BOOKS THREAD

I read 133 books in 2017. Not one of them could be considered as serious or thoughtful. It was a delightful year of mysteries and thrillers!

 

I read probably 50-60 samples of books. Finished zero. That's what happens when you can only read late at night on your phone and you're cheap.

 

Do kid’s books count?

 

Oh, yeah, if that's the case, I've read plenty of books this year!

 

Wow, you win this thread?

 

Greatest thing I found this year was that I could check out books for my Kindle app from my public library. Saved hundreds of dollars.

 

I will have to see if there's an iPhone equivalent. Thanks.

 

Yep, just download the Kindle app on your phone and then sign up with your local library (assuming you're not the Unabomber).

 

Insider baseball, but....

I read Killers and Public Enemies within weeks of each other this summer. A line stood out in Public Enemies.

"In Hoover's first six years his men spearheaded a corruption investigation at the federal prison in Atlanta and a probe of murders and oil-rights thievery on Indian lands in Oklahoma. They were minor cases, all run by the Cowboys."

Obviously, having read Killers first, this line really stood out! I love all of Burroughs's work, including Enemies. But after reading Killers that line sounded absurd. I wondered if maybe Grann seized on that line at all too. Or maybe he got some writerly/reporterly pleasure out of showing that the story was anything but minor. To me, I wasn't thinking of it so much as a shot at Burroughs but it showed that even when you think a story has been told, someone can come along and show something that hasn't been revealed. Because the reporting in Enemies is amazing. But to then call the Killers case "minor." Oof. I actually emailed Grann to see what he thought of it or if it was a line he knew about while working on Killers. Didn't get a reply though. Would still love to hear his thoughts.

Chabon: think I've told this before but at a reading once (he was reading from then-in-progress Telegraph Avenue) I had the chance to ask him about similes and metaphors. At the same reading, I then had to flee from my near-the-front seat as a horrific, people-are-asking-if-you're-ok coughing attack overtook me.

We've talked about The Strand here a lot. The owner died. Sounds like a real legend.

Fred Bass, Who Made the Strand Bookstore a Mecca, Dies at 89

I went this weekend with a 100 dollar gift card. Came back with one really sore back -- it's a place where you better expect to stand, and for a long time if you're looking for great deals to make the most out of your money -- and these 11 books. A good haul and was happy with how many I got for 100. Should be able to make a good dent in them during upcoming and annual monthlong Cape Town trip.

 

That's awesome.

When I wrote my first of two books - it probably sold about 1 millionth as many copies as Grann's, but I did win free Bears tickets at my own book-signing - it was after I had stumbled across a line buried in a biography that sounded fascinating. Holy shit, I thought. I want to read that book! But no one had written it. So I did.

I imagine this is how a lot of book ideas germinate. Truman Capote stumbled across the Clutter case in a New York Times brief, I believe.

 

I don't know why Bringing The Heat isn't cited more often in discussions of Great Sports Books. It's pretty fucking metal.