snotboogie asked:

Can you recommend some contemporary poetry?

• Nox by Anne Carson
• Garbage by A. R. Ammons
• Chronic by D. A. Powell

snotboogie asked:

Which appeals to you more Kurt Vonnegut Jr. or Ray Bradbury?

Hmmm, I’d say Ray Bradbury, because he is a grumpy old man who amuses me with shit-talking spectacles like this Paris Review interview in which he reveals his true opinion of Vonnegut: “I’m glad Kurt Vonnegut didn’t like me either. He had problems, terrible problems.”

Neither Proust nor Joyce are spared the wrath of Bradbury: “If people put me to sleep, they put me to sleep. God, I’ve tried to read Proust so often, and I recognize the beauty of his style, but he puts me to sleep. The same for Joyce. Joyce doesn’t have many ideas.”

There is no question the man is delusional about his own abilities as a writer. But he is hardly the first egomaniac who ever published a book and I find his egotistical shenanigans harmless and entertaining.

Anonymous asked:

Hi Juliette! I just wanted to say thank you for answering all the questions. I absolutely adore your blog and I love reading your answers and book recommendations. You are truly an inspiration and thank you so much for being willing to share your book recs with all of us! Also, I just wanted to let you know that you are absolutely stunning.

That’s very sweet. Thanks for the message. :)

fafa-net asked:

bonjour Juliette,I recommand you from "calvino" the baron in the trees. the story of a child who climb a tree and decide to never going down. I wait for the pic of you in the tree ... with this book ... fafa

Thanks for the recommendation(s). :)

Anonymous asked:

Hello! Here are some random reading questions :) Do you ever write in the margins of your books? Favorite place to read? Favorite reading snack? Most intimidating book you’ve ever read? Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin? Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?

Do you ever write in the margins of your books? I prefer to underline passages.

Favorite place to read? In my living room, which faces south, while there’s good natural light streaming in through the bay windows.

Favorite reading snack? Toast and tea!

Most intimidating book you’ve ever read? Naked Lunch.

Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin? I still haven’t read The Cantos by Ezra Pound… 

Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation? A guide book!

Anonymous asked:

how many books do you take out from the library at a time? how do you determine what book to buy?

Usually no more than a single book at a time so as to limit the amount of accrued late fees. I buy books almost always on impulse. Clearly, I’m not very good at controlling said impulse.

Anonymous asked:

favorite libraries you have ever been to?

For completely subjective reasons, Sanborn Library at Dartmouth College and the Mechanics Institute Library in downtown San Francisco.

yrstruly asked:

Have you read any Stephen Dixon? I'm binge-reading everything he wrote lately and I'd be interested to know what you think of him, if you think of him at all.

I haven’t read anything by Stephen Dixon. Yet! Thank you for putting him on my radar. He sounds fascinatingly experimental.

Anonymous asked:

Have you ever read anything by Italo Calvino? Some of his work reminds me a bit of Barthes' theories.

I own five or six of his novels but have only read one, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler - which I enjoyed. Eventually I’ll read read my way through the remainder.

Anonymous asked:

What are some novels that you think everyone should read before they die, but are not the typical classics like Gatsby or Catcher?

W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn, Shirley Hazzard’s The Transit of Venus, and The Paris Stories by Mavis Gallant.

Anonymous asked:

Hi! I am going off to college next year and I was wondering how you had time to read personal books atop of maintaining good grades and a social life?

My solution was to become an English major.

Anonymous asked:

Do you recommend Paula fox? And if so, what novels would be good introductory novels?

YES. Desperate Characters.

Anonymous asked:

In college, what were some of your favorite classes?

English 67.1: Romantics and Moderns

English 72.4: Postmodern Fiction: Boxes, Labyrinths and Webs

Anonymous asked:

Thoughts on chuck palahnuik?

I read Fight Club when I was a freshman in high school and haven’t read anything by the author since, so I can’t really offer an educated opinion.

Anonymous asked:

What are some of the longer books in English literature that you think are worth the time investment? Ie. Anna karina, IQ84. Can you recommend some rather unknown but well written novels?

Don DeLillo’s Underworld (832 pages) and David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1104 pages) are the obvious contemporary heavyweights. Mark C. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (709 pages), A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book (896 pages), and Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal & the White (848 pages) are also smart and hefty, albeit less well-known. On the heavier end of the middleweight class, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (528 pages), Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections (576 pages), and Norman Rush’s Mating (496 pages) are epic and dazzling, with the advantage of being just a bit shorter. Better minds then mine have recommended Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of TIme. I haven’t had the discipline to read it yet myself, but it’s considered by many to be an English classic.