Great list on Listverse: “15 Influential Early Works of Apocalyptic Fiction” (via American Libraries Direct). It’s somewhat similar to the “End of the World Literature List” from AbeBooks, with the distinction that THESE post-apocalyptic works were all written pre-Atomic Age; both lists include earlier works than my “Core Collection: Before and After The Road” (although I was the only [...]

In the Boston Globe (”What’s so funny?“), Alex Beam discusses the challenge of writing the comic novel:
In the immortal deathbed phrase variously attributed to actors Edwin Booth, Edmund Kean, Donald Wolfit, and others: “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” Comedy on the printed page may be the hardest of all. Writer Roy Blount Jr. once [...]

A post yesterday on Galleycat, about a bookstore’s cancellation of Jayanti Tamm’s first public reading from Cartwheels in a Sari, made me think of a similar memoir, Kyria Abrahams’ I’m Perfect, You’re Doomed, which made me think of Kevin Roose’s The Unlikely Disciple–which, as luck would have it, was the subject of another recent Galleycat post. Coincidence–or [...]

Now this is smart: a used books merchant doing read-alikes. A while ago, I got an e-mail from AbeBooks touting their “End of the World Literature – Post-Apocalyptic Fiction” list. While it includes many titles that I included on my “Core Collection: Before and after The Road,” there are titles that I either missed or [...]

An update from Marianne Goss, who reports that there are now more than 100 novels listed on her site, Positively Good Reads, “An upbeat reading list for people who often find serious novels depressing.” Some readers may remember my original post, “How about a downbeat reading list for people who find comic novels amusing?” in which [...]

Speaking of good books for bad times, Gawker looks at authors’ stock-market speculations–speculative fiction, to be more precise–asking, “What have our finest authors found to redeem us from this depression?”
Speculative fiction often refrains from defining the terms of an economic collapse, but it’s always forced to either solve the problem or make things considerably worse in [...]

On Slate, Paul Collins (Sixpence House, 2003) has put together an absolutely irresistible list: The 10 Oddest Travel Guides Ever Published. To wit:
7. Lonely Planet Guide to Micronations, by John Ryan et al. (2006)
This may be the only Lonely Planet guide in which armchair travel is probably assumed—for the countries themselves are about the size [...]

I received this link from a number of sources–Book Club Girl’s Bastille Day pairing of books and French wine–but I kept deleting it. The commercial tie-in turned me off, for starters, and the list just didn’t seem that great, either. The Count of Monte Cristo? Mon dieux!
Then the ever-watchful George Eberhart sent the list to me, with [...]

I received an e-mail yesterday from Marianne Goss, who wants to promote her site, www.positivelygoodreads.com, “an upbeat reading list for people who often find serious novels depressing”. In the event that there are a lot of like-minded readers out there, I’m happy to share the link. But as someone who thrives on darkness and despair, I don’t think [...]

Inspired by the excruciating ruminations of Lisa Chellman, I finally started a list I’ve been meaning to make for a long time. I think you’ll quickly discern the theme:
Audubon’s Elephant, by Duff Hart-Davis (2004)
Caesar’s Column, by Ignatius Donnelly and Walter Rideout (1960)
Cleopatra’s Nose, by Daniel J. Boorstin (1994)
Cleopatra’s Nose, by Judith Thurman (2007)
Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis De [...]