Nicholson Baker

non-fiction read decrying the use of microfilm (microfiche) and the destruction of paper. Nicholson does wax nostalgic, but that's where most things sane end. He calls librarians (that only do the bidding of the library board) who destroy (pitch) newspapers and documents after being micro-filmed as killers, idiots, and criminals. That's where he "lost" me! As a historian, I'm all about preservation. However, I do realize that preservation and storage are a huge problem. You can't just pack old documents away and shove them in a warehouse: 1) who will pay the bill 2) said warehouse needs to be temperature controlled-who will pay the bill 3) how does one access them. Mr. Baker might be better suited to write about this issue rationally and without name calling. Don't care that he won an award, I'm writing him off as a kook. Read 188/400 pages DNF… (more)

The premise is that random unrelated people, by choice or circumstance are transported to The House of Holes, where their wildest kinks can be realized. The result is a loosely connected series of bizarre and fantastical erotic vignettes, often involving the (non-permanent) loss of various parts of the anatomy. I appreciated the author's willingness to allow his imagination to roam wild, however, some semblance of a narrative arc would have made it more compelling to read. For me, the stories were more amusing than erotic.… (more)