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This blog commenced on October 9, 2004. Patrick
and Kathryn are good friends who love to talk about what
we're reading. From Patrick's introductory post: My
principles, best summed up as “few and scattered,” are
these: I read a lot of books; I know what I like—and don’t;
and I have no qualms praising or complaining about all
things “literature,” a very broad term in my view, which
concerns aesthetic writings in all their messy, complex, knottyness
(or, not infrequently, their homophone). Rarely will I summarize
plots; I suggest you go to Amazon.com for that (or the New York
Times Book Review—it is published each Sunday in the New York Times
and may be distinguished from the New York Times Magazine in that it
is not published on glossy paper but good old fashioned newsprint
suitable for wrapping breakables and houseplants; don’t let the term
“review” in the title put you off, it rarely allows such extraneous
considerations to get in the way of a good capsule plot summary).
[N.B.: Given the improved quality of the New York
Times Book Review, I feel a bit sheepish about the
high-handed tone of these remarks. We shall see if it
has truly turned a page under its current fiction editor,
or, like the unfortunate Atlantic Monthly following
the tragic death of its editor who turned that periodical
around, Michael Kelly, will revert back to its old ways.] From Kathryn's: Well, Patrick asked me to co-blog,
and here I am.
More: I am from New
Orleans and live in Austin, Texas. Married. Cat. Literature
ABD (specialty: orphan narratives). Jumped out of the fire
of academia and landed in the frying pan of the publishing
industry some years ago. |
