Monday, November 20
Catching up
Somehow I missed linking to Jared's NaNo story in a new, local arts paper, NextNC. Sorry buddy.
Tom Pynchon's new book has been getting mixed reviews, at least of the three I've so far come across and partially read. Time (P vs. the Toaster) and the NY Sun praise the man but not the plot, while Entertainment Weekly (that hotbed of quality literary reviews) gives it an A (and has yet to put it online, go figure.) Someday I'll read it, but this is not that day. Nor next year. I'm still working up the courage to start Gravity's Rainbow.
While we're at it, the NY Times over the weekend has Walter Kirn (another of my favs) writing about a new Allen Ginsberg biography (with a photo of a Jeff Goldblumish-looking young Allen on a rooftop).
And Richard Ford, another of the current greats, has a new book out which I have ordered from an expensive new locally owned shop, which (aside from Wal-Mart and a couple of groceries) might now be the closest book story to my house here on the edge of nowhere. The book: The Lay of the Land. The very nice owner of the bookstore didn't know who he was, and after looking it up, pretended she had it boxed up in back and said she'd give me a call in a couple of days when she got it unpacked, then (I presume) ordered it and called yesterday to say my book was in. As she's new, and independent, I'll go buy it from her. But...
Finally, the Art of the Feud.
Oh, and I wrote about 575 words tonight on the novel, taking me to a word count of 36,207 with 10 days to go. Doable, considering I don't have to work at my day job on four of those days.
Tom Pynchon's new book has been getting mixed reviews, at least of the three I've so far come across and partially read. Time (P vs. the Toaster) and the NY Sun praise the man but not the plot, while Entertainment Weekly (that hotbed of quality literary reviews) gives it an A (and has yet to put it online, go figure.) Someday I'll read it, but this is not that day. Nor next year. I'm still working up the courage to start Gravity's Rainbow.
While we're at it, the NY Times over the weekend has Walter Kirn (another of my favs) writing about a new Allen Ginsberg biography (with a photo of a Jeff Goldblumish-looking young Allen on a rooftop).
And Richard Ford, another of the current greats, has a new book out which I have ordered from an expensive new locally owned shop, which (aside from Wal-Mart and a couple of groceries) might now be the closest book story to my house here on the edge of nowhere. The book: The Lay of the Land. The very nice owner of the bookstore didn't know who he was, and after looking it up, pretended she had it boxed up in back and said she'd give me a call in a couple of days when she got it unpacked, then (I presume) ordered it and called yesterday to say my book was in. As she's new, and independent, I'll go buy it from her. But...
Finally, the Art of the Feud.
Oh, and I wrote about 575 words tonight on the novel, taking me to a word count of 36,207 with 10 days to go. Doable, considering I don't have to work at my day job on four of those days.
