Meandering Through a Literary Life
I’ve finally finished my “book a week” challenge (meaning I’ve read, rated, and reviewed 52 books for the year). I actually read quite a few more than that but didn’t mark them down (on my Shannara binge, I was getting through them every 2-3 days). This year I went through audiobooks more than any year … Read more
This article presents a Codex Card Game review. The game was developed by Sirlin Games and attempts to replicate the RTS genre in card game form. Is it successful?
Ellen is the key to understanding Synecdoche, New York. This article makes a thorough case for who she is and argues for one clear meaning to the movie.
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan is my last giant novel for the year. I really wanted to do something complicated and serious like Gaddis’ JR, but it was getting kind of annoying to find a reasonable copy. Anyway, I already covered the epic fantasy giant novel, so this will cover a lot … Read more
I’ve been a longtime fan of Joe Swanberg going all the way back to his first mumblecore film Kissing on the Mouth. He just came out with a new Netflix series, Easy, so I had to check it out. The show doesn’t follow the conventions we’ve come to expect from Netflix. Each episode focuses on … Read more
Steven Pressfield wrote a book called The War of Art back in 2002. Since then, it has risen to cult classic status in various art circles. The book spends some time defining something called the Resistance, and then it turns into a drill sergeant to push you through the Resistance. I want to argue that … Read more
You’ll learn how to write a strong opening chapter through this analysis of Stephen King’s Bag of Bones.
Invisible description is the essence of great writing. Let’s dig into the mechanics of making this happen. I’ve been reading Fool Moon by Jim Butcher, the second Dresden Files novel. In the middle of a fight with a werewolf, the narrator uses this simile: I was flung back through the air like a piece of … Read more
Bon Iver announced a new album to be released later this year. I thought I’d take some time to reflect on what it was like to hear his first album, For Emma, Forever Ago, when I was twenty. The Cultural Experience I think most generations have some major cultural experience that it is hard to … Read more
I’ve been working my way through Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. Genre fiction, literature, and pulp fiction all have a tricky relationship to one another. I have this really bad habit of reading negative reviews on Goodreads while reading a book. If I love the book, I can make fun of the idiots who “cant … Read more