For absolutely no good reason:1. Which two characters should die in the last Harry Potter book?
2. David Sedaris: continuing to produce a fine body of funny, touching work? coasting by on acclaim from his early works? overrated from the start? other?
3. Most entertaining and/or egregious literary scandal of the year: James Frey, JT LeRoy, or Kaavya Viswanathan?
4. Best book you've read so far this year.
4 comments:
1. i can't even remember who is still alive! let's see... can it be mcgonagall? i have no particular affection for her. and maybe... for the sake of sadness... mrs. weasely?
2. santaland diaries blew. that was definitely coasting by. i mean, wasn't most of it from other books? i think he is funny. he's probably still funny. but he is no amy sedaris.
3. i don't really pay attention to literary scandals. james frey seems opportunistic, but nobody really gives a shit, except for the fact that it involved oprah.
4. i can't read! actually, i haven't liked much of anything that i have read this year. but i am trying to start reading more fiction. i'm starting to go to the public library. actually, the best thing i've read all year is probably a self-published comic by a little kid named alex that i got on free comic book day. it was about a demon named flabaco. at the end of the story, he gave directions on how to draw flabaco.
Yeah, that collection with the Santaland Diaries in it was kind of a blatant money-making scheme. But because he had so many bad jobs and was poor for so long, I'm almost willing to overlook it.
David Sedaris:
Maybe a little coasting there. Barrel Fever and Naked were both his finest, for sure. His collection of his own favorite short stories was fun and introduced me to some new folks. Maybe he's happy and bored. I dunno. It happens. I still love him, though. I can't help it. I could be gay for David Sedaris.
1. I hate to say it, but probably Harry Potter should die. I mean, can you really imagine him just going on to live a normal life? So I think Harry Potter and Voldemort kill each other.
2. I'm still reading David Sedaris's early stuff, so I'm still finding him touching and funny, but I agree with the general consensus that he may be sort of coasting now. But him coasting is funnier than most people really trying.
3. James Frey, partially b/c I'm torn on the issue. I mean, yeah, he lied and passed off stuff as part of his life that really wasn't. But I'm also from one of those big Southern families where the old men get together and tell stories that supposedly happened to them, and you know it's not even vaguely true, and yet it's enjoyable and you wish it WERE true, so you believe it anyway. A little like "Big Fish."
4. "City of Quartz" by Mike Davis.
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