READ ALL ABOUT IT
Since 2012, I’ve been writing about books. And the act of reading. And the importance of story and narrative. But, mostly, the underlying theme of all I write is how taking a moment to stop and digest some longform text — instead of scrolling, instead of watching a video, instead of multitasking — can be one of the most grounding things we can do for ourselves. Here’s the one-stop online home for all this writing.
You can read more about me and my work by moseying over here. Want to peruse periodic “essay drops” — excerpts from my work-in-progress essay collection about Homesickness? Here ya go.
Gen Z and Millennials to Libraries’ Rescue
According to a recent study released by the ALA (American Library Association), 54 percent of those surveyed in the Millennial and Gen Z cohorts responded that they had visited a library in the past year. Woohoo, great.
Paju Book City
New Year’s Resolution (but not for 2024…that, I know): Go to Paju, South Korea.
This email subject from the NYT caught my eye this morning: “South Korea’s city of books.” Say no more…<open email.> I already want to go to Seoul, but how about a little side trip to Paju, which is just over 20 miles from the capital and “home to the nation’s elaborate book publishing hub”?
The Book Makers
Something that I used to post about more often was this idea of book-as-object.
* It was sometimes in a playful way: Are fake books ok décor? What about spines-in shelving? (FYI, I’ve cooled my jets on rainbowtizing shelves.)
* Sometimes in a “wow, humanity” way: Whose eyes were skimming this exact library book before mine? And what were they thinking?
* And sometimes in an archival way: I love the idea of antiquarian/rare books (watch the documentary The Booksellers!), but I am mostly happy just to own a bunch of beat-up paperbacks. Either way, the paper, font, cover art, and blurbs all point to a moment in time when a specific edition was printed. Add in readers’ penned-in notes and underlines and you have a perfect artifact.
A Red Book Shed
“so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens”
— The Red Wheelbarrow, by William Carlos Williams
Barnes & Noble is Back
Hello from a loyal fan of Barnes & Noble, a place that occupies the sweet spot between superstore-of-abundant-choice and “third place” congregating spot. There’s an ever-building protest against Amazon, but who’s protesting good ol’ B&N? I’m guessing no one, unless you’re reenacting You’ve Got Mail…or you are Peter Sagal from Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me.
Eastham Library
I’m just a girl,
Sitting in front of a Cape Cod pond,
Asking myself…
ChatGPT vs. Authors
Perhaps you’ve seen the headline that authors such as George Saunders, Jonathan Franzen, and Jodi Picoult are suing OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, for copying authors’ work “wholesale, without permission or consideration.” ChatGPT works by digesting and regurgitating information found online (fair game, I guess), but AI critics have argued that Google, Microsoft, etc. also feed their systems pirated books found online.
Keep Going!
“A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.” This is one of those reading and writing quotes that gets bandied around — this one’s attributed to Salman Rushdie. From a writing perspective, yeah, that’s great inspiration and advice. From a reading perspective, eh…
“I Think in Terms of Emotions”
“I think in terms of emotions. And feelings. So sometimes what I say may not always be clear. But creatively, there’s a lot to be said for that way of thinking.” This quote is attributed to Brian Wilson, and I think this sentiment is true for many artists. There’s a documentary about the British band XTC where singer Andy Partridge describes his experience with synesthesia; in his case, his brain associates colors with certain numbers. Billie Eilish also perceives things this way: “[I have] a thing in [my] brain where [I] associate random stuff to everything. So for instance, every day of the week has a color, a number, a shape. Sometimes things have a smell that I can think of or a temperature or a texture.”
Why Baby Boomers Love the Kindle
Hey, it’s just a fun lil’ piece in the Wall Street Journal, so don’t shoot the messenger. But as a younger Gen X-er a few years shy of the Millennial cut-off, I do, indeed, prefer a tactile, paper book. You can scroll down to see some excerpts that I grabbed that also align with my preference/reasoning.
Therapeutic Novels?
Oh…no, no, nope. This headline caught my eye in today’s “Bookmarks” email from The Guardian. The School of Life, a “social media company that offers advice on life issues” founded by Alain de Botton, has a publishing arm and has now put forth its first “therapeutic novel.” It’s called A Voice of One’s Own (hello, Virginia Woolf?) and is about a 29-year-old woman’s mental health journey.
How Review-Bombing Can Tank a Book Before It’s Published
Penny for your thoughts?
Actually, no, I admit that I’m not interested in what the vast majority of readers think of a particular book. (Except perhaps for the utility of gauging cultural phenomena.)
Memory Circular Drive
Some 🌀 thoughts on reading…
Calabash International Literary Festival
“Why is it that reggae achieved global status, but very little else did?” This question appears near the end of this NYT piece about the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica, but this question — posed by Kwame Dawes, one of the founders of Calabash — encapsulates some of my own thoughts about not just literary festivals (or book festivals, or whatever you’d like to call them), but about the role of books in the greater “entertainment” ecosystem. In the case of Calabash, the festival has “strive[d] to create an authenticating pipeline for Jamaican writers along the lines of what brought local musicians international attention.” Booker winner Marlon James “was ready to give up writing” until he attended a Calabash session in 2000. (!!)
Langston Hughes Wrote a Children’s Book
In 1936, Langston Hughes and the artist Elmer W. Brown collaborated on a children’s book called The Sweet and Sour Animal Book. They were never able to get it published, but now, in 2023, if you happen to be in Cleveland, you can view an exhibit called ‘The Sweet and Sour Journey of Langston Hughes and Elmer W. Brown’ at the museum ARTneo.
Boston Literary and Library Love
Here are two snippets of Boston literary/library love for you today.
Reading and Remembering With Annie Ernaux
Life has been so frenetic lately. Adult (gah…my youngest is nearly 18!) children coming and going, finishing school, starting their jobs. House on the market and all the hectic activity that comes with that. Work travels. Family visits. Lining up what seems like a bazillion interviews for this book I’m working on. (Yay!) All good stuff — life churning and chugging along.
I’m a Reader: Here’s My Response
From Newsletter Issue No. 14:
The other day, I came across a draft of my thesis for my masters program. I have a MA in Media Studies, and in 2003 — just a few months before I had my first child (timing is everything!) — I completed an ethnography of a group of children of immigration in one neighborhood in Charlotte, NC and how their media preferences were shaped. Because of guidance from my advisor, I used a framework from a book called Is There a Text in This Class? by the scholar Stanley Fish as a way to frame my own work. In academic circles, Fish is known as one of the main proponents of something called Reader-Response Criticism. The Cliff Notes version of RRC is that the main lens through which to view literature is the reader and his or her experience as opposed focusing on the author. In the introduction to Is There a Text in This Class? Fish writes…
Fiction, Reality, and The Beautiful South
I’m really intrigued by “the role of the reader,” but on the flipside, I’m also very intrigued by how “real life” infiltrates fiction — or not.
The Library at Home
As we prepare to leave this house — and as we let prospective buyers through if they’ve heard about its future availability — Matt and I have spent many weekends organizing, purging, donating, scrubbing. Which of course included a massive tidy of some bookshelves. I know it’s likely I’ll be asked to “stage” them better — fewer books, more #decorativevases. Because as we all know (due to pox-on-society HGTV), the goal is to “remove” traces of oneself and one’s family from a home when it’s for sale. And since, in many ways, the books on our shelves tell my life’s story…out they go. But I can’t live like that in real life.
