Junot (Diaz), Girl!!!
Monday, March 10th by Shane
Barely understands that stupid joke
Diaz has won a major award. The National Book Critics Circle has given The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao its award for outstanding fiction. Edwidge Danticat, who is know for her fiction works, won for best non-fiction. Diaz wasn’t able to attend the awards show, but everyone assumes he’s pretty psyched about the whole thing. And speaking of major awards, I’m reminded of this great prize that was once bestowed on a humble man.
Nicholson Baker, who’s known for stories about escalators and killing President Bush, has just released a non-fiction book about WWII called Human Smoke. Ed Champion is posting a five-part round table with himself, Sarah Weinman, Levi Asher, and Brian Francis Slattery to discuss Baker’s new work. It is already pretty in-depth with it only getting deeper so start now and don’t get lost.
Oh, if you watched that clip I posted earlier, my favorite part is when he calls it “Indescribably beautiful”.
Pictures of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I couldn’t care less about this, and I still looked at the book. It’s pretty cool. Also, they describe the stories inside. Those are less cool.
Creative bookshelves. Dive in, yuppie.
New Yorker essay by Michael Chabon. Dive in, yuppie.
And finally, more talk about how my city rules when it comes to books. Seattle apparently guides a portion of how this country reads. During much of the year I find it’s better to stay inside with a novel than contemplate suicide under the clouds, so I think that’s the secret. But I guess Costco, Starbucks, and Amazon may have something to do with it as well. Of course, since this means that more indie bookshops go out of business that’s less exciting. A lot less exciting. In fact, that sucks. Screw you, Seattle.
