Member: Dogberryjr

Hey Dog,

Have you read Juliet, Naked yet? The Oxford American raved about it, so I am tempted..but times are tight. I've read all of his other works...thought your opinion might tip me one way or the other...

Thanks, Dave

posted by vincentvan at 8:32 pm (EST) on Nov 2, 2009

Seeing him on The Daily Show is what made me add the book. I loved his "where was this Google all this time?" comment! So sincere. I also added him to my twitter feed and it turns out he's speaking everywhere. Good for him and I hope he goes very far in life! And of course, as a librarian, I always love to hear stories of libraries changing lives.

posted by justmelissa at 4:40 pm (EST) on Oct 15, 2009

Oops; I was thinking of the new Steig Larsson, not the new Nick Hornby.....

posted by PsibrReadHead at 1:32 pm (EST) on Oct 11, 2009

How did you get Juliet, Naked? Thought it wasn't coming out till June?

posted by PsibrReadHead at 1:05 am (EST) on Oct 11, 2009

Just started reading it. Good writing; compelling... Now thinking about reading Herta Mueller what with the Nobel and all....and my "passed a car wreck; had to look" fascination with life under Cecescu....

posted by PsibrReadHead at 1:02 am (EST) on Oct 11, 2009

Dogberryjr,

Thanks for finding my books "interesting." They're certainly eclectic, I'll grant you that.

In answer to your question: yes, this is my actual physical library, complete with groaning shelves, and the sinking realization that I'll never ever be able to read everything I own before I die.

posted by davidabrams at 7:11 pm (EST) on Oct 5, 2009

Yes, I've heard that before; DOTS is a book you either "get" or don't. Portis' understated, laconic style just knocks me out. Speaking of Portis party, the writer Nora Ephron and her fellow NYC scribes are members of a book club solely devoted to reading and discussing Charles Portis' works. Guess if you're a humor writer, you want to deconstruct his works to find out how he does it so well.

posted by PsibrReadHead at 8:09 pm (EST) on Sep 8, 2009

Dog of the South is probably my favorite comic novel; I've read it half a dozen times and it still makes me laugh out loud!

posted by PsibrReadHead at 5:03 pm (EST) on Sep 7, 2009

Just curious: why do find my library interesting? (I find it rather mainstream, myself)

posted by PsibrReadHead at 12:21 pm (EST) on Sep 7, 2009

Thanks for saying so. I last read it about ten years ago (a holiday read, occasional grains of sand and suncream splotches lurk among the pages) and it was great to re-read it.

posted by macnabbs at 12:10 pm (EST) on Jun 20, 2009

An INSCOM grad, huh? Me too. I was back in ASA/INSCOM again (1976-81) and learned RU that time around out at Monterey. I'm writing about those days now. I wonder what you thought of Ann Pancake's novel. I thought it very well written if extremely sad and depressing. I remember liking her cuz Breece's stuff years ago, and still have the book. He offed himself in his twenties though. What a talented, apparently tortured, writer. And Pinckney Benedict is another very good WV writer. I've read two of his book some years back; don't know if he has more now. I still have a lot of books to enter here, but no hurry. later, Tim

posted by TimBazzett at 5:13 pm (EST) on May 24, 2009

P.S. Never mind on the Whadja think? - I just read your review and see you liked it well enough too. I've been bugging Ponicsan to do a memoir, but no dice so far. Last I heard from him he had one more Argula book nearly finished, even though he's a bit disheartened at book sales these days.

posted by TimBazzett at 1:36 pm (EST) on May 23, 2009

Hey, Dog - As judge Randy on American Idol might say. I noticed you're the only other one on LT who has Ponicsan's LAST FLAG FLYING. Whadja think? I've been reading Ponicsan's stuff ever since he started. After more than 25 yrs in Hollywood doing screenplays he's doing books again now, under the pen name Anne Argula. I've read all three of those too. I'm wondering if you're a vet too? Lemme hear from you, okay? - Tim

posted by TimBazzett at 1:14 pm (EST) on May 23, 2009

Uh, oh. In that case, I suspect the author won't like it that I said his publicity letter looks like it was typed (and written) by monkeys. Especially if he wrote it himself. Oops. Well, Jim/Bill maybe should have sprung for the services of an editor. On another note, I never was able to make it through Infinite Jest, but DFW's long form essays are some of the best non-fiction I've ever read. If you haven't already read them, I hope you enjoy them immensely.

posted by justmelissa at 2:37 pm (EST) on Nov 24, 2008

Were you as appalled by the Pantonne letter as I was? After posting my review and dropping the author a note on his web site (does he know how poorly his publisher is "marketing" his book??) I started investigating. It looks like Pantonne has only ever published 3 books - all by Hazelgrove. You'd think that with only three books in their catalog that they'd manage to spell the titles correctly in their letter, no?

posted by justmelissa at 1:44 pm (EST) on Nov 24, 2008

Hi! I finally got impatient and "peeked" to see what my SantaThing present was (I don't have it yet - Abby is putting together a package so I'm not even sure if it's on the way yet!). Thanks, you've picked very well indeed! I *think* I read Neuromancer years back, but it's something I've been meaning to get anyway so it's a great pick in that sense. I confess I've never heard of "Woman on the Edge of Time" but it sounds like something I'd enjoy, and I'm looking forward to reading it. So, thanks again! Merry Christmas! ;)

posted by felius at 5:47 am (EST) on Jan 14, 2008

Hi dogberry. Nice headgear there.
Thanks for the excellent SantaThing gifts (they just rolled in last night)! Sara Gruen has been on my mental got-to-read-that-sometime list for a while, and Ethan Canin had slipped out my head completely somehow over the last ten years (but then a lot has).
Sorry I left you so few suggestions to work with (I regretted that later.. why should I put so much pressure on someone?), but you did great despite that.

Happy New Year!

posted by jjlong at 8:00 am (EST) on Dec 29, 2007