Galleycat's poll says we take our book hints from friends and newspapers. What was the last book you bought, and where did you hear about it?
The last book tip I followed up on was Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff, which I heard about back when the author appeared on The Daily Show.
This link is all over the lit blogs, but I thought I'd share a little story first...
Back when Bookblogger was an intern at a hip little magazine, an editor announced to us that George Plimpton, editor-in-chief of The Paris Review, had died. Cool kids that we were, we couldn't quite hear the editor in our open loft office space over the sound of our iTunes blasting. One editorial assistant said, "George Clinton died? Man, that's too bad."
Another editorial assistant straggled in from lunch, a greasy paper bag in hand. "Did you guys hear? George Plimpton died!"
"George Plimpton died? Oh..." the first assistant said. "Hey, what a coincidence...George Clinton died!"
And here, my friends, is The Plimpton Project, an organization collecting funds toward creating a statue of Plimpton for Central Park. Enjoy.
Some people say that those who can't, teach. Well, sometimes writing professors move back to New York, write a novel, get a book deal with Riverhead (Penguin), and have their work compared to Memoirs of a Geisha. Take that!
My former creative writing instructor at UC Berkeley, Ellis Avery, has written an elegant novel called The Treehouse Fire. Check it out, and read an interview with her courtesy of KGB Bar Lit.