October 2010
56 posts
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objectivecorrelative asked:
objectivecorrelative asked: Dear sad, neglected McNally Jackson tumblr, If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring one book, what would it be? (Let’s assume that Moby-Dick is already there.)
That’s really hard. Maybe The Secret Lives of People Escaping from Desert Islands, Or, How To Build Fires and Rafts: Building Your Stranded Brand. Er, without Moby-Dick,...
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Andre Dubus: An Appreciation →
fwriction:
From Michael Nye, managing editor of The Missouri Review, comes a strong look at the writing of Andre Dubus, a writer who I hold near and dear to my heart.
Asking me to pick his or her favorite writer is like giving a starving man a menu. Dubus died several years ago, so I’ll never have the opportunity to shake his hand and tell him how much his work has meant to me, just like I’ll...
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On the Endless Shitification of the Book
housingworksbookstore:
“Do you know Richard Nash? Richard was the editorial director at Soft Skull Press and he’s a consultant now. He was here recently talking about how the paper in books gets worse and worse and worse every year, and he called it “the endless shitification of the book.” It’s so true, right? I mean, they’re publishing on newsprint. Newsprint! Not the small presses,...
Anonymous asked: Any good translations published recently? Besides whichever one Lydia Davis just did.
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Also
Can’t believe I neglected to make a “Nuke the Whales” joke about 2010: Moby-Dick.
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“I aspire only to continue offering a place where New Yorkers can celebrate the...”
– More Sarah McNally.
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“But what’s funny is that my favorite bookstores that I’ve loved shopping in are...”
– Sarah McNally in this interview with Poets & Writers, which I will probably keep quoting from.
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“The Lower East Side and Williamsburg in New York, Capitol Hill in Seattle,...”
– http://nymag.com/news/features/69129/
Mark Greif in New York; “What Was the Hipster?” still at McNally Jackson.
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From the Poets & Writers Interview with Sarah...
PW: What would be the highest compliment you could receive from a customer?
Sarah: I think it’s always the same, which is they found and loved books that they would never have otherwise found. Ultimately, that is my service. That can be the only service that independent bookstores provide, because we no longer are the exclusive purveyors of these things. That’s the only reason why we should exist.
PW: To put good books in the hands of people.
Sarah: Yeah. Matchmaking, you know? That’s the bookseller’s role. If we do it well, we’ll stay relevant. If we don’t do it well, we won’t.
A cry for help
We don’t need your pity dates! We just want to answer questions about books.
michellelegro:
Oh won’t somebody just call McNally Jackson and ask them if they want to get a coffee or see a movie?
mcnallyjackson:
Has asked a question in a little while. Anyone need any recommendations? Literary advice? (Take that, Lorin Stein.) Questions about my life as a bookmonger? Anything?
Nobody
Has asked a question in a little while. Anyone need any recommendations? Literary advice? (Take that, Lorin Stein.) Questions about my life as a bookmonger? Anything?
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carpentrix:
The urge to peer in apartment windows when I walk around my Cambridge neighborhood at night is the same one that makes going into people’s homes for work part of what I like so much about the job. To see what cereal they eat, how they brew their coffee, what they have magnetoed to their fridges, hung on the walls, filling up their bookshelves. Who they are, how they live.
Last...
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“For all I know, the age of the comma is over. But it was a beautiful time to be...”
– Gary Lutz, in an interview.
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Anderson, on hand to mark a special DVD release of... →
“We did not intend to embarrass Mr. Anderson,” Avramescu added. “As an undergraduate myself, I can vouch that his story is a great piece of student writing!”
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Correction
The post “Weekend New Book Round-Up,” about rounding up the new week’s new books, misstated the dildic content of Philip Roth’s The Humbling, now out in paperback. The dildo is a green strap-on dildo, not a double dildo. We regret the error.
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“I don’t want to talk about it, for fear of making literature out of...”
– Roland Barthes, from Mourning Diary.
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There's nothing inert about these shelves, no... →
In the Wall Street Journal, Luc Sante on his bookshelves.
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Weekend New Book Round-Up
Whoa, whoa. Suddenly this is becoming the Biweekendly New Book Round-Up—not what I ever intended. My job is to do lots of things—shelve books, guess what book you’re trying to explain to me, free people trapped in the bathroom—but my job, probably at least according to Sarah McNally, is not to do the Weekend New Book Round-Up. I invented this job, as the Director of Social...
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“Women of muddled impulse, lonely beyond their means—I let my drowsy heart...”
– More Gary Lutz. Now offering 10% off anything you buy if you call dibs on the Lutz book. Just saying. Just saying.
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“We became another arm-swinging pair waging walks on the town, fooling with...”
– From a Gary Lutz story in the collection I Looked Alive. Over on the twitter, I am trying to get someone to buy this book so I don’t have to, selling it one sentence at a time.
“The 150,000 copies sold out within hours. In the weeks that followed, group...”
– Richard Pevear, on public reaction to the first appearance of The Master & Margarita, published by the monthly magazine Moskva in November 1966. (via winesburgohio)
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De la Huerta had to keep shushing rowdy... →
Ah, books!
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“I love short stories because I believe they are the way we live.”
– Andre Dubus, from his essay “Marketing”—you can find it in Broken Vessels, a collection put out by David R. Godine.
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housingworksbookstore:
“We met in line for the Ben Folds/Nick Hornby event at Housing Works Bookstore. You were super friendly and we seemed to have a bunch in common. I didn’t catch your name, and we got separated once we got inside. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t try and find you afterwards. If you’re interested in grabbing a bite some time, reply with what camp you worked at that one summer....
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Girl with Arm Tattoos at Helen DeWitt Reading -...
A reader recently anonymously “asked” me a link to alikewise, that new online dating site for people who like books. It’s cute, I guess, but supporting that would be like me linking to Amazon. I insist: The actual bookstore remains your best venue for—first—judging taste, and then retreating to the cold glow of your laptop to post something hopefully winning for them...
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Watchthingsiatethatilove:
cookingthebooksshow:
I want to read a transcript of this episode.
Richard Yates author Tao Lin quietly dominated this kale salad.
Richard Yates author Tao Lin will quietly dominate McNally Jackson tonight. Shirts required.
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“I can’t remember reading anything with much comprehension until eighth grade,...”
– That’s from this Gary Lutz essay, one of the best pieces of writing on writing I’ve yet read. We just got in a collection of his, put out by the Brooklyn Rail, and I’m trying extremely hard not to buy it. Get to it before I do.
Publishing School: 4 Writers Explain How They're... →
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samandolare:
“You can be charmed and fooled by language. It doesn’t stop, but it’s never enough.”
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Reminder!
Helen DeWitt is in the store at 3 today, just hanging out, eating brunch, doing whatever Helen DeWitt does. Find out.
All descriptions of hipsters are doomed to... →
This small book soon to be at McNally Jackson.
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Yesterday
Yesterday I bully-guilted a friend into buying Andre Dubus’ collected stories. Being a professional book recommender can be stressful: at best you can figure out other things they’ve liked, gauge their taste, make assumptions. (Please don’t ask for “a good story” without elaboration, ever.) But still—who knows how which books hit them when, + why. To ease my...
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elevenses at 3 →
I’ll be turning up at the café at McN J at 3pm on Saturday Oct 9, and if anyone else wants to come it will be great to see you.
Oh hey Helen DeWitt, what’s new? Yeah if you want to wicked casually swing by the store that’s totally cool. Do that. Saturday. Okay, awesome, bye.
