Lit Randomness: 2010-The Year of Reading Faulkner, Bill Simmons, Moby Dick, Padget Powell, Kirkus

2010: The Year of Reading Faulkner.



Okay, okay, okay, I admit I've never really dug into Faulkner. I've read him here and there, but haven't spent a lot of time with him. That's all about to change. Deckfight has picked out six Faulkner books to read in 2010. Some got left out. And I really wanted to read the whole Snopes Trilogy. But alas, we can probably only stand so much Faulkner in one year.

Call us crazy, call us insane, call us courageous. I'll post thoughts/reviews as we go along. We're going to do this. I don't want to set a time on anything, just an order. This loosely follows the publication schedule and I only picked the ones set in Whatchamacallit County. Here's the order and list:

1) Sound and Fury
2) As I Lay Dying
3) Sanctuary
4) Light in August
5) Absalom! Absalom!
6) The Hamlet

Who's with us? Bring it 2010, bring it! We'll officially get going in January, but no one's stopping you from getting a head start.

And now...some lit randomness you can dig into.

Tackling Bill Simmons' behemoth: At NY Mag.
W/ Sherman Alexie, Freedarko's Shoals, Sam Anderson & more. From these comments, I'm glad I didn't get this book for my dad. Simmons uses a lot of ahem, 'colorful' and 'explicit' metaphors apparently. Still waiting on my copy.

Padget Powell Double:
Ricky Moody on The Interrogative Mood at The Millions.
Then Jeff Parker on The Rumpus.

Should anyone care about Kirkus? At Jacket Copy.

Moby Dick Illustrations, with Matt Kish: At Vol. 1 Brooklyn.
I may have challenged them in Dave Eggers entries, but they take the cake for Moby Dick.

"These pieces are really immediate and intensely personal reactions to the book and how it has impacted me. A much more fragmented and multifaceted approach to the text."--Matt Kish

Best of 2009: at Salon. (h/t Maud Newton) Some really good book picks from some really good authors.


More after the jump...

Lit Randomness: 50 things publishers shouldn't do, Response to Rick Moody's Twitter feed, how to become a famous author & more

50 things publishers shouldn't do: At 3 Guys 1 Book.

How to become the most famous author in the world: At HTML Giant.

Reactions to Rick Moody's Twitter story: At HTML Giant.

Review of Mel Bosworth's book. The review could be longer, but I still want to read the book and plus I like this website a lot: At Outside Writers Collective.

More after the jump...

Lit Randomness: Rick Moody, Target, Stephen Elliott, Comics & the web

Rick Moody, author of a bunch of stuff, talks about being a father and his new book: At Identity Theory.
The best:

But I will admit that this new book, mostly written a couple of years ago, feels very emotionally antique to me right now. Sometimes that just means that you are done, you know, which I am, very nearly. But in this case it could also mean that I have changed a little bit. I don't think I'm going to be all sentimental now, just because there's a little baby around, but maybe I am going to be more direct, less inclined to waste time. Since I have less time to waste.

It doesn't matter if the book sucks, Target will make it a bestseller. Wait, that's cynical: At NY Times.

Making sense of the Internet through comics: At PopMatters.
The best:

Rather than destroying human connections and face-to-face meetings, Craigslist missed connections demonstrate the internet’s ability to connect the otherwise unconnectable. This seems to fly in the face of many technophobes’ concern that internet will become a great alienating force that makes traditional human contact obsolete.

Stephen Elliott's Lending Library: At The Nervous Breakdown. Here's my take on The Adderall Diaries.

More after the jump...