January 2011
58 posts
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“What is a likeness? When a person dies, they leave behind, for those who knew...”
– John Berger from his essay “Steps Toward a Small Theory of the Visible”, which I think can be read in full here.
I also love, from earlier in the essay: “It is a strange area into which we are wandering and I’m using words strangely.”
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books on my bed with me right now at this moment
in no particular order:
Libra - DeLillo
Leaves of Grass – Whitman
Bartleby the Scrivener – Melville
Paradise Lost – Milton
The Divine Comedy - Dante
eesh.
I’d like to pretend this is an odd moment of blustering disorganization, but, well.
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“Was I wearing a tiara when I came in here? Because if you happen upon it, could you have Lady Pennyface send it posthence?”
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“There was deep snow on the ground. I was in a sleigh, wearing my red wool hat...”
– Ten Stories from Flaubert, Lydia Davis (via theparisreview)
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sometimes I think about cover design while I'm...
So yesterday I got a few books in the mail from Powells (Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff and Chekhov short stories and Remainder by Tom McCarthy!). I can’t read them yet cause I’m all wrapped up in other books, but they’re on my nightstand and within eyesight. I’m especially looking forward to Remainder.
Every time I see it, I think about this post by the cover designer John...
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Three Percent: 2011 Best Translated Book Awards:... →
aliciakennedy:
Aira’s The Literary Conference is on there, deservedly! I’m dying to read Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico by Marías (that title!). If you’re looking for direction with regards to reading more translations, here you go.
I’m thrilled to see so many New Directions and Archipelago titles on here. they’re all so good! also so excited to see The True Deceiver by Tove...
Tumblr keeps unfollowing people without checking with me. not okay, Tumblr, not okay.
(sorry, friends! this annoys me)
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youveescaped-deactivated2011020 asked: hello! how were we not following each other? a quick perusal of your blog has left me with a blog crush.
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a few words about colds
they make me feel gross and I don’t like them.
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Also, Biden just gave a double thumbs up and a goofy smile. Yes.
That delayed laughter/clapping at Obama’s salmon joke just made the speech. “Oh he made a funny. Ha ha, good one Mr. President.” Well, that, plus Obama’s smile at the lackluster laughter. Oh gosh.
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perpetually in third grade and terrified
So I bought this new pair of glasses and a few weeks ago I cut my bangs this new certain way. Today I realized: I had these bangs and these glasses in the third grade. I’ve essentially put on the face I had when I was 8. I’ve grown a couple feet and I have my front teeth now, but I still have this hair and these glasses and over-sized sweaters are still my uniform and more often than...
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“But when you tell your own story honestly, that epiphany thing is rare: there is...”
– Darin Strauss, Half a Life
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personas & control; grand ideas & first efforts
The Paris Review’s Winter issue made me swoon many times: the fiction by Péter Nádas and Claire Vaye Watkins, the poetry by Brian Blanchfield and Maureen N. McLane, etc. etc., but especially the Louise Erdrich interview. Each answer from her was so great! I haven’t read any of her fiction, but this interview convinced me, so: I haven’t read her, yet.
Some favorite moments:
...
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NBCC nominees →
so happy for Elif Batuman! and Anne Carson! and also Terry Castle and Darin Strauss, both of whom are on my nightstand and will be read so soon! exclamation point!
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I have too many books for my bookshelf
So today I: tried on a pair of glasses Willem Dafoe also tried on at some point in the past, purchased a pair of new bookish awesome glasses, finished (what I think is) a solid revision of a now-35-page story I’ve been working on off-and-on for a year and a half now, and rewarded myself by rearranging my bookshelf.
My professor mentioned to me that her dad had rearranged her bookshelf by...
The weather thing says it’s 38 degrees outside. I have to keep reminding myself that that’s still COLD, even if it feels slightly warm in relation to every other day this week/month, and I should probably still wear winter clothes, even though part of me wants to dress like it’s fall. But no. It’s still 38 degrees, and that’s cold, Kelsey, come on.
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“Embracing … messiness and understanding its contribution to the creative...”
– Malcolm Gladwell at Big Think (via The Casual Optimist)
also, Gladwell was in This American Life’s episode 348: Tough Room. his is the last act and recorded from a Moth event, all about how, as a journalist, he tried to infiltrate the journalistic language. it’s real funny.
NYTimes: Fashionably Chic for Library Life →
52books:
I had a 9 a.m. breakfast with my friend Elizabeth Spiers at Morandi. As we both work from home, we’ve decided to do this twice a week in 2011. I wore Uniqlo tights, Valentino flats, a polka-dot dress by Lewis Cho and a Burberry coat. Then to the library again, but I left in the afternoon to come home and write in white Helmut Lang jeans and a blue Rag & Bone button-down.
Um, I...
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slushy puddled streets and books
I slept through my alarm this morning. Luckily, I set it an hour earlier than I needed to wake up and an hour after my alarm was set for and the exact right time I was supposed to wake up, my cat shoved his paws in my face.
coffee coffee blah blah morning errands then up to campus for registration.
I met with one professor, who’s teaching a lecture on the bible & literature. When I saw...
I just typed “He waved his wand” instead of “He waved his hand.” Apparently my brain wants me to write Harry Potter.
I think I’ll leave it. “He waved his hand” is an awful uninteresting sentence.
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Moby-Dick Marathon @ NPR →
My favorite 3 minutes so far this morning: “Like Phil Austin, who is practicing his “Moby Dick” lingo in a private corner.” and “Self-described Melvillian David Dowling says doing the marathon read feels like being at sea.” and “Like Captain Ahab, everyone seems determined to capture Moby Dick.”
(and yes I know I’m a full week late to...
People protest proposed library closing by... →
balltillifall:
Fan-tastic.
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“I think we all do something like this when we read, especially when we love to...”
– Jeffrey Lependorf in A Public Space issue 12
This new issue is so good, so worth the ten block slush-puddled walk to Three Lives the other day. The cover is so beautiful! The essays so good! I’m forcing myself to go slow.
so far seen this morning: a three person Ayn Rand tour huddled outside a bank building on 45th and 3rd; an unhappy clothed chihuahua in a stroller; and too too red thawing fingers (mine). is it only noon?
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dialogue & seduction
I admit it: I’m a big fan of The Paris Review Daily, particularly the “Ask the Paris Review” entries, which are all funny and bookish and, well, I’m a sucker for funny and bookish. Today’s post from Lorin Stein is so great.
I love:
Dialogue deals with whole-wheat crackers only if those crackers tell a secret—if they reveal something about the character speaking. In...
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jhford2-deactivated20110501 asked: I thought you were going to get your non-working oven working??? whatsup?
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“To display a list of New York Times best sellers for the week of your birth...”
– BibliOZ.com Birthday Best Sellers
This is really fun. First name I noticed for my birth date was Erma Bombeck. I tried my underaged boyfriend’s and saw Dr. Seuss. Thanks BibliOZ!
(via housingworksbookstore)
——
!!!! highlights from the week I was born include Love in the Time of...
OH LOOK THERE ARE DISHES TO DO. AWESOME.
+2 points
reasons to be happy:
1. they were playing 500 Miles just now in Duane Reade. my fingers maybe danced a little.
2. I bought Tea and Golden Oreos at said Duane Reade.
3. I am now back in my apartment with Tea and Golden Oreos and (hopefully) no more sore throat.
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HEY THERE NEW YORK
even though you delayed my plane 3+ hours, still feels good to be back.
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"creative writing degree" as punch line
It’s a known that when I come home for break (this being my last formal Christmas Break before the real world), that many many adults will ask variations of “So when do you graduate” and when I answer “This spring” will raise their eyebrows and say “Oh! What’s your degree going to be in?” Even though my college doesn’t technically have majors...
oh pandora
Brother put on a ‘Magnetic Fields’ station for the party tonight. First song that’s playing? No Such Thing by John Mayer. Yup. That’s exactly what I would’ve chosen too.
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being home / brussel sprouting
My parents are hosting a party tonight. I woke up super late today (I blame the huge bed and my sore throat), but managed to come up in time to be assigned the brussel sprouts. I know embarrassingly little about all things food—my meals rotate between pasta and potstickers and those frozen baggies of food from Trader Joe’s—but I sat down and did my best to brussel sprout while...