Dwight Garner's new book "Read Me: A Century of Classic American book Advertisements" gathers 300 vintage ads published during the 20th Century -- the century when "The Great Gatsby," "Ulysses," "On the Road," "Lolita," "Silent Spring," "The Joy of Sex," "Gone With the Wind," "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Helter Skelter" and so many other classics hit our bookshelves.
Category: Classics
In “A Meaningful Life” everything is all wrong
L. J. Davis's 1971 novel “A Meaningful Life” was reissued this year. It's a funny story about a protagonist who gets a wake-up call to do something about his dull life.
“The Anatomy of Melancholy”
Robert Burton's 17th Century exploration of melancholy is a best seller for The New York Review of Books Classics. But why?
Do these books have future readers?
The new issue of "The American Scholar" features a troubling article about the decline of English literature as a college major. It's worthy reading. Plus, 10 books from my college bookshelf. Are they now irrelevant?
Finding “Kaputt”
"The New York Review of Books" Classics series publishes great novels of World War II. Here's one of them.
More books for the reading table
77 books of fiction won the National Book Award between 1950 and today. It's a great list for finding your next good book to read.
Two essays by Philip Connors
One about Norman Maclean, author of "A River Runs Through It," and one about his brother Dan, who committed suicide. Both well-written and soul-stirring.
Will Google kill used bookstores?
The owner of a used bookstore thinks it will. Plus, three books I purchased.
A surprise arrives from Paris
Two paperback books found in a book stall near Notre Dame Cathedral arrive in my mailbox.
“The Collector” is now off the reading table
Published in 1963, John Fowles first novel about a psychopath reflects today's news. I struggled to separate his fiction from reality.
I can’t resist vintage paperbacks
Check out the sexy temptress on the first edition paperback of Steinbeck's "To a God Unknown" and the deer-in-the-headlights face on Fitzgerald's "The Beautiful and Damned." Intriguing illustrations such as these are why vintage paperbacks end up in my library.
William Styron, the Marines & me
A collection of fictional Marine Corps stories by the late William Styron will be published in October. I collect Styron, and his first book about the Marines is when it all began.
Garrison Keillor reads George Orwell
In his famous Prairie Home Companion voice, Keillor reads "A Hanging" for Lapham's Quarterly. A must listen 10-15 minute audio.
The greatest war novel of all time
Erich Maria Remarque fought in the horrific trench warfare of World War I and survived to write "All Quiet on the Western Front." He gives his narrator, a German soldier, insight that, in moving, simplistic prose, expresses loss of emotional youth and wisdom of war's follies. Some passages and scenes, so personal, so lyric, call to be reread several times.
How romance adds up
The June 22nd issue of The New Yorker features a profile of mega-selling romance writer Nora Roberts. My experience with the romance genre is limited (best we make that "extremely limited"), but the profile interested me for its data on the genre.
The Longest Chapter 