Into the Wild was published in 1996, the year I turned twenty-six. The doomed wanderer of the book, Christopher McCandless (also known as Alexander Supertramp), was twenty-four years old when he died alone in an abandoned bus on the Alaskan … Continue reading My Writers: Jon Krakauer
I don’t think I’ve ever been a reader who sticks firmly to one type of writing, but I did read a lot of horror fiction throughout high school. That’s partially explained by my commitment to Stephen King, who was (and … Continue reading My Writers: Clive Barker
“I had solved nothing, but I felt clever in making progress. And feeling clever, I’ve always thought, is just a sigh away from being cheerful.” –Ian McEwan, Sweet Tooth, 2012 “YOU WHO DWELL HERE ARE ALL THE SAME! YOU THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY RACE INHABITING THIS PLANET! YOU NEVER SUSPECT THAT ANOTHER — MORE POWERFUL SPECIES MIGHT SHARE YOUR PLANET WITH YOU! DO YOU PRESUME TO THINK THAT HUMANS ARE THE ONLY INTELLIGENT LIFE EARTH HAS SPAWNED!” –Stan Lee, FANTASTIC FOUR, Vol. 1, No. 46, “Those Who Would Destroy Us!” 1966 Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
Doris Kearns Goodwin tricked me into reading the work of a historian. I didn’t necessarily have anything against reading history, but there are so many books out there that I usually insisted on the need to concentrate on fiction. There’s … Continue reading My Writers: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Throughout middle school, I swear I always had a copy of a Douglas Adams book with me. That’s almost certainly not true, since he was only two books into his five-volume trilogy launched in 1979 with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to … Continue reading My Writers: Douglas Adams
“Everyone laughs except Bix, who’s at his computer, and you feel like a funny guy for maybe half a second, until it occurs to you that they probably only laughed because they could see you trying to be funny, and they’re afraid you’ll jump out the window onto East Seventh Street if you fail, even at something so small.” –Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 2010 “YOUR NAME IS BEVERLY GABLE, AND YOU ARE RETURNING HOME AFTER AN EVENING OF BABY-SITTING. FOR THREE AND ONE-HALF HOURS YOU WATCHED THE FLICKERING IMAGES PLAYING ON A TELEVISION SET, OBLIVIOUS TO … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
“My ideal picture of citizenship will always be an argument, not a sing-along.” “Voice” is a word that’s used commonly to describe writers, at least good ones. It’s usually meant to describe something that’s found strictly on the page: point … Continue reading My Writers: Sarah Vowell
“If ifs and buts were candies and nuts we’d all have a very Merry Christmas, I heard my aunt Diane boom in my head. Those words had been the bane of my childhood, a constant reminder that nothing turned out right, not just for me but for anyone, and that’s why someone had invented a saying like that. So we’d all know that we’d never have what we needed.” –Gillian Flynn, Dark Places, 2009 “CLARKE FUTURISTICS: CALL IT A DREAM GONE BUST–JUST ONE MORE INSIGNIFICANT VICTIM OF THE RECESSION. STUART CLARKE HAD POURED HIS SOUL INTO A VISION OF THE … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
“‘I wonder,’ she was fond of remarking, ‘what they’d say if they knew that we two old tramps were going to be the most marvellous novelist and the greatest actress in the world.’ “‘They’d probably be very much surprised.’ “‘I expect we shall look back on this time when we’re driving about in our Mercedes, and think: After all, it wasn’t such bad fun!’” –Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin, 1939 “THEY WALKED ACROSS THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE AT DAWN, STOPPING HALFWAY TO WATCH THE RISING SUN> PAINT THE MONOLITHIC OFFICE TOWERS OF LOWER MANHATTAN IN STREAKS OF FIRE. THEY’D STARTED THE … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
I’m not so arrogant as to believe that I’ve got something profoundly novel to contribute to the vast ongoing discussion about the most important writer in the history of the English language. I can only do what the title of … Continue reading My Writers: William Shakespeare
Coffee for Two 