The Book Shopper

Pynchon’s Muted Horn Dinner Ware

Admittedly I am not easy to shop for when it comes to books for Christmas and only the brave even make an attempt. Nevertheless, knowing of my interest in essays as a writing form, my older daughter Cynthia  scouted out numerous books before selecting G. Douglas Atkins’ Tracing the Essay: Through Experience to Truth (2005) published by the University of Georgia Press, which I have already started reading. (I hope my study of the book results in a noticeable improvement in my writing.)

My younger daughter Bonnie took a different approach. As the creator of the pedestrian book bag, she designed and made a decorative plate featuring the muted horn symbol from Thomas Pynchon’s 1966 novel The Crying of Lot 49. Bonnie had read the book in college, understands the significance of the symbol (she even used a sgraffito decorating technique) and knows that I have a goal of someday starting a local Thomas Pynchon book club. (A New Year’s Resolution? I think not.)  During our holiday get together,  I used the plate to serve hors d’oeuvres along with my opinions about Pynchon.

The Best Local Reading of 2010 (That I Attended)

Before saying farewell to 2010, it’s time to recognize the “Best Local Reading of the Year" or more    specifically, the “Best Local Reading of the Year That I Attended,” which does narrow the field considerably. My rating criteria are rather simple and subjective:

• Did I learn something that otherwise I would not have learned even if I read the book?
• Did the author and the audience seem to engage with each other?
• Did I come away with a little buzz (or buy the book) after the reading?

Some of this year’s candidates include well known authors such as Deborah Blum, Jonathan Franzen, Thomas Mullen, Nicky Hornby, and first timers Thomas Chatterton Williams and Grant Jerkins. When you think about it is not much of a list for a blog that “muses about book-related events, but what can I say? I try to get out to some literary event at least once a month.

This year’s Best Local Reading of 2010 That I Attended goes to the four poets who read from the University of Georgia Press anthology Seriously Funny: Poems About Love, Death, Religion, Arts, Sex and Everything Else during the Decatur Book Festival. The poets were: Kevin Young of Emory University, Georgia Poet Laureate David Bottoms, Georgia Tech’s Thomas Lux and Florida State’s David Kirby.  (Unfortunately Barbara Hamby who is the co-editor of the Seriously Funny along with Kirby could not attend because of the death of her mother.) For over an hour they entertained with humor, but the book’s offerings are not limited to just a few yucks, but the spectrum of the human condition. Each of the poets had a flair of performance (especially the theatrical Lux ) and I can still remember Kevin Young reading his own poem, “Ode to Pork,” (the first poem he wrote, Young said,  after the death of his father),  and Kirby reciting Jim Daniel’s poem, “Outdoor Chef”  about a high school barbecuing class. Having great material to work with always helps.