Coty's Weblog

On the off chance you're reading this from Los Angeles...

then please consider visiting BookSoup on Sunset tonight at 7:00p to hear Will Clarke read from his new book, The Worthy: A Ghost's Story.

If you will be in or around McLean, VA this evening...

then please consider visiting the Books-A-Million on Chain Bridge Rd. there at 7 P.M. to hear my good friend Will Clarke read from his newest book, The Worthy: A Ghost's Story. Will is funny and thoughtful and sure to be entertaining.

solche schöne Hände

I was just flipping through Franz Wright's God's Silence and those words from the poem “Event Horizon” really affected me. Like the hands to which they refer, they are beautiful—all the more so in the German for some reason.

I wish there were a way for me to link to the poem. It always surprises me when I can’t. It is National Poetry Month, though, so you might find the collection on display at your local bookstore. That is how I ran across it.

Book Tour Virgin Podcasts

Will has released the first podcast from his book tour a few days ago. First moblogging, now podcasting. Will is nothing if not hip. Seriously, though, I'm looking forward to listening to it since his tour has not yet swung far enough east for me to hear him in person.

Vlogging must be next. I think the card trick will work much better in that medium.

Minishel

Brilliant idea. A surprisingly large number of humorless bookstore employees based on the comments. (Of course, on the Internet, nobody knows whether you're really a bookstore employee.)

I think I have enough good reshelving karma that I shouldn't feel too bad anyway. I love the Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter ideas from the comments, too.

Thanks for danah for the pointer.

Book Tour Virgin

Will Clarke, a friend from high school (my wife's even more than mine), groomsman in my wedding, godfather to my younger son, and author of Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles has started Book Tour Virgin, a blog chronicling—as you might easily guess—his first book tour.

It is pretty cool when anyone you know gets a book published—even cooler when that book gets picked up to be made into a major motion picture. My wife and I are looking forward to living vicariously through Will and perhaps being invited to the odd opening night party or the like.

I hate to admit that I haven't read Will's book, yet, but for a bit when my wife had an early draft and the test drive that Will has posted. I've got it pre-ordered on Amazon, though, and I'm looking forward to reading it. I hope that the protagonist and I don't have too much in common. (I'm pretty sure we don't.) However, I did have some good luck with the whole Internet thing, and I do know a bit about growing up "smack-dab in the middle of a north Louisiana cotton field," so there should be some stuff in there I can identify with.

Nicholson Baker

I’ve only read Mezzanine, which I really enjoyed, but I’ve run across Nicholson Baker too much recently not to blog it.

First I noticed his novel Checkpoint in Jerry Colonna’s reading list while reading his I’m Back post. (Glad to have him back, BTW.)

Then I ran across John Ludwig’s blog as a result of perusing my referers. I think we both turned up in a Technorati search for "Jerry Colonna". Anyway, his Recent Books post references his having read Baker’s The Fermata. He didn’t seem to like it exactly. I hope John will take my recommendation (which I also made to Jerry) and pick up Mezzanine. I’ve flipped through Vox, so I have an idea of what Fermata might be like, and I don’t think Mezannine will offend John’s midwestern sensibilities so.

Finally, I’ve been working on the mundane task of putting together a spreadsheet at work to help collect some data more efficiently. In the process I discovered Excel lists and the data form. The default form wasn’t everything I had hoped for, so I searched for alternatives and found the J-Walk Enhanced Data Form v2. It is called J-Walk because it was created by John Walkenbach--who also hosts the Nicholson Baker Fan Page. I think I’m going to code my own form, but the J-Walk form is certainly an improvement over the default, and it is free.

In another little coincidence, I was looking at the entry for Mezzanine on the fan page mentioned above and noticed the following taken from the book jacket:

Although most of the action of The Mezzanine occurs on the escalator of an office building, where its narrator is returning to work after buying shoelace, this startlingly inventive and witty novel takes us farther than most fiction written today. It lends to milk cartons the associative richness of Marcel Proust’s madeleines.

The emphasis above is mine. If you didn’t already know, Jerry’s blog’s title is Madeleines.

P.S. I couldn’t agree more with what John says about Jerry in his Judy’s Book — Board Meeting post. His openness and honesty are inspiring. Thanks for that, Jerry.