Bibliomania
The Stand on Screen
Getting a director for Stephen King’s The Stand was almost as difficult as surviving the virus. The latest director to try is Josh Boone, who is no stranger to adaptations because he’s bringing The Fault in Our Stars to screen. To brush up on your King, read our essay on learning about America through his novels.
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A Film of Common Prayer
Looks like Joan Didion’s 1977 novel A Book of Common Prayer will now be adapted for the screen.
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Also Only Costs $9.99
“Start with the novel’s climax (often the first thing you know about it, its most striking moment) and work backward, asking why-why-why. Then write forward.” Nell Zink at The Lithub on how to become a novelist in 10 easy steps. See also our interview with Zink from last week.
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Casting Call
“Marta Reale, 10, her smile broad, her bangs blanched, made her way to a recreation center’s doorway through the dense crowd of other children, sunlit cigarette smoke and mothers fanning themselves on the seats of scooters. Above her, more children were hanging out the window, and above them, more were crammed onto a balcony.” Jason Horowitz files from Naples, Italy for The New York Times about a casting call for HBO’s upcoming adaptation of Elena Ferrante‘s My Brilliant Friend, noting that it “has already drawn 5,000 children, the vast majority of whom have never heard of Elena Ferrante, and injected a mix of hysteria and hope into parts of Naples that are poor in resources but rich in real characters.” Pair with this piece about The Neapolitan Quartet‘s scope and impact.
Curiosities: The Case of Rudolph
Roberto Bolaño’s “Beach,” the story that has been the source of the notion that the late author was a heroin addict (since debunked in a fairly convincing fashion) has been translated into English.”Science Fiction Authors That Lit Geeks Think It’s Cool To Read“”Top 10 US out of print books of 2008” and the heartening news that three of the books on the list will be brought back into print in 2009: Once a Runner, A Lion Called Christian, and Comanche Heart.Google now has 7 million books scanned.Put this instant classic in your stocking and save it for next year: “A hearing into the case of Rudolph, a reindeer“
This Slim and Slippery Thread of Hope
“The day after we elected Donald Trump, I told my daughter the truth: This was the wrong choice. I am devastated. I am furious. And I am sorry, because you deserve better.” Nicole Chung with some beautiful words over at Buzzfeed (q.v. also Mira Jacob (“Here’s What I’m Telling My Brown Son About Trump’s America”) and Manuel Gonzalez (“I Will Teach My Children To Survive The New America”).
Your Literary Superpower
Does reading a novel for a few hours make you feel smarter? You’re not alone: a new study suggests that reading novels heightens activity in the left temporal cortex, also known as the part of the brain associated with receptivity to language. The best part? The changes last for five days.
Blake’s Collected Poems… I was in Exclusive Books in Johannesburg, with the book in my hand, when the lights went out, the music stopped… You can imagine the rest. I was severely punished (by my conscience of course!). It was years before I could read Blake.
That’s freaky. I was going to comment that I stole a collection of Blake’s poems from my school library way back. I still have the book.
Well I have never stolen a thing in my life! But let’s say hypotheticly (sp), there is a place in town where you can take 1 book but you have to give a book. I slipped 2 books in my bag & never gave one. Damage by John Lescroart and Kill Me by Stephen White.
I stole Loitering with Intent (without intent). I happened upon it in a library of which I am a member and said to myself: at last I will read Loitering with Intent! To have borrowed it properly, the only requirement would have been to sign it out. But I must have had an unconscious premonition (or intent) that I would lose it, because I quietly slipped it into my bag, intending a long train journey in a place with few books in English. As far as I know, it’s still on the train, in a seatback flap, traveling 900 miles each way every day on the bullet train.
One night during my study abroad program in Mexico, there was a blackout in school. I was at the library, it was 2am, it was exam week and everyone was dying (trying to formulate a scenario to make my action excusable). I was flipping “Le Corbusier: Moments in the Life”, which has amazing photography by René Burri. It was for an architecture assignment, and the book was too captivating. So we all had to go home when the entire library went pitch black: the security guard chased us out with his torchlight. And then I realised, if the lights are off, the alarm at the library exit must be off too.
I walked home happily. It was cold, but the book was safely tucked under my sweater.
I stole The Moth Diaries from my old local library. I’d borrowed it and kept renewing it and then I moved and I accidentally signed up with a different library (same local library, but different branch with my new address). I had fallen in love with the book. It made me realise what kind of novels I want to write; I’d fallen in love with the Epistolary format and I read it a few times a year, now.
I also accidentally stole a few novels from my ex. when I kicked him out, but not sure that counts as I paid for them.
I borrowed a book on Yeats from my college library in the mid 90’s with a vow to return the “favor” by making some kind of redeeming project from it. But still working on the vow, and still plan to return it afterwards. Maybe I should’ve just let it be.