Archive for the ‘My Library’ Category

by Mark S. Weiner

On a winter afternoon in 2006, on my birthday, I gave away my library.

The previous week, I owned so many books that I built teetering stacks of them on the floor of my study. I stored the overflow in my wife’s office, and on the shelves next to the treadmill, and downstairs, beside the television. I loved those books, each one, and I had spent countless hours in their company—some I had known for over twenty years. Just looking at them made me feel secure, as though all the supportive friends I had ever known were by my side, ready to offer me their wise advice and comfort.

Then, after my wife and I crammed our ailing station wagon full of white shipping boxes, and drove to the local post office, and lifted each box to the chest-high counter, and watched an agent wheel them behind a wall, they were gone, on their way to a public library that had a use for them. Poof! The process was over surprisingly quickly. (more…)

Obviously, the best novel of the year is Ellen Ullman’s By Blood, the best nonfiction book Richard Lloyd Parry’s People Who Eat Darkness, the best manifesto Jeff Speck’s Walkable City, the best travel book (and the best-titled book) Rosecrans Baldwin’s Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down, the best vampire book Brian McGreevy’s Hemlock Grove, the best memoir Davy Rothbart’s My Heart is an Idiot, the best debut Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.* (more…)

by Sarah Scire

Picking favorites is almost always tricky business. For the staff of FSG, crowning just a few of the many books they read “the best of 2012″ seemed close to impossible.

There were last-minute additions, half-hearted apologies for self-interested choices, lengthy disclaimers about how all of the books they’d worked on were their favorites, and multi-part questions about eligibility (“This book was written almost two decades ago but first translated in 2012—with the exception of an excerpt two years ago. Does it count?”).

Restricting everyone’s favorites to books published in 2012 seemed unfair (and likely to start an uproar) so we chose to ask three questions we hoped would shed light on the staff’s diverse reading habits: (more…)

Around the hardcover publication for Michael Cunningham’s By Nightfall, I was fortunate enough to produce a short video series with him and his student, the polymath James Franco. Cunningham generously allowed us to shoot in his New York apartment, which I noted had a beautiful library set into his bathroom walls. Fast forward a year and a half to this past week, when Cunningham once again opened up his home to a small film crew—this time to capture his incredible library. (more…)

I was surprised to learn Lapham’s Quarterly is only five years old, given it feels firmly at the center of the literary firmament. This is of course due to Lewis Lapham’s impeccable taste and, as you’ll notice, his inimitable style. Photographer Joshua Simpson and I stopped by their offices to get a look inside the journal’s operations. Thanks to Michelle Legro for her help in setting this up. (more…)