Sunday is for the Books

Summer hasn’t left Brooklyn yet and as my neighbors are playing a repetitive, pounding, techno/rap strain that has made its way through my bedroom wall, I’ve sequestered myself in the living room to ignore the heat and read all day. Plenty of books, a Tupperware bowl of leftover risotto, and a record collection. Perfect place for reading. But before I started, I found a bunch of reading-related links in case you don’t have any books:

Hell’s BibliophilesJames Joyce’s ‘Dubliners’:Newt Gingrich, Book CriticTed Kaczynski’s recommended readingFront cover illustration, Brave New! Book! By Man!!, fellatious review for Jonathan Franzen

It should be said that for all our sneering and sarcasm leveled at Franzen, we have not read his new book, nor his old ones, and we are willing to believe that this new book is a great, breathtaking thing. We simply hate orchestrated orgies of praise. That Franzen is probably a nice man, affectionate and thoughtful, good with the elderly, sure, we’ll give you that; that he is capable of eliciting an honest chorus of ‘Here! Now! Buy this great new brilliant genius work of brilliance!’ from every organ of American criticism simply by his own merits…my ass.

Congratulations FSG, you’ve made yourself a classic. Attention Dave Eggers: please have your desk cleared by six.