BOOKS THREAD

Annual plug for the New Yorker Festival, if you're in NYC. I've gone past three years and have enjoyed pretty much every session, even the Janet Malcolm one. Here's the program, tickets on sale on Sept. 13.

nyr.kr/1alTrQn

 

Since I can't seem to find a price on the site, how much have tickets been the last few years, STG? And were they for one talk, one day, the whole event, or some other breakdown? Probably can't make it this year, but would love to go in 2014 or '15.

 

It's per talk. They might only list the prices when the tix go on sale. I wanna say it's been 35 per talk previous years. I think some might be a bit more but the ones I've gone to have been that. So it's not cheap, but it's some of my rare culture of the year so worth it. I go to 2 each year.

Each session is usually about 90 minutes. But I've had a blast. Seen Michael Chabon & Zadie Smith at one; David Remnick interviewing Ian Frazier; Frazier interviewing Janet Malcolm; Marc Singer interviewing Paul Giamatti; a TV comedy panel with, among others, Parks & Rec's Michael Schur; and a panel of presidential biographers, including David Maraniss, Edmund Morris and Ron Chernow.

The Malcolm one was the only one that was a bit annoying but that's only because she usually annoys me. The others have certainly been worth it. Ones I'm eyeing: Atul Gawande, Chabon & Egan, Sam Lipsyte, Christoph Waltz, Paul Simon, Jon Lee Anderson & Dexter Filkins.

 

Anyone got this on preorder?

 

Thanks very much for the breakdown, STG. Naturally, the new issue arrived today with a four-page insert that lists every event and price. If I had the time and the cash this year, I'd make the trip, and I would definitely consider Gawande and Waltz, among a handful of others.

 

Only if its 2-ply

 

Has anyone read the Great God Pan?
I reread one of Stephen King's short story books this weekend, which led me to Machen.
I am thinking of checking it out.

 

Definite recommend. The guys at the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast covered it a while back and I enjoyed it. I've added compilations of Lovecraft, Poe, Machen, Algernon Blackwood and Ambrose Bierce to my Kindle collection thanks to them.

 

About a hundred pages into The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. It's brilliant. It won't be for everyone as it's a character study of six people who meet in summer camp and remain friends for decades. If you don't like them you won't like the book. It's very New York-centered. I think it's the book Michael Chabon was trying to write with Telegraph Avenue.

 

I think that's about where my interest started to wane. Wolitzer writes a more educated, older version of chick lit… and I'm not sure "The Interestings" quite got there. Or maybe the timeframe was just too long.

 

I loved The Interestings, possibly because I went to a similar camp...and have remained friends with people from that camp decades later.

 

Halfway through Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. I got it out from the library and it's the quintessential get-it-from-library book. It's a real page turner and it's fascinating to see where Danny (the kid from the first book) ended up.

On the other hand, King's actual writing seems to have deteriorated since those days of yore and I don't myself rereading this one the way I have Christine or The Dead Zone. A B or a B-.