In the world of selling books, it’s not all about the sentences. At Ploughshares, agent Eric Nelson argues: A fresh plot matters and unusual characters do, too. “The most interesting books have characters who do the opposite of what we’d do… Imagine Hamlet, if Hamlet took decisive action. Horror movies wouldn’t exist at all without the idiot who always suggests they split up.”
It’s all about the characters
10 Rules for Writers by Janet Fitch
“Write the sentence, not just the story” is the first of ten rules for writers from Janet Fitch.
Rimbaud in Ethiopia
From The New York Times Travel section, a look at the Ethiopian city where Rimbaud, the poet behind A Season in Hell, “finally found a kind of peace.”
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Overlooked Books of the Decade
The Daily Beast offers up a list of “the most overlooked reads of the past 10 years – none of which involve a wizard, a vampire, or a code” from John McGahern’s By the Lake to Pandora in the Congo by Albert Sanchez Pinol.
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Convergences
Recommended Reading: Andrea Denhoed on Flannery O’Connor.
Parks and Read
“The idea is to bring about a change in lifestyle of the young denizens of the city.” The Times of India reports that the Bhopal Runners Association is converting old parks around the city into green reading spaces with seating, wi-fi, and literary events. Less bookcentric but still a feat of public planning (and gentrification): New York City’s High Line, which our own Michael Borne wrote about when it first opened.
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Entourage v. Mad Men
Is “Entourage” just “Mad Men” set in modern times? This article, of course, must be paired with Carles‘ Grantland piece, “I Don’t Want to Bro Up, I’m an ‘Entourage’ Kid.”
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Seriously, Read This Book
Lev Grossman is ready to dub John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Blood-Horses and, more recently, Pulphead, “the next Tom Wolfe,” and NPR‘s Dan Kois agrees that he might be “the best magazine writer around.” Elsewhere, Zach Baron writes an interesting profile of the author for The Daily.
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