story matters. But so does the way you tell it. Just learn from this 23-year-old who has been writing a memoir on Instagram.

There are so many great things to love about this story. Sure, I appreciate the beautiful photos and well-written captions, but I admire the sheer ingenuity most of all. Fact: a new memoir is published every 38 minutes. Don’t fact-check me on that, just trust me. There are a lot of memoirs out there. Another fact: not many of them are written using the medium of a photograph social media platform, with carefully curated shots posted a year later, a completely different practice than the usual immediacy and spontaneity of picture posting.

Short stories and even entire novels have been written on Twitter too, but what technology gives, technology also takes away. Algorithms generate news stories and a scary amount of written content that you would never suspect. Don’t believe me? Then take this test.

The point is this: technology has changed everything and will continue to change everything, for better or worse. There are an unimaginable number of ways to spread stories now. Get creative and find a way that is uniquely you. Otherwise computer algorithms may as well write your story for you.

Also, I just wanted to include a quick update on one of my earlier blog posts. In March 2015, I posted a blog about censorship and China being named the guest of honor at BEA 2015. Want to see what that all amounted to? This was the result.

June 22, 2015   Jane   adaptation, classics, fun, opinion  
2

The classics

Last Saturday, my husband Steve and I went out to play golf and, as often happens, we were asked if we wouldn’t mind if a third player (someone we didn’t know) joined us. We agreed and played our round with a very nice and interesting man named Ed Chapman. It turned out that Ed had been in the Berkshires for the previous two weeks doing the sound design for a play that was opening that night at The Barrington Stage, a theater in Pittsfield about 45 minutes away from our home in Great Barrington. The play was THE MAN OF LA MANCHA.

Pablo Picasso, Don Quixote (1955). Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Pablo Picasso, Don Quixote (1955). Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Later that day, I asked Steve if he had ever seen the play and he hadn’t and I just knew he would love it so we bought what turned out to be the last two available tickets for this past Saturday night. Indeed, the play was absolutely wonderful in every way—everyone was raving about it afterwards. But as I was leaving the theater, I heard a woman behind me say that it was “dated.” How, I wondered, could a play based on the classic story of Don Quixote be dated? The message is an evergreen one and important, I think.

And this made me wonder why time and again we return to the classics—in theater, in film, in our music and yes, of course, in literature. Authors such as Herman Melville, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and Oscar Wilde are constantly referenced and imitated in more recent works.

I wonder what value you see in the classics. Which of our many iconic authors do you consider classic and why? Who are your favorites?

June 18, 2015   John   fun, genre, John, opinion, suggestions, true crime  
2

Men of constant sorrow

As my colleagues at DGLM know from last week’s staff meeting, I’m somewhat obsessed with the prison break in upstate New York. I think ever since O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? entered my all-time top-five movie list, I’m naturally predisposed to prison break stories, and this one is starting to shape up like a Coen brother’s movie. Yes, I know it’s poor taste to make light, given that our perps are actually violent killers not cuddly movie stars, but then today it comes out that Richard Matt painted a family portrait for Joyce Mitchell. Awwww…

And it doesn’t help, too, that the more I look at Matt and Sweat (such great names!) I see George Clooney and Tim Blake Nelson playing them in the movie version:

 

150610103412-escaped-ny-convicts-split-richard-matt-david-sweat-super-169  george-clooney-o-brother1

But while I can’t wait to see how it all ends, I’m having trouble wrapping my agent hat around it. For one, where does a prison-break story fall in terms of genre? On first glance, I’d say True Crime, but the crime here isn’t murder—at least not yet—which still seems like a prerequisite for the genre. But if not True Crime, then what? Moreover, with the story having so much media attention and legs so far, what would be covered in a book that hasn’t already been seen on TV or the Web? It’s an issue that’s bedeviled traditional True Crime for years, and unless an author can get access to Matt, Sweat, or Mitchell, it’s hard to see what would pass the “new and newsworthy” test.

So, what’s the angle? It’s a question agents ask ourselves all the time, especially when it comes to stories in the news. If any readers have any ideas, I’d love to hear them, because I do think there’s something here, or that there will be down the line. At the very least, we can play the casting game—any thoughts on who plays Joyce?

June 12, 2015   Lauren   fun, language, Lauren, video  
0

Friday Fun!

It’s June, it’s Friday, and if the humidity is anything to go by, summer is in full swing here in NY.  So let’s have some fun, shall we?

First of all, check out this chart from Language Log.  You know that phrase “It’s all Greek to me”?  Well, English speakers aren’t the only ones who find Greek impenetrable: so do the Norwegians, Swedes, Persians, and Spanish.  But click through to the chart to find out who the Czech, Italians, and Romanians, among many others, couldn’t understand to save their lives!

And once you’ve investigated the inscrutable, learn a little something on your Friday afternoon, like how books are made!  Okay, learn how books were made, back in 1947, in this Encyclopedia Brittanica film, sent to me by my client Wayne Gladstone.  Though please ignore that the process goes straight from the author’s typewriter to the printer because “he thinks many people will like to read it,” which seems like it’s missing some key steps, even for 1947.

And then sit back and relax, confident that you’ve learned enough to close out the week and enjoy your weekend.

May 20, 2015   Miriam   celebrity, fun, memoir, Miriam, reading  
2

So, this happened…

These days, it seems that everyone and their pet snake has a memoir.  The category is jam packed with offerings that range from the sublime (beautifully written literary narratives) to the ridiculous (vapid celebrity p.r. releases masquerading as books), as Sharon discusses below.  So, I don’t know how to feel about the news that the great Barbra Streisand has a memoir in the works.  On the one hand, the woman’s had a fascinating life and career and if she chose to write about it candidly (and has an accomplished ghost writer helping her) it could be great.  On the other hand, this is the lady who filmed herself through a Vaseline coated lens in The Mirror Has Two Faces.  On the other, other hand, even if the book is a panegyric  to herself, won’t it still be compelling?

All of this makes me think about memoirs I’d like to read, based on the perhaps misguided idea that these authors would knock my socks off  in the way Patti Smith and Keith Richards did with their books.  Can you imagine Jack Nicholson reliving his wild days in print?  Or Toni Morrison using her prodigious gifts to tell us about her journey from poverty to international acclaim? (In 2012, Morrison scrapped plans for a memoir, claiming her life was not interesting enough…whaaat?) Basically, it’s the people who probably wouldn’t ever write this kind of narrative whose books I would most want to read.

Whose memoir is on your fantasy bedside reading pile?  

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