Make of this what you will.
“Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts” (all 46 of ‘em) from LIFE Magazine.
Click through to the LIFE site to read the captions (and names, sheesh!) about each author.
Thanks to Mike H. for the linkage.
LIFE’s Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts
Posted on April 14, 2010
The Modern Library’s 100 Best
Posted on February 15, 2010
This may not exactly be news to the avid reader but it’s worthy of stating again, if not only for picking a nasty fight (as are all “Top Whatever” lists, no?) Here are the “100 Best Novels” and “100 Best Nonfiction” books as listed by The Modern Library, a division of Random House. Note the literati smackdown already in play between “The Board” and “The Readers”. Fun!
If you haven’t read ‘em, what are you waiting for and, if you have, which are your faves?
THE BOARD’S TOP FIVE NOVELS
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THE BOARD’S TOP FIVE NONFICTION BOOKS
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The Modern Library’s “100 Best Novels” and the “100 Best Nonfiction” books
NaNoWriMo Approacheth!
Posted on October 6, 2009
For those of you unfamiliar with the psychosis-inducing exercise that is National Novel Writing Month (inconveniently known as NaNoWriMo), behold. Every November, hoards of slightly *off* writers plunk down at their keyboards and legal pads hellbent on composing 50,000 words that will, with some luck, jell into the beginnings of a novel. It takes thirty days of frenzied doing and it’s a crazymaking good time.
New writers find NaNoWriMo to be an expectation-free way of diving in to what appear to be an impossible achievement. And novelists with a few on their shelves? Well, they find NaNoWriMo to be an expectation-free way of diving in to what appear to be an impossible achievement…or to start a new project or just for a bit of silly fun. Birthing 350 pages can be daunting to anyone and spilling it forth–without looking back and knowing that the first draft will indeed be utter crap–can be freeing and exhilarating for just about anyone. (Even screenwriters. And yes, we know your dirty little secret…)
NaNoWriMo is empowering. It shows us what we can do. It shows us that we each have unlimited depth to our abilities. (Personally, when I feel blocked, I reflect on my NaNoWriMo experiences and know the words are always there waiting patiently for me to bring them out and shape them into meaning. It’s comforting.) When a group of people come together to push themselves through together, anything can happen.
So far this year, over 15,000 writers have signed up! So why not toss your pen in the ring this November and
sign up today?
| National Novel Writing Month November 1st to 30th, 2009 http://www.nanowrimo.org |
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| Script Frenzy April 1st to 30th, 2010 http://www.scriptfrenzy.org |
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Tags: novel
Jim Krusoe’s “Erased” On Shelves Now
Posted on August 20, 2009
Novelist Jim Krusoe’s latest book, Erased, has been named by The Los Angeles Times as a must-read for the summer. Krusoe discusses his work (see: Girl Factory)and reads an excerpt on KCRW’s Bookworm.
In Erased, Krusoe takes on a dead mother who mysteriously sends notes from the beyond to her grown son, Theodore, the owner of a mail-order gardening-implement business. “I need to see you,” the first card reads. Theodore does what any sensible person would: he ignores it. But when he gets a second card that’s even more urgent, Theodore leaves his quiet home in St. Nils for a radiantly imagined Cleveland, Ohio, to track down his mother. There, aided by Uleene, the last remaining member of Satan’s Samaritans, an all-girl biker club, he searches through the realms of women’s clubs, art, rodent extermination, and sport fishing until he finds the answers he seeks.– From Tin House Books
Jim Krusoe teaches at Santa Monica College and is a mentor in the MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles.
Erased at Amazon
Author Q & A and more at Tin House Books
Listen at KCRW/Bookworm
Amazon’s New “Omnivoracious” Books Widget
Posted on January 22, 2009
The World’s Biggest Bookstore–oops, I mean Amazon.com, have recently launched a new widget that you may want to share with your own readers.
It’s a stream of commentary on everything and anything related to reading.
THE STORY SPOT is going to observe for a while before adding the widget here. We want to offer you only info you that find valuable. While this Omnivoracious stream immediately intrigues, it also appears to be as very, very broad for our collective tastes.
If you do end up posting the widget on your own blog (click the little GET WIDGET link at the bottom), let us know here. When the readers speak, we hop to it!
