Cleaning House

Whenever I want to avoid work (which is every day, from sun up until happy hour), I fart around with my bookshelves. Do I really need two copies of "Fortress of Solitude"? Wouldn't I rather have a copy of "The Hourse" without Nicole Kidman on the cover? And why do I still have that near-death, falling-out-pages copy of "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" when it would be so easy to buy a hardback?

So it was with some pleasure that I read Laura Miller's essay at the New York Times page about cleaning bookshelves. If you're as hopelessly self-absorbed as I am when it comes to your books, you'll probably identify with either of the primary shelf-purging philosophies:

There are two general schools of thought on which books to keep, as I learned once I began swapping stories with friends and acquaintances. The first views the bookshelf as a self-portrait, a reflection of the owner’s intellect, imagination, taste and accomplishments. “I’ve read ‘The Magic Mountain,’ ” it says, and “I love Alice Munro.” For others, especially those with literary careers, a personal library can be “emotional and totemic,” in the words of the agent Ira Silverberg. Books become stand-ins for friends and clients. Silverberg cherishes the copy of Céline given to him when he was 19 by William Burroughs, while “people I’ve stopped talking to go out immediately. There are people whose books I refuse to live with.”

Holiday Author Fair

The Indiana Historical Society will be putting on its sixth annual holiday author fair next month on December 6th. Not to be a dick about it, but their website barely notes it as an event on their calendar, and the blurb they give it hardly does it justice. So instead of quoting anything from the site, I'm going to refer to the pamphlet they sent out, which seems to be where their advertising dollars are focused.

The holiday author fair features 90 authors (NINETY!) in what the IHS describes as "the largest gathering of its kind." Featured authors include Barbara Shoup, James Alexander Thom, Michael Martone, Sandy Sasso, Philip Gulley, and too many more to list.

The event is free (FREE!), as is the parking and gift wrapping (FREE!). For more information, here again is the website, and here's the phone number for more information: 1-800-447-1830 or 1-317-234-0020.

Metromix

A couple quick things today. First, I'm posting this link partly so I don't lose it, but also because others might find it useful. Metromix has city by city listings of all kinds of events, including literary events around Indy. This will be useful as we update the ol' Book Choy calendar, but you might want to bookmark it yourself, too.

Second, I don't know how many of you listen to podcasts, but there are so many out there that can be fun and/or useful to writers. I Should Be Writing has always entertained me, and for anyone interested in screenwriting, Sam and Jim go to Hollywood is indispensible. Or, if you don't like those, you can scout out a favorite for yourself over at Podcast Alley.

this weekend, you can at least listen

I don't know about you, but this time each year, my writing studio (in the past: a converted closet, the back of a station wagon, a kitchen shelf) becomes so messy I have trouble even finding a pen. If you are sorting through your work--or your workspace--this weekend, maybe you'd enjoy listening to this.

Prodigies and Late Bloomers

Malcolm Gladwell has a fascinating article in the New Yorker about artists, pop culture, and the life cycles of the prodigy and the late bloomer (including some case studies of writers from both molds):

On the road to great achievement, the late bloomer will resemble a failure: while the late bloomer is revising and despairing and changing course and slashing canvases to ribbons after months or years, what he or she produces will look like the kind of thing produced by the artist who will never bloom at all. Prodigies are easy. They advertise their genius from the get-go. Late bloomers are hard. They require forbearance and blind faith. (Let’s just be thankful that Cézanne didn’t have a guidance counsellor in high school who looked at his primitive sketches and told him to try accounting.) Whenever we find a late bloomer, we can’t but wonder how many others like him or her we have thwarted because we prematurely judged their talents. But we also have to acccept that there’s nothing we can do about it. How can we ever know which of the failures will end up blooming?

Read the rest of the article here.

Daily Lit

So I've been looking for more useful poetry sites, and in desperation I began going through old bookmarks. It's certainly been a walk down memory lane, and not just because of rediscovered drinking games and free pornography. One of the more interesting sites was one sent to me by my friend Matt, called Daily Lit.

Daily Lit has come a long way from when I first subscribed. The site's gone a massive overhaul, and there are features there I haven't begun to play with. But the basic idea is simple: sign up for an account, choose a book from the library, and every day you'll receive an email with an increment of a novel.

Many of the books are public domain works, such as books by Austen or Melville, but every now and then something sneaks in and surprises you, like the collection of work by creative commons champion Cory Doctorow.

And, just in case you thought this post was a complete digression from my stated goal of finding good poetry websites, you can get plenty of that, too.

Anne Katz Festival of Books

It's the tenth anniversary of the Anne Katz festival of books, and you've missed half of it already. Nice work, you. But it's not too late! Through November 20th, the Jewish Community Center Indianapolis will be putting on a series of events, many of which are free, and a majority of which feature storytellers, authors and poets. From the JCC website:

We’re celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Ann Katz Festival of Books and the JCC’s 50th anniversary on Hoover Road! Six years ago, long-time JCC supporter Irwin Katz established an endowment for the JCC’s annual Festival of Books in memory of his wife, Ann. “She loved books and she loved to read,“ said Katz, who was married to Ann for 57 years before her death in 2002. The festival brings together authors and book lovers, writers and inquiring minds. With literary and cultural programs for all ages and interests, there are many reasons to come to the JCC’s book festival time and time again.

Over three weeks, the Ann Katz Festival of Books will feature a terrific mix of authors, including an actor, novelists, historians and autobiographers. This year’s festival features a very special art exhibit by children from all walks of life in Israel, and a thought-provoking film series. Don’t forget the festival book sale with special sections for fiction, non-fiction, cooking, children’s books and more. The festival receives a percentage of all book sales, so thank you for doing your shopping with us. Ask about our frequent shopper program that rewards you for your support.

More info. on specific events, guests, times, etc., at the JCC website.

Reading in a Down Market

From Moby Lives:

"A Publishers Weekly story reports on the “immediate” closing of the Dallas-area indy bookseller The Bookworm due to the economic crisis. (“We had steady sales growth until the economic thing happened this year.” says proprietor David Norwood.) . . . A story in the Lehigh Valley Express Times reports that the indy publisher Rodale is cutting 10 percent of its workforce (”The current pace of market change compels us to reallocate our resources swiftly and manage our costs down,” says the CEO) while a press release from giant conglomerate publisher HarperCollins on its most recent quarterly report declares a $33 million earnings decrease."

Two facts:

· In October, same-store sales at Walmart were up 2.4%
· In my business life, I work with three libraries, and all say that circulation numbers are way up this year.

When the economy sours, people run down-market. Nordstrom shoppers slum at Wal-Mart. People check out books at the library instead of buying them.

So while book-buying numbers are down, don’t confuse this with a downturn in reading. And while booksellers are hurting right now, they may end up coming out on top this Christmas retail season. After all, a book is cheaper than a bike, or a diamond, or a bike made out of diamonds. And you can do your part, Book Choy-ster, by taking a wander through Big Hat Books when you go out shopping for that special someone (I enjoy Graham Greene, Rick Russo, Ron Hansen. Or you could, you know, surprise me).

Sherman Alexie on the Colbert Report

Sherman Alexie, who visited Butler recently as part of the Visiting Writers Series, was on the Colbert Report a couple days ago. Check it out:

Jeremiah, Ohio

I'm not the most observant fish in the sea, so I'm willing to admit that I may just be missing whatever PR IUPUI does for its events calendar. But after missing their announcement about Frances Mayes, I'm not surprised to discover I almost missed another author's visit to the university.

Author Adam Sol will be reading from his new novel-in-poems "Jeremiah, Ohio". From the campus website:

Thursday, November 6, 2008, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
The Department of English in the IU School of Liberal Arts, the University Library, and University College present The Rufus and Louise Reiberg Reading Series featuring Adam Sol reading from his new novel in verse Jeremiah, Ohio, which depicts the Biblical prophet Jeremiah on a road trip through rural America in the days before September 11, 2001.

And here's the where:
IUPUI University Library, Lilly Auditorium
755 W. Michigan St.
Indianapolis, IN 46202 (317) 274-8278

If you'd like to learn more about Sol, you can read an interview with him here, and another one over here. The idea behind the book sounds intriguing, and I'm having a hard time thinking of the last novel-in-poems that was any good. But that might be because I don't read.