12 Photos Of Dogs Who Love To Read
Because it’s Friday.
And why not?
Posts tagged ‘101 books blog’
May 17
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Philip Roth On Writing, Awards, and Napping
A few years ago, Philip Roth hung up his pen/typewriter/keyboard and retired from writing novels.
For a guy that’s won a Pulitzer and a ridiculous amount of other awards, and for a guy who’s written a crapload of highly acclaimed novels, that’s significant.
Not long after his retirement, NPR sat down with Roth for an interview. And, as you would expect, he uttered brilliance. Some great quotes from the interview (all interview quotes via NPR):
Character Description At Its Finest
My first experience with Philip Roth was American Pastoral. I loved the book.
Roth’s storytelling and writing style just blew me away.
Portnoy’s Complaint is a completely different style of novel, written a few decades before American Pastoral.
And it’s graphic. Really graphic. Almost all of it in a sexual nature. Shocking in some places. Roth’s narrator, Alexander Portnoy, uses variations of words I’m unsure I’ve ever heard before. It’s a little overdone, in my view, but I can see the forest through the trees and still appreciate Roth’s writing style.
If you can get past the lewdness, and there’s a lot of it, this can be a funny book. One particular scene from early on stands out to me.
Alex is Jewish, but has been turned off to the faith by his crazy mother, who is a devout Jew. She treats their Rabbi as if he’s the King of England, so when he shows up to see her at the hospital, Alex’s mom just about passes out from excitement. It’s a celebrity!
Alex explains his disgust:
My Answers To Literary Would You Rather (Third Edition)
On Friday, you guys shared your answers for the third edition of 101 Books Literary Would You Rather game.
Today, it’s my turn. Below I’ve answered my own weird questions with, more than likely, very weird answers.
Here goes.
A Game Of Literary Would You Rather (Third Edition)
It’s that time again.
It’s that time when I ask stupid would you rather questions that absolutely make no sense–and then you answer them!
What a delightful experience.
We’ve done this twice before with moderate success, so I thought I’d give it another try since it’s been a while.
Here we go.
This Guy’s Dad Read 10,000 Books (And Rated Each One)
Today’s post comes from the land of really cool things you find on the internet.
A guy named BigZ7337 posted this on the Reddit Book forums a couple of weeks ago.
Next Up: Portnoy’s Complaint
Love Philip Roth. Loved American Pastoral.
Portnoy’s Complaint? I have no idea.
The only thing I’m sure of is that this book has been called controversial. And explicit. And lewd. Here’s how the Wikipedia literary experts describe it:
“Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) is the American novel that turned its author Philip Roth into a major celebrity, sparking a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality.”
Oh, wonderful. One of those novels.
Like I said, I really loved American Pastoral, so I’ll be interested to see how this one differs, as it was Roth’s big breakthrough novel.
Sexuality aside, the setup is unique: It’s a continuous monologue from the protagonist, Alex Portnoy, as he meets with his therapist.
Here’s a few quick facts about Portnoy’s Complaint and Philip Roth:
Book #56: Ragtime
Meh.
I didn’t really like Ragtime. I didn’t really hate Ragtime.
The novel was a little like a plain, dry biscuit without much seasoning. It might nourish you a little bit, but you’ll probably have forgotten about it by the time you take the last bite, or close the back cover—if you get that far.
I don’t know that I ever really got Ragtime. Maybe it’s the historical fiction angle. Like, why do I care to read about people like Harry Houdini and J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford and Booker T. Washington (all of whom are characters in the novel) if the story is just that—a made-up story.
If I’m going to read about Booker T. Washington or J.P. Morgan, then I want to know what really happened in their lives, not a concocted, fictional account. But that’s just my view of historical fiction. And that’s definitely what I’m left thinking after having read Ragtime.
In full disclosure, the above historical figures aren’t main characters or protagonists, but they appear enough to be a distraction to the main plot, at least in this amateur reviewer’s opinion.
Gatsby For Nintendo, Old Sport!
Hey, did you know that The Great Gatsby comes out on Friday? Have I mentioned that before? Did you know I’m a Gatsby fan? I haven’t talked about that before, have I?
You know I’ll have to review the movie after I watch it (going on Sunday). I might do that next week.
In the meantime, here’s a great way to kill a few hours while you are at work today. Don’t blame me, though.
It’s a 100% fully functional, fully playable online version of The Great Gatsby NES video game from the 1980s.
This is what the internet was made for, my friends.
Gatsby in a video game? Weird. But crazy cool weird. Here’s how it works, according to the Gatsby game website that hosts it.
The Anatomy Of A “Viral” Blog Post
It’s been a crazy week here on 101 Books, and I thought I’d share that experience with you.
The main purpose of this blog is obvious: To read through the Time list. That’s my priority. But 101 Books is also a blog about writing, and even blogging in general at times, and that’s where this post falls.
Last Friday through this past Tuesday was just nuts. I’ve experienced abnormally high traffic with one post before, but that traffic usually comes from one or two main sources, like the WordPress Freshly Pressed feature, for instance.
I also have steady traffic from all of you guys who read the blog every day—for which I’m extremely grateful. So I guess you could say I’ve had some success here and there, after many failures too.
But my post on Friday, April 26—My 2-Year-Old Judges Books By Their Covers—was the first time I’ve experienced a legitimately viral post. That is, a post that was picked up by several sources and produced a week-long enormous spike to my blog traffic.
