(This list is amended at whim: maybe hourly, possibly annually.)
1. Roadside motels.
2. I pine for the the good-old days of mass market paperbacks. Bellow, Stendhal, Atwood, Cather, Ginsberg, Greene:
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4. I bought an excellent new coffeemaker and now I’ve got the shakes 24/7. And yet, I’m so happy with the thing.
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5. If you’ve taken a fiction workshop with me recently, I’ve made you read Sven Birkerts’s Reading in a Digital Age.
6. I’m a little into Mad Men.
7. Here’s my Sharpie-inscribed copy of David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green:
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8. See the pic on this site’s “Contact” page? That’s my bamboo keyboard.
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9. Before trying out a new word in public, I double-check my pronunciation here.
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10. If you’re interested in what it’s like to write long-form fiction, don’t miss Alexander Chee’s 100 Things About a Novel.
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11. When it comes to on-screen pairings, my vote will always go to Jack and Sissy (Missing, 1982):
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13. As for my Trader Joe’s addiction, I’m working on it.
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14. Britpop.
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15. Finally, I think often about gender in publishing. IE, perceptions of women’s works in the contemporary literary landscape. My thoughts don’t directly align with those of Jennifer Weiner (I’ve never met her, though she seems perfectly nice) or of Mr. Franzen (who may not actually have thoughts on this issue, though I’ve come to his defense in the past). And yet, you won’t find my take on this subject here. It’s long and weighty and in my head.
