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Daniel Handler reads “Collectively”

I’ve been reading Adverbs by Daniel Handler. He’s hilarious, and poignant, and writes in that ironic, self-conscious/unself-conscious (yes, both at once) way that cool people do.

I just found him reading my favourite chapter (so far, because I haven’t finished the book yet) from Adverbs. I had more fun reading this chapter than I have reading anything in a while. I thought it would be worth sharing.

Check it out:  I wish I could write like this. I haven’t read anything this hilarious in quite some time.

Consider this something of a teaser, and chase up Adverbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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JOMAD – I Heard You Like Books?

This morning I’ve started the day really, really well. By listening to Jojo Jakob’s and Maddie Crofts’ new podcast, JOMAD – I Heard You Like Books.

They’re funny, they’re thoughtful, they’re having the conversations you like the have with your friends. They out their own trashy reading, discuss their guilty pleasures, and the ways it’s hard to keep track of what you’d like to read, and what you thought of what you have read. They’ve inspired me to get back on the reviewing on here, and, more simply, to get more reading done today.

And hey publishers who are reading this, Jodie Kinnersley needs a job. Hire her.

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Picking The Pockets of a Dying Business

Yesterday I received an email from Borders, finally admitting that they’re closing. Up until now it’s all been very carefully-worded “We’re in administration, which means nothing!” emails. Yesterday’s email said I’d better hurry, because they’re selling everything for 40-50% off RRP. This seems the right point for me to hit the sales – the prices are significantly reduced, but it’s new enough that there’ll probably still be some decent stuff left.

A dying store is a weird place to be. As I wandered through the Carlton Borders, I noticed stickers on everything. It was like being in Ikea, but a really sad, distorted Ikea with a different mood to the frenzy. In Ikea, there’s stickers on everything – “Look at this bathroom sink! You want it? Look up at the thing that’s lighting it – THAT is for sale TOO!” Likewise in Borders today – I was looking through the hundred or so biographies left in the store (displayed cover-forward, making them look even lonelier), and I realised that if I had the inclination and the money, I could buy the shelf. I could also buy the chair next the shelf. I could buy the stand-up racks they fold wrapping paper over, or I could buy a card stand – all I had to do was “Talk to the shop fitting mgr.”

And the frenzy! In Ikea, there’s a frenzy. It’s students hauling around flat-packs and mothers discovering that you can freeze ice in the shape of space invaders. It’s a weird over-consuming hum in Ikea – in Borders today it was that, but melancholy. You could hear the reverberation getting deeper as things flew off the shelves. One poor sales assistant kept getting requests for books that she just couldn’t fill. All that’s left in that store is the obscure, the non-fiction and the pulpable.

The non-fiction thing’s a bit weird – by no means a revelation, but the fact that the average readers doesn’t seem to read non-fiction in anywhere near the quantities of fiction is sad. There’s so much great stuff out there! I do though, and the four books I bought myself from this Borders’ closing-down sale are:

  • The Ticking Is The Bomb, by Nick Flynn
  • Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers
  • A Dull Roar, by Henry Rollins
  • From Hipsters to Gonzo: How New Journalism Rewrote the World, by Marc Weingarten


The sadness in Borders today was really weird and empty. People were there to buy up big, to CONSUME! …but only because time was running out. Only because of the death of one of the book stores who really encourage people to read, who otherwise wouldn’t. I’m not particularly sad that Borders is going or gone – I never really shopped there anyway, I’m just glad I got some cheap books out of their demise. I am sad, however, that those people who were in such a panic today to get their books before time ran out, may not bother to track down their local independent book-seller to seek out what was easy to get at Borders. They might just give up.

…But enough of that. As far as I know the sale’s going until they run out of books. So go pick the pockets of this dying business while you can.

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A Month Of Reading

A MONTH OF READING: JANUARY 2010:

Books Bought:
The Great Gatsby, by F Scott Fitzgerald

Books Borrowed/Received:
Library:
With Borges, by Alberto Manguel
Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris

Books Read:
The Best Australian Stories 2010, edited by Cate Kennedy
The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon
Lullaby, by Chuck Palahniuk
With Borges, by Alberto Manguel
White Teeth, by Zadie Smith

Reading:
Yellow Dog, by Martin Amis
Poemcrazy, by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge

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A Month Of Reading

I found this meme in “The Victorian Writer”, the Victorian Writer’s Centre magazine.

“A Month Of Reading” outlines what’s gone on on my bookshelf and in my reading time this month. I must say, I find it scary that this is a pretty typical month, acquiring 18 books and reading 3 of them. No wonder I panic about not having time to read “everything”!

What was your month of reading like?

DECEMBER:

Books Bought:
“The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“Ham on Rye” by Charles Bukowski
“Perfume” by Patrick Suskind
“Humpty Dumpty in Oakland” by Philip K. Dick
“The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and The Novel” by James Wood
“Reheated Cabbage” by Irvine Welsh
“The View From Castle Rock” by Alice Munro
“Our Story Begins” by Tobias Wolff

Books Borrowed/Received:
Library:
“The Family Law” by Benjamin Law
“Winning By Losing” by Jillian Michaels
“Black Swan Green” by David Mitchell
“Poemcrazy” by Susan Goldsmith-Woodridge

Gifted:
“The Crying of Lot 49” by Thomas Pynchon
“Yellow Dog” Martin Amis
“Unreliable Memoirs” Clive James
“Flying Visits” Clive James
“Brilliant Creatures” Clive James
“Reliable Essays – the best of Clive James” by Clive James

Books Read:
“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” by Oliver Sacks
“The Family Law” by Benjamin Law
“Black Swan Green” by David Mitchell

Books Reading:
“Winning by Losing” by Jillian Michaels
“The Best Australian Poems 2010” ed. Robert Adamson
“The Best Australian Stories 2010” ed. Cate Kennedy
“The Reader”, ed. Aden Rolfe

 

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City Basement Books is BACK!

Back in April, City Basement Books closed down. They had an amazing $1 sale, where I picked up a heap of wonderful things, many of which are still on by TBR pile. They promised to return soon, at a new premises… And they’ve finally pulled through!

On Monday, our beloved City Basement Books will return to a new space, at 342 Flinders St – just around the corner from its original store!

Opening hours will be what they always have been, 10am to 6pm weekdays, 10am to 2pm on Saturdays, Closed on Sundays.

Get down there and celebrate their return! Spoil yourself for Christmas with some cheap well-loved books.

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An Emergency In The Form of a Bright Blue Box Set

There’s many book shop loyalty programs. They all basically work on the idea that as you buy books, you get “rewards” (points of some sort which can be redeemed at that book store for more books).

A quick scan through my wallet shows the following book-store loyalty cards:
BORDERS: One stamp for every book you buy over $20. When you get to a certain amount (I think it’s 7), you get a free book of a value under $20. It’s pretty rare for Borders to charge under $20 for anything decent, plus this is only valid if you earn those rewards within a three-month time frame. No thanks.
ANGUS & ROBERTSON REWARDS: One point for every dollar you spend. Good deal, no? No. It takes 100 points (that’s $100, kids) to earn your “reward” – a $5 A&R voucher. That’s a lot of money for little payoff. Really.
DYMOCKS BOOKLOVER: I’ve been a member of is for such a long time, and it’s still not such a bad deal. Dymocks give you 5 points for every $1 you spend. Every 100 points equates to $1 credit on your card. As I said, not such a bad deal.
VWC MEMBERSHIP: This is an inappropriate plug for how great it is being a member of the Victorian Writer’s Centre. For those of us on concession cards, it’s only $45 a year, and that pays itself off SO quickly. Not only do you get sent special publications all about the writing industry, and get cheaper tickets to workshops etc AND access to the kick-ass library they’ve got up at the Wheeler Centre, but you also get 10% off at Paperback Books on Bourke Street. The Paperback is one of my favourite book shops in Melbourne, and this 10% off makes it so much better shopping there. Rant Fin.

My favourite rewards card though? Easily
READER’S FEAST PRIVILEGED READER: You know those book guides that Reader’s Feast put out each season? That gets sent to you in the mail. Along with invites to special events, such as discount shopping evenings and writers’ appearances. On top of this, every dollar that you spend at Reader’s Feast gets tracked on your card, and twice a year 10% of the amount you’ve spent gets reimbursed as a Reader’s Feast book voucher. If that amount is under $5, they send you a $5 voucher anyway. Forgot to bring your card? No worries, they’ll look you up on the computer.

So, all that being said, I know my top two choices for Christmas shopping!

Last week in the mail I received the above mentioned seasonal book catalogue. In the same envelope were two invitations. One to a special evening where you partook in “Christmas cheer”, “light refreshments”, shopped, and received a $5 voucher just for coming. Unfortunately, I was working that night and missed it. However, the other invitation was for “End of Year Bonus Time”. Between the 21st of November and the 5th of December, Readers Feast are boosting the Privileged Reader’s rewards to 20% credit, rather than the usual 10%.

Today I headed in. I’ve been eagerly awaiting having enough cash to buy the whole Black Inc. “Best Australian…” box set, containing the collected essays, short stories and poetry. I’ve been unreasonably excited about this – when I received this “20%!” invite, I had to have in. I had the cash, I had the time, I went and got my box set. The box set, worth $70, is now sitting next to me on my couch waiting to be cracked open. Not only do I own this box set, but $14 of the purchase price will soon come back to me in the form of a Reader’s Feast book voucher. $14! That’s SO MUCH!

I’m proud of myself, folks. And I’m giving you a kind heads-up. Things you should take from this post:
– Join Reader’s Feast Privileged Readers reward program. It’s free, and so very awesome.
– Join VWC. They’re so plain awesome that they snuck into this post uninvited!
– Buy the “Best Australian…”  collection. In a box-set this year! It’s so pretty. So very, very pretty.

SO pretty, in fact, that I’m settling down with a coffee to get stuck into them right now. Boss, if you’re reading this, I may not be in to work tonight, I might have “an emergency”…in the form of a bright blue box set.

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Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

“It’s that moon again, slung so fat and low in the tropical night, calling out across a curdled sky and into the quivering ears of that dear old voice in the shadows, the Dark Passenger, nestled snug in the backseat of the Dodge K-car of Dexter’s hypothetical soul.
That rascal moon, that loudmouthed leering Lucifer, calling down across the empty sky to the dark hearts of the night monsters below, calling them away to their joyful playgrounds.”

From Dearly Devoted Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay (p1)

 

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The Wild Things by Dave Eggers Review

I never read Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are as a kid. I can recognize the book, and I knew it was popular, but somehow it was a title that I just never had much to do with.

Recently this book was turned into a film, which expanded on Sendak’s original picture-book story. There was much discussion about the film being too adult, and not in the general feel of the children’s story. I saw the film, and I agree, it’s not appropriate for children – but I don’t think it should have been. The kids about my age and older who grew up reading Where The Wild Things Are are the people who watched the film, and it was appropriate for that age group.

Lesser known is the fact that at around the same time, the picture-book was adapted to a novel, written by Dave Eggers, who also wrote the screenplay. The novel diverges from the story of the film in parts, but generally feels the same and has the same message – it’s not as dark as the film though, and I think you could almost read this novel to a kid (probably about 8yo+) and have them understand it and get something out of it.

The story is about Max, a young boy whose parents have not long divorced. Max is having trouble with his sister not caring about him any more, and his mum giving her attention to a new man, Gary. Max plays up and causes trouble – his mum tells him he’s caused “permanent damage”. While she’s referring to the house, Max sees it as emotional damage, and runs away from home in confusion. He gets in his boat and tries to steer toward the city, where his father is. Somehow though, Max drifts out to sea and lands on an island full of creatures who are as wild as Max. They make him their king, and during his time on the island, Max learns that it’s impossible to please everyone all the time, and that there are very real consequences for the things he decides to do. By leaving his home, Max learns to see the wild thing inside himself.

Written in a very simple style, Dave Eggers has written a touching story which could speak equally to adults and older children. Though the language is uncomplicated, the story is by no means one-dimensional. Eggers here absolutely disproves the rule of “writing what you know” as being the most effective way to write a moving story. He makes utterly unreal creatures more human than many of the characters I’ve read elsewhere, showing that all you really need to have is a point. And a way with words – oh, Lordy! Has Dave Eggers got a way with words! (The idea of Max being “half boy, half wind” just kills me!) He paints beautiful imagery, and is consistent with it. Metaphors appear and re-appear , ideas weave their way seamlessly through the narrative as character motivators (such as Carol’s attachment to the idea of the sun dying).

Even though the story is set in an unnamed land, inhabited by unreal wild creatures, I found myself on the verge of tears by the end of the book. Each character had an absolute purpose in the same way that real people do. I felt like I’d wandered into a firmly established and very real situation in much the same way as Max had, and there was no point in the story when I didn’t believe or care about what was happening.

I’m a bit of a Dave Eggers fan, having recently read How We Are Hungry and just about wetting myself over its brilliance, and having a fairly obsessive attachment to A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius. A children’s book adaptation though? Really?

Yes, really. Don’t let the premise put you off. Dave Eggers has written in a super-tight way, true to his usual form, and has turned fantastical characters into something very real that will stick with you.

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