When I was younger, I was certain I should like science fiction and fantasy fiction. All the indicators were there, led by an endless affection for the wildly creative worlds found within the pages of comic books. There’s an awful … Continue reading My Writers: Bradley Denton
“Like many slobs, Beard was appreciative of the order that others created without effort, or any that he noticed. In Melissa’s flat, which was spread out over two floors, he was particularly happy. She lived such an uncluttered life at home. There were open perspectives untroubled by furniture. The foot-wide beeswaxed floorboards recovered from a Gascony château shone with dull perfection. There were no loose objects, all the books were on the shelves in the right order, at least until he visited, and the art on the walls was sparse lithographs, mostly of dancers. There was a single statue, a … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
I nearly forgot that I have a Halloween tradition. For the third year in a row, these are things that I find (or at least have found) scary… Ridley Scott’s Alien was released in theaters six days before me ninth … Continue reading Two steps forward, don’t say I didn’t warn you
“Clinton sighed and gave up. All his life he had given up. He didn’t know why it was like that; why a man who wanted nothing but to live honestly and industriously and usefully — who, briefly, asked only the privileges of giving and helping — had had to compromise and surrender at every turn. But that was the way it had been, and that was apparently the way it was to be.” –Jim Thompson, The Getaway, 1958 “AND THERE, AGELESS SERENITY SHATTERS, SPLINTERED BY THE SOFT SCRABBLE OF FINGERNAILS CLAWING CLAY–AND BY A SUDDEN ERUPTION OF SCRAWNY HANDS THRUSTING … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
I was voraciously seeking out new fiction in the late nineteen-nineties, no doubt partially inspired by the fact that it was realistically the first time in my life I had enough disposable income to regularly offer business to local bookstores … Continue reading My Writers: Jonathan Lethem
In some respects, I’m not entirely sure I should even include Donna Tartt on this list. Unlike those writers that have preceded her in this informal tally and most who will follow her (certainly all of them in the initial … Continue reading My Writers: Donna Tartt
Though I loved reading throughout my school years, and therefore happily gravitated to English courses and even majored in English in college (along with Communication, because I decided to double-down on degrees bereft of vocational utility), I generally had a … Continue reading My Writers: John Steinbeck
I had a bunch of blocky Stephen King paperbacks on my shelf for a long time before I dared to commit to one. As I’ve mentioned before, I owned a copy of The Shining that beckoned to me occasionally. … Continue reading My Writers: Stephen King
The super-secret, ever-so-intriguing backstory behind the images chosen to accompany these “My Writers” posts is this: as often as I can, I try to select the book cover that corresponds to the specific edition of the title that was my … Continue reading My Writers: Don DeLillo
I’m glad to report that I fell for Ian McEwan’s literary sleight of hand in Atonement. I knew blessedly little about the novel when I picked it up to read it, little more, in fact, than it was earning acclaim … Continue reading My Writers: Ian McEwan
Coffee for Two 