Currently reading:
I can't believe it's taken me so long to finally get around to Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, but I am glad I finally have. So far I'm mighty impressed. But I still haven't finished the first installment, City of Glass, so if you've read it, don't mention anything to me that could be a spoiler, pretty please!
Above all, this book is whetting my appetite for New York in a serious way. Auster obviously loves the city (though his love is mixed with some healthy and appropriate dread) City of Glass is one big hardboiled wander around Manhattan, and it's executed in this extremely postmodern, metafictional way that so far hasn't struck a single false note with me. Has anyone else out there read this book and been engrossed by it? Any other fantastic Auster recommendations?
In other news, I am currently taking a class in children's book production and marketing this term. At this stage in my life, kids are like little aliens to me and they kind of freak me out sometimes, I have to admit. I just don't really know how to relate to them, so diving into this world of kids books is a little strange (I am just taking the class to finish up my writing minor). But the one thing that I've gotten from this class so far is that writing kids books is fucking hard. You've got to speak to their own particular world view, and they are really good at figuring out whether or not the writer is being patronizing to them, or is just writing too "adult."
But I did just discover a great kids book in this class, Good Night, Opus by Berkeley Breathed, the creater of Bloom County.
It's beautifully illustrated, with some especially great black and white, light and shadow, very noir-ish like work at the beginning of the book.
I've always loved Breathed's work...And this book is a take off on the famous kiddie book Good Night Moon, which apparently everyone in the class had heard of except for me.
Clearly I wasn't read to enough as a child!
What were some of your favorite kid books when you were a kid?
I can't believe it's taken me so long to finally get around to Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, but I am glad I finally have. So far I'm mighty impressed. But I still haven't finished the first installment, City of Glass, so if you've read it, don't mention anything to me that could be a spoiler, pretty please!
Above all, this book is whetting my appetite for New York in a serious way. Auster obviously loves the city (though his love is mixed with some healthy and appropriate dread) City of Glass is one big hardboiled wander around Manhattan, and it's executed in this extremely postmodern, metafictional way that so far hasn't struck a single false note with me. Has anyone else out there read this book and been engrossed by it? Any other fantastic Auster recommendations?
In other news, I am currently taking a class in children's book production and marketing this term. At this stage in my life, kids are like little aliens to me and they kind of freak me out sometimes, I have to admit. I just don't really know how to relate to them, so diving into this world of kids books is a little strange (I am just taking the class to finish up my writing minor). But the one thing that I've gotten from this class so far is that writing kids books is fucking hard. You've got to speak to their own particular world view, and they are really good at figuring out whether or not the writer is being patronizing to them, or is just writing too "adult."
But I did just discover a great kids book in this class, Good Night, Opus by Berkeley Breathed, the creater of Bloom County.
It's beautifully illustrated, with some especially great black and white, light and shadow, very noir-ish like work at the beginning of the book.
I've always loved Breathed's work...And this book is a take off on the famous kiddie book Good Night Moon, which apparently everyone in the class had heard of except for me.
Clearly I wasn't read to enough as a child!
What were some of your favorite kid books when you were a kid?
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
Another film recommendation for you. It's a Charlotte vs. Charlotte psycho-drama/smack-down! Weird and spooky. Most enjoyable.
Great seeing you again, mon ami. I regret that I was not at my conversational best...and operating under a "curfew," unfortunately. Too much family, not enough time to myself, sadly. Ah, well. C'est la vie!
Adieu! Stay in touch!
PS: Yes! Berkeley Breathed! Long-live Bill and Opus! Ack!!!