Readerville

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

Got an hour? The BBC4 adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s short story “The Enormous Space” is above, via YouTube. (Also at YouTube, have you seen/heard the VW ad with Richard Burton reciting Dylan Thomas’ “Under Milk Wood”?)

If you haven’t heard about, or test driven, Zoomii, you might want to rectify that soon. Zoomii is to bookstore shelving as Google Earth is to the planet. Created by Chris Thiessen and originally tied into Amazon.ca, it's a browsable virtual storefront, now also available in a US version. The original was buggy and very slow in Firefox, but those problems have been fixed. There’s buzz that Amazon is very interested in this application. 

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

This is for all the creative types out there who’ve imagined designing and/or writing for magazines. Why bang your head trying to work your way into the business? Besides, hasn’t the print death knell been tolling for some time now? (Though I’m not buying it.) Issuu.com is an online service that lets you upload and share magazines for free. Register, design your own magazine in PDF form, and post it to the site. There are plenty of tutorials to help you along. As a reader, you can also create a library of magazines to share either on the site or on your own blog. There are magazines on dogs, game developers, analogue music — you name it, and someone on Issuu is covering it. Looking for info on Twitter, for example? See Charged Magazine’s “Beginner’s Guide to Twitter.” (It starts on page 12.) There’s a strong international flavor, and you can print out your favorites — a very cool concept.

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

I hold in my hot little hands a galley for the soon-to-be-released Who Can Save Us Now? — a collection of short stories written by some of today’s hippest writers, edited by Owen Hill and John McNally, and illustrated by Chris Burnham. It’s divided into sections titled The Most Unlikely Beginnings, The Beast Within, A Shadowy Figure and Beneath the Cowl, in which Graham Joyce, Will Clarke, Jim Shepard, Tom Bissell, J. Robert Lennon, et al imagine new superheroes and villains. I’ll be writing more about it, but in the meantime, if you’re not familiar with the illustrations of Chris Burnham, I can fix that for you.

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

Bill Moyers recently hosted filmmakers Phil Donahue (yes, that Phil Donahue) and Ellen Spiro, whose new documentary is Body of War. Iraq vet Tomas Young, the subject of the film, compiled a terrific, personal, antiwar soundtrack for it. The Moyers piece is excellent, but so are the comments to Young’s post on Moyers’ blog, which asks the question What’s Your Favorite Antiwar or Protest Music?. Check out all the recommendations. Just as interesting, if not more so, are the reader responses to Moyers’ question: How have you been impacted by the war?

Buckminster Fuller is known as the inventor of the geodome, but he should be known as the inventor of the flop. “Dymaxion Man” by Elizabeth Kolbert, for The New Yorker, is a fascinating read about one wacky guy. (Thanks for the tip, Daniel.)

From Spike Magazine: The Literary and Political Catholicism of Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh.

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

Here are the first stills released from the set of the film of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Viggo as the father? Perfect casting. Pics from Premier (France) and Row 3. See also: At World’s End, Honing a Father-Son Dynamic.

Wyatt Mason’s in-depth commentary about the recent Franzen/Wood thing at Harvard. For someone who claims to disdain big corporate monopolies, Franzen spends a lot of time in the mainstream media.

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

Both Torque Control and The Valve posted fine summaries of the Science Fiction as Literature symposium that took place at London’s Gresham College on May 8th. The speakers were Neal Stephenson, John Clute, Dr. Roger Luckhurst, Andy Sawyer, Dr. Martin Willis and Professor Tim Connell. As usual, some of the most interesting points about the speakers’ papers appear in both blogs’ comment sections. Some may find it dry reading, but I found the discussions about Wells vs. James and the absence of a female presence on the panel of special note.

PBS has posted its video interview with Kurt Vonnegut. If you’re video impaired, the transcript is available. They also have an audio clip of the author reading from Slaughterhouse Five, links to his Guardian page, reviews and much more.

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

The audience of the NYT's Paper Cuts blog responds with some great quotes, ranging from Aeschylus to Dylan, when asked, “What song or poem, readers, has touched you when you were bereft?”

“A constantly updated and expanding list chosen by writers and readers, Faber Finds aims to restore to print a wealth of lost classics. Books of fiction, poetry, memoir, history, criticism, essays and anthologies — quality writing by authors of distinction, printed only on demand.” Check out the first selections for print, enter a contest to win 5 of the books, and then submit your own suggestions.

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

Those requiring clarification after reading Denis Johnson’s riveting and ambitious, if sometimes mystifying, Tree of Smoke, might benefit from Philip Connors’ in-depth examination of the National Book Award winner. Denis Johnson’s Higher Power appears in the Winter 2008 Issue of The Virginia Quarterly. Besides being a rare inside look at the reclusive writer’s life, it’s a great primer for Johnson’s body of work. Connors makes a convincing argument for Tree of Smoke as prequel: “Tree of Smoke is many things — Johnson’s magnum opus, a pastiche of Vietnam novels and movies and nonfiction accounts, a philosophical exploration of military intelligence, an atmospheric thriller in the mode of Graham Greene or John Le Carré — but perhaps most interestingly it is the prequel we didn’t know existed to Johnson’s entire body of work. No fewer than eight of its characters have appeared in Johnson’s other novels ... .”

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D'Amico

The short version: Thomas J. Abercrombie spent thirty-eight years as a photo journalist for National Geographic. The longer version: he covered seven continents; he was one of two journalists at the South Pole in 1957; he "was the first one to come in and take the 35 mm and do candid"; and he is credited with devising the look of the images we've come to associate with the famous magazine. Abercrombie was an old-school photographer/writer/journalist, described by one admirer as "sawshbuckling" in the documentary "White Tiger: The Adventures of Thomas J. Abercrombie." At the age of seventy-five, he died from complications after open-heart surgery, and in 2006 the magazine featured a print tribute. His life's exploits make Indy Jones' look tame in comparison. The full article is available only to subscribers, but you can view a slideshow of some of his work. Then treat yourselves to the fine Washington Post overview of an amazing artist's life.

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D'Amico

Graphic novels and comics have always enjoyed a dedicated fan base, but recent literary treatments and dark, sophisticated film adaptations (the hottest, most anticipated summer blockbusters are about superheroes) are bringing scores of new fans to the genre. WOWIO is offering graphic novels and comics for free (and a mere registration). New additions every day make it a Web site to watch.

Few will argue Ursula K. Le Guin's status as the reigning grand dame of genre-busting fiction. In preparation of her latest release, Lavinia, a fascinating, imagined story of Aneas' second wife, she talks about her first publications, how the Vietnam War influenced her best-known series, and how her book's heroes became women, all in an email interview for Guernica, with Andrew Chee, author of Edinburgh.

Ryszard Kapuscinski's journalistic career is both heralded and controversial. Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow's review of Travels with Herodotus utilizes a critique of the seasoned reporter's final book as a platform for a fascinating overview of his life, contributions, and controversies.