0-forum?

When I was a small press book publisher, I was put on the Comp list at Bookforum. Despite not having published a book since 2003 and closing down the company in 2004, I’ve remained on the freebie list. The new issue arrived last week, on the heels of my 0-fer festival (here, here and here).

So, of the 60+ books that got reviewed in this ish, how many of them was I interested in reading about, and possibly buying?

Two: The Philip Johnson Tapes: Interviews by Robert A.M. Stern and Herbie Archives. (Curiously, Dan Nadel’s review of Herbie — a comic book about a fat guy who gets superpowers from enchanted lollipops — was placed in the nonfiction section of the table of contents.)

I still need to check out William Vollmann’s essay on why Nazi photography is creepy. Or maybe I don’t. And Tom Vanderbilt’s review of books on how the suburbs and the internet are alienating or fragmenting or something seems pretty blatherous. I did have high hopes for this Richard Price interview, but then I discovered that it was a Richard Prince interview.

I’ve been going on lately about my inability to read contemporary books, but I realized that I should check to make sure I’m not full of crap. To that end, I checked through the last 3 years of my list of All The Books I’ve Read, sorted by date of publication, and realized that I am full of crap! Here’s a PDF of 2006-2008, each year sorted by book-date.

I decided to include all books from that year and the previous one as “brand spankin’ new,” arbitrary as that seems.

  • 2006: 5 new books (2 novels), 11 overall published this decade, 35 overall
  • 2007: 7 new (4 novels & 1 play), 14 from this decade, 31 overall
  • 2008: 8 new (6 novels), 13 from this decade, 29 overall

So I guess I have been more susceptible to book-hype lately! Or there were a bunch of good books out last year. Still, maybe I should follow the suggestion of one of my newer readers (hey, Zeke!) and put a ban on any books that are fewer than 3 years old.

What It Is: 1/19/09

What I’m reading: Re-reading Montaigne’s “On some verses of Virgil” and a few chapters of Cultural Amnesia. Clive James just dropped the unmitigated smackdown on Walter Benjamin. (Boy, I really oughtta start watching these sometime.)

What I’m listening to: Pretty random stuff on my iTunes, as I think about compiling another Mad Mix.

What I’m watching: The 3rd season of Arrested Development, which is godawful. It’s incredible how off-the-rails the show got.

What I’m drinking: Bluecoat & tonic. And some Pacifico Clara.

What Rufus is up to: Entertaining my pal’s 3-year-old daughter, and missing another Sunday hike, thanks to the snow.

Where I’m going: Nowhere special. Although I may take today off to celebrate my black heritage, and drive into NYC to catch Synecdoche, New York.

What I’m happy about: My wife has her first commercial photo shoot today! (Also, the Eagles lost in the NFC Championship game. Again. And my wife & I had a great belated birthday dinner at Chef’s Table on Saturday.)

What I’m sad about: Will nobody think of the poor birds? (Just kidding: awesome job on landing that Airbus in the Hudson, although it would’ve been even more amazing if he could’ve landed on the deck of the Intrepid.)

What I’m pondering: Selling my 15″ Macbook Pro and using this 13″ Macbook Air as my laptop.

Throw me a bone

After giving me the double kick in the nuts of closing down both the New York Sun and my favorite Thai restaurant in NYC last year, the universe offers up a handy made-for-Gil-Roth moment: the My Year of Flops writer reviews With Nails, the film diaries of Richard E. Grant.

Plus, the makers of the awesome Q Tonic were so happy that I offered some feedback on their product that they just sent me a 4-pack of the stuff!

It seems the cosmos has made a New Year’s resolution to be nicer to me! (I promise I’ll get around to reading The Wah-Wah Diaries.)

F*** You, You Whining F***: 1/5/09

Editors and publishers must now learn how to use telephones.

(In a bonus piece of cluelessness, this article also focuses on publishers’ debilitating problem of returns from bookstores . . . without ever mentioning e-publishing! God forbid you mention a distribution venue that eliminates the cost of physical production, shipping and returns in an article about cutting costs!)