Entries Tagged 'Books' ↓

in an announcement I put on this site to a conundrum press book launch and I find that Andy Brown’s great small press is turning 10 this year! There’s a party on Thursday, May 18 at the Mainline Theatre, 3997 St. Laurent at 8pm. They’re launching The Portable Conundrum at the party, a tenth anniversary anthology.

in the air about James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces and the fact that although it is being marketed as a memoir, which many people assume is a synonym for “autobiography”, Frey seems to have taken some liberties with the “truth”. However, when the book was first published, the following appeared in an interview with Frey:

Speaking of memoirs, are there any autobiographies or memoirs that you’re particularly fond of?
I love Charles Baudelaire. I love Celine and Henry Miller. I love Charles Bukowski and Pat Conroy and Tim O’Brien and Brett Easton Ellis. None of these guys actually wrote memoirs, but they all wrote about themselves. Though I used my real name, I consider my work in the same tradition.

I think if people are upset, they should be upset at the marketing people who convinced Frey to play along with this “nonfiction” business. They’ve likely screwed up his long-term career. On the other hand, he has seemed quite eager to play along - I don’t think anyone has put anything over on the guy.

Number of books I own:
About 2000 or so, all tolled. Packed for moving, between the two of us we have about 20 boxes. That includes cookbooks!
Last books bought:
The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World, John Ralston Saul
Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf
Last Book Read:
London: the Biography, Peter Ackroyd (non-fiction)
The System of the World, Neal Stephenson (fiction)
Five Books that Mean a Lot to Me:
The Famished Road, Ben Okri
Digital Delirium, Arthur and Marilouise Kroker, eds. (I devoted a great deal of time working on it with the editors)
Selections from the Prison Notebooks, Antonio Gramsci
In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje
The Deptford Trilogy (Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders), Robertson Davies
Best UnAsked Meme Question:
What is the breakdown of fiction and non-fiction in your reading habits? How do you account for this?
Tag Five People with this Meme:
AJ (West of the Expressway)
Ed (Blork blog)
Kevin (Mobtown Blues)
Patrick (i.never.nu)
Heather (Lectio.ca)

has posted a great set of links related to Jacques Derrida.

They suggest that “Search inside the book” results are presented under the “Books” tab on the standard results page, but I tried it and it didn’t work. That’s a pretty tough test so I tried again with a more precise search and it got the book right but not the page that my name appears on.

: an excerpt from Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. Cory and I have never met, but I’ve virtually bumped into him online through at least 3 independent channels, and we have at least one friend in common in the flesh. And of course he blogs at Boing Boing, arguably the ne plus ultra among weblogs.