Want Books: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Something for Chachic’s Want Books? meme:

I wanted to read Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad even before she won the National Book Critic’s Award (and was subsequently upstaged by Jonathan Franzen). The thing that intrigued me about it is the unusual structure. I haven’t read many novels-as-linked-stories and the reviews are glowing from what I’ve read. I haven’t seen any copies of it around bookstores however, but I haven’t been looking that hard. I’m also holding out on buying it because I have Egan’s earlier book, Look At Me, which so far remains unread.

So yes, I want but can’t have Goon Squad because I’m too slow a reader.

In other news, literary March Madness has also reached children’s books. Aside from the The Morning News’ Tournament of Books, I am now also following School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books. Again, I haven’t read any of the books mentioned here except Barry Deutsch’s Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, a charming graphic novel that was originally published online. I do love me some well-intentioned competition though, especially ones that lead to fascinating discussions of books.

Monday Bullet Points – The Pretty Pictures Edition

♛ The illustration above is of Ray Bradbury, my favorite writer (probably) of all-time, done for his 90th birthday. Illustrator Lou Romano has made a fascinating blog post detailing his drawing process. It’s especially cool how he drew Bradbury as the Illustrated Man, echoing one of his most famous characters.

♛ If you haven’t read High Chair’s 13th Issue, stop what you’re doing and read a poem or essay right now. In my opinion, they’re among the Filipino writers pushing our literature to a more challenging place.

♛ The Guardian’s book blog my reliable go-to site for literary news and their second installment of ten rules for writing fiction is particularly lovely.

♛ As an unqualified fan of Emily Carroll‘s work, I am especially thrilled to find out about her work with Picture Book Report. It’s a collective of illustrators who render scenes from different books using delightfully unique drawing styles. I’m particularly charmed by John Martz’s drawings for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

♛ Its name alone would qualify this blog as the best in the world, but Hey Oscar Wilde! It’s Clobberin’ Time! also hosts awesome portraits of various writers and literary characters.

♛ I’m a bitter-ender kind of a gal when it comes to reading books and it always rankles me when I give up on a novel in the middle. Sonya Chung’s It’s Not You, It’s Me: Breaking Up With Books is a small measure of comfort, knowing that I’m not alone with my book abandonment issues.

30 Days of Books Mastelist

I guess I’m way behind in literary news myself, since I was all excited to tell you the totally up-to-date and breaking news that Mario Vargas Lllosa won the Nobel Prize for Literature. : ( Still, NPR’s Pop Culture blog made a brief article about Vargas Llosa’s victory, which you should read.

But the reason for making this post is to list the 30 Days of Books meme I’ve decided to do to make this blog much more productive. It’ll at least ensure a post from me everyday, and that’s always a good thing. I’m going to answer the first one today on a separate post, so watch out for that!

Day 01 – A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)
Day 02 – A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 – The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months