David Foster Wallace and Dan Brown walk into a classroom together…

I was thinking that the title would seem like the start of a really funny joke, but it is something that actually happened.  Via The Faster Times: the two authors were in a creative writing workshop together at Amherst college. Can you even imagine the workshop comments they gave each other? That’s a pretty weird connection, but at this point, we are used to the “six degrees of David Foster Wallace” thing.  However, what I find really dark here, is […]

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Bites: Don Amazon, young adult steampunk, 2666 gets the paperback treatment, Johnnie Walker kicks Glenn Beck to the curb, 3rd Ward home cookin’, and more

“Amazon’s a modern day Don Quixote.” (Thanks Gawker) Lit. So now book bloggers have to report the books they get for review or face an $11,000 fine.  Ed Champion ain’t gonna stand for it! Is the term”young adult steampunk” at all related to The Pains of Being Heart song “Young Adult Friction”?   (Thanks Boing Boing) HTML Giant really likes writer Sarah Manguso A little book named 2666 is now in paperback. Lit Kicks does an eloquent job of summing […]

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Bites: Proust and a six pack, literary revolution, James Brown, Neutral Milk Hotel, caffeine suppositories, and more

Proust liked to knock a few cold ones back.  So what?  You think he subsisted on madeleines alone?   Just look at that picture of him.  He’s looking at you and saying “Heineken?  Fuck that shit!  Pabst Blue Ribbon!” (via Maud Newton) Lit. You should probably go over to The Millions and see their list of  “The Best Fiction of The Millennium (So Far)“ I feel like we should have a countdown to #1. Dan Brown taking on the Daughters of […]

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Bites: Ames is Bored to Death, Thurston on grunge, Sampsell talks to Elliott, Jeter and Jesus = same thing, and more

Is Bored to Death (starring Jason Schwartzman, pictured above) the next HBO show in line that becomes that show people who “don’t watch tv” actually get into (The Wire, The Sopranos, etc.)?  Not sure.  But knowing that Jonathan Ames is the writer can give one hope.  He talks to Huffington Post. Indichik went to our Vol. 1 Storytelling Brooklyn series this last Thursday, and said some very nice things. Lit. Kevin Sampsell interviews Stephen Elliott for the Portland Mercury 2666, […]

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Bites: Osama hearts John Mearsheimer, People care about Dan Brown, the reading habits of cheerleaders, Pavement is back, and more

Lit. Who would have guessed that Osama Bin Laden was a fan of books by Jimmy Carter (above, looking troubled) and a University of Chicago professor?  I wonder if he has a Goodreads account? People are really excited about Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol.  Lev Grossman asks “How Good is it?” Vulture looks at the “daring interior monologue” in The Lost Symbol. Jacket Copy tells us “How to Party Like Dan Brown“, and suddenly we think we should just give […]

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Bites: Dickens as the modern dad, Ivy Pochoda to make publishing history, Tao Lin saves, and more

Lit. Could Dickens be a role model for the parents of today, or was it that he just had O.C.D.? Ivy Pochoda is the featured reader at our upcoming Vol. 1 Brooklyn Storytelling series.  With her new book The Art of Disappearing (St. Martins Press) out tomorrow, which coincidentally is the same day that Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol hits stands, Ivy says that together, the two of them combined will make publishing history.    This points to a good sign […]

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Bites: 9/11 novels, Nick Cave’s new book, Sufjan Stevens clip, Fashion and Tennis, the mind of Joe Wilson, and more

  Lit The Daily Beast’s Sam Jacobs lists the 9/11 novels actually worth reading. “Welcoming Remarks Made at a Literary Reading, 9/25/01” at McSweeney’s Nick Cave (pictured above) talks about The Death of Bunny Munro (Thanks, Guardian) Michelle Huneven (Blame) picks songs for Largehearted Boy. The sentence “Dan Brown, is expected to pull a J.K. Rowling by single-handedly hauling the publishing industry out of the toilet” sends chills up my spine. (Thanks, January Magazine) Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago,” once […]

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