books

start here

You may have already heard about Book Riot‘s Start Here project. If not, you can click the picture or the link or read this helpful description that I’m going to cut and paste for you:

There are so many fantastic authors and great books out there that sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin.

Say you’ve always wanted to read something by William Faulkner. You probably know a bunch of his books: The Sound and the Fury; As I Lay Dying; Light in August; Absalom, Absalom! Maybe you’ve even come close to buying one. But every time you think about it, there’s that big question:

Which should you read first?

Start Here solves that problem; it tells you how to read your way into 25 amazing authors from a wide range of genres–children’s books to classics, contemporary fiction to graphic novels.

Each chapter presents an author, explains why you might want to try them, and lays out a 3-4 book reading sequence designed to help you experience fully what they have to offer. It’s a fun, accessible, informative way to enrich your reading life.

Start Here will be available both as an ebook (compatible with Kindles, iPads, Nooks, and a variety of other devices) and as a printed edition.

 

Fun, right?

I thought it was a fantastic idea to begin with, and I knew Joe Hill was writing a chapter and anything Joe Hill does seems like it’s probably cool, and now the section introducing the varied and wondrous worlds of Neil Gaiman will be composed by yours truly.

I am delighted and honored to be involved. I am still pondering my suggestions, as the collected Gaiman is vast and eclectic. It’s kind of like starting someone out on sushi when they’ve never had it before, there are a lot of tastes and textures to set up before we start setting things on fire.

(I really did have sushi that was on fire last week. It said “torched at table” and I expected maybe they’d pull out a little crème brûlée torch but instead it arrived aflame and continued to burn for quite a while and it was delicious.)

My Gaiman guide may end up having a slightly unconventional approach (I already know I’m not going to suggest starting with American Gods, for one thing) but I think it will be a lot of fun and also gives me an excuse to page through my gorgeous Absolute Sandman editions again.

If any of this sounds appetizing to you, you can help kickstart Start Here here.

 

By erin, ago

in lieu of a post that was not a post, books.

I seriously just spent a considerable amount of time writing a post that was mostly little bits of things and also a list of things that I am going to post about in upcoming proper posts and then there was some sort of draft-saving internet hiccup and now that post has vanished.

So, as I do not have time to rewrite it today, I instead give you a fraction of that missing post in the form of the pile of unintentionally color-coordinated books I bought today. I blame the fact that the text in Sacré Bleu is actually blue for ending up with a very blue bunch of books.

By erin, ago

coffee table/books

This is my coffee table. My coffee table has not been this clear since before the book tour. I am far too pleased about the clearing of the coffee table, even though it quite possibly involved cluttering other tables not pictured.

I am having one of those days where I have a lot to do so I am procrastinating by cleaning off my coffee table and eating chocolate very seriously as though by treating the chocolate eating as something important it becomes a more productive activity.

Anyway, on to something somewhat productive, I have been meaning to do a post of my favorite books of 2011. Note that they are favorites and not bests. I shall break them in to categories.

 

Favorite book published in 2011. (This one is a tie.)

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I lived in this book for a good month, because it is three books and a total of nearly 1,000 pages. I had a very battered galley copy by the end and now my gorgeous hardcover is sitting next to it on the shelf. I was worried that I wouldn’t be satisfied with the ending after so much time and so many pages but  I really was. It’s hard to explain, it’s like 1984 but different. It’s surreal but in a realistic way. It’s a book to live in for a while, sometimes stopping and looking up at the sky to count the number of moons.

Habibi by Craig Thompson. This book is gorgeous. Gorgeous. It is a book to pet and “oooh” over before you even get to the story within it that is equally beautiful. The lines of Craig Thompson’s artwork make me weak in the knees and the lines of the art in this book are so fluid they almost seem to move, as though the ink has yet to dry and wants to stay in motion. Calling it a graphic novel doesn’t properly express what it is, it’s a work of art. Also, Craig himself is lovely and huggable. I know because I’ve hugged him and the fact that I have hugged the person who created this lovely thing amazes me.

Favorite book published in 2011 that I have not technically read. (Though it is on the aforementioned coffee table.)

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton. Okay, so I haven’t read the book but I have read and loved it in internet form (harkavagrant.com) so I know what kind of brilliance is contained within these pages. I have two book tour regrets and they both involve not meeting people despite being in meetable proximity, one of those people is Ron Charles and the other is Kate Beaton, I know she was at IFOA in Toronto at some point but our paths did not cross which is probably good because I might have fangirled all over her.

Favorite book I read in 2011 that was published in a year other than 2011.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. This book had been on my to-read radar (hadn’t even made it to the to-read shelf) and when I was in Mississippi I happened to have enough time to browse books at Turnrow Book Company and found this lovely little edition that happened to be signed and since it was small enough to fit in my bag I had to get it. It then became travel reading and I loved it to bits, for a book that is so much about music it feels like music, soaring and heartbreaking, grand and intimate all at the same time.

Other favorites published in 2011 that I will not elaborate upon to save space:

The Devil All The Time by Donald Ray Pollock

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Other favorite books read this year but published in years other than 2011:

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

Every novel ever written by Dashiell Hammett.

That’s the list, though I didn’t read much that I disliked this year. Fables should have some sort of honorable mention even though I’m still working my way through, and I’ll be surprised if Angelmaker doesn’t make the list next year since I’ll be finishing it as 2011 turns into 2012. And now you probably have a better understanding of what I mean when I say my taste in books is eclectic.

By erin, ago

books.

Okay, I’m not sure this is all of them yet but here’s the up-to-date pile of books accumulated during the book tour. Some purchased, some gifted, others magically materialized the way books do.

(And also my raven mug, filled with jasmine tea.)

I’m going to need to reorganize some shelves.

By erin, ago

reading

I am all reading & writing & very little arithmetic around here lately, so in lieu of actual blog content, here is a peek at the latest additions to the ever-growing to-read pile:

The Thin Man is my last Hammett novel left to read, sadly, though I have plenty of short stories to crawl into afterward. I’ve never had a literary crush the way I’m crushing on Dashiell Hammett right now. His prose makes my toes curl.

Also, this pile of books is sitting upon my iPad 2 cover. My iPad 2 is still in China, as far as I know. The cover is lovely, though.

By erin, ago

penguin classics & an elephant

You may have seen me on Twitter bemoaning the fact that I only received one book as holiday giftage. (Technically, I got two. I received one after the bemoaning.)

Obviously, two is still not enough books. So despite the sorry state of my to-read shelf, I bought myself some pretties.

I have coveted the Coralie Bickford-Smith-designed Penguin Classics since I first saw them, so this is the beginning of what I’m certain will end up being a fairly large collection. They are so pretty, and there are so many classics that I’ve really wanted to own but lost the beat-up high school English class copies years ago. These are much better.

(Also featured in these photos is one of the marvelous bookends my sister gave me.)

I already want more because they don’t fill the whole shelf, even though the elephant is doing an admirable job of keeping them upright. And I’m annoyed that the Fitzgeralds don’t seem to be easy to find in the US, because they are swoon-worthy.

I had been planning on posting these today, so I was amused when they turned up on Doubleday’s Tumblr today as well. And then I turned up on Doubleday’s Tumblr, too. Hee.

By erin, ago