Dear TMN, I enjoyed Lauren Frey’s article on cell phones. I must admit that stuck in Cambridge, dealing with Harvard students and their ilk jabbing away while I am in the middle of another monotonous work day, does lead to me going Michael Douglas in Falling Down on them.
Dale Peck’s “judging” of McEwan’s and Smith’s novels shows that this self-proclaimed “most-hated man in publishing,” while lacking any critical acumen, possesses an unmatched ego. “Contemporary fiction’s nothing more than an enabler of certain bourgeois illusions” …”Social compact is spiritual and species suicide”…”literary
In “Doozy of a Decimal System,” published April 5, 2006, Anthony Doerr admits that his half-serious censure of library borrowing is “silly.” I’d like to argue that not only is it silly to suggest that libraries make it harder for writers to get published, it is also wrong.
After a youth spent in American public schools, I have tried to understand that there is no such thing as a “dumb” question. And yet over and over again, I am forced to confront that in every situation, there are in fact dumb questions. For example, the following, posed by
Dear Rosecrans and Andrew, This Wapshott article in the Telegraph, which you linked to in Wednesday’s Headlines, is spreading like wildfire, and I want to help you understand it because I see that you’ve (apparently) fallen for its very spurious premise. There is no evidence here or elsewhere
Upon reading Andrew Womack’s “life hacks” article, I was reminded of a piece of information shared with me by my mother: If you’re short on postage stamps (and don’t have any wildlife stamps), then reverse the addressee’s address with your own on the envelope. The letter
I recently “browsed across” your First Tournament of Books and was pleased with the winner. Did you ever contact him, or hear from him, about this grand honor he has won? Maybe you could print his reaction, something like the ubiquitous “You’ve just won the Super Bowl, what are
Dear Morning News, I happened to bump into your article on Xanadu and Michael Beck (“The Love That We Came To Know”), and it was a great read. It was even better to find out that Beck is alive and well, or at least, putting up with Xanadu fans. My
While the idea of the Tournament of Books is excellent, might I suggest an addition to the following years’ tournaments? Audience participation, of course. Your readers would, I am sure, be delighted to weigh in with their own pronouncements on the relative merits of the various books and vote. So
Dear The Morning News, I love you, and wish I wasn’t an impoverished student so I could give you money. Because I would. I especially love “The Education of Elisabeth Eckleman” (alliteration! yes!) and am sad that it isn’t already in novel form so I could stay up
