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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. [...]

After paying some bills last night, I clicked “headlines” on my browser bar and saw that J. G. Ballard had died. There’s no shortage of news about this now, but as many of the obits seem to focus on his role as an influencer (see “Author J. G. Ballard dies after lengthy illness,” by Ben Hoyle, Times), [...]

In the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Marche has a nice piece on books that don’t exist (“Longing for Great Lost Works“)–not books that have been invented by authors for fictional purposes, but books that have been destroyed or lost forever. A poignant thought: Classical literature, like classical architecture, is a collection of delicious ruins. The [...]

Donna Seaman, in her Booklist review of the essay collection A Narrative Compass: Stories That Guide Women’s Lives, wrote: “In each elegant interpretation, the author traces the ripple effects of a story that thrilled or provoked her, a story that became a catalyst for a lifelong passion, and a story that became a virtual home, [...]

Disregard, for a moment, what web-enabled mobile devices (aka “cellphones”) are doing to the habit of reading. Matt Richtel (“If Only Literature Could Be a Cell-Phone Free Zone,” New York Times) asks us to consider what these ubiquitous gadgets are doing to reading material. Must we now hit “delete” on tension that simmers for hundreds [...]

As Laura Tillotson reminded us, April is not only the cruellest month, it’s also National Poetry Month. Alas, poetry readership is at a 16-year low (“The End of Verse?” by Marc Bain, Newsweek). There are many things you can do to fight this depressing trend. You could take down that tattered copy of Robert Frost [...]

I’ve been wanting to read a book by Harry Stephen Keeler for years, ever since I stumbled across him at Find a Grave. (Yes, I’m morbid, but I was just looking for famous people buried in Chicago–turns out he was buried a few blocks from where I was then living.) Having discovered that the McSweeney’s [...]

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 [...]

Oh, great. More thoughtful.

Still catching up with my blogging backlog. Bloglog? Backblog? First the current stuff… The good news: the NEA believes that, for the first time in a quarter century, grown-ups are reading more fiction than they used to (“Fiction Reading Increases for Adults,” by Motoko Rich, New York Times). “There has been a measurable cultural change [...]