Reading Roundup, 20 March, 2009
I’m a huge Dickens fan, and enjoyed Matthew Pearl’s article at Slate magazine on whether the author had a stalker during his 1867 speaking tour of the U.S. Also at Slate this week, more of Meghan O’Rourke’s elegantly written series on grieving, The Long Goodbye. This week’s essay discusses dreaming of the dead, and the dreams described and considered are heartwrenching and lovely. As is her response to the dreams of her mother:
What surprises me is how comforted I feel when I wake. I am sad that the dream has ended, but it’s not the depleted sadness I’ve felt in the past when I’ve woken up from a wishful dream. I feel, instead, replete, reassured, like a child who has kicked the covers off her in her sleep on a chilly night and dimly senses as her mother steals into the dark room, pulls them up over her, strokes her hair, and gives her a kiss before leaving.
I ache as I read these essays, which are full of feeling but never maudlin. I hope there’s some award committee somewhere considering these essays for the recognition they deserve.
The Daily Beast’s books section, Book Beast, is again full of fantastic articles. For writers everywhere, Stephen L. Carter’s piece on why Congress should bail out the publishing industry is food for serious thought. And Taylor Antrim’s review of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, by Wells Tower (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) brings up an interesting conundrum: whether macho literary fiction can find an audience. I’ve puzzled over that one as I’ve written about and followed the career of writer Benjamin Percy.
Despite the buzz over the Kindle, I haven’t been able to work up any enthusiasm for it. As much as I adore my computer and embrace the internet, the idea of reading a book on an electronic device leaves me flat. But Publishers Weekly reports this week that Amazon is bringing comics to the Kindle. That makes sense to me. I could see reading a graphic novel on something like that, and perhaps even enjoying it more than on the page. The sheen of the screen, the brightness of color–those could be electronic advantages over having a comic book or graphic novel on paper.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos discusses the future of books and the Kindle with ABC News’ Cynthia McFadden in this piece. I can’t seem to find a way to imbed the video from ABC, but you’ll find some there if you follow the link to the article.