a reader’s progress

In preparation for vacating the Newbury Street space that has housed the estimable Avenue Victor Hugo Bookstore, Vince McCaffrey has placed his 150,000-plus-volume inventory on sale. Yesterday was the first day of that event, and though I expected that it would be a tad busy, I was not prepared for the crowded aisles and bargain-basement …

Reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised Read More »

Maybe Mark Winegardner is right that we tend to ignore writers who are prolific (for some interesting reasons). Although Sam Shepard doesn’t exactly fall into that camp, I was wondering why I had put off reading the slender volume of stories, Great Dream of Heaven, that was residing on my bookshelf. Other than the fact …

We Tend to Ignore Writers Who Are Prolific Read More »

As I have noted before, Katherine Powers is one really good reason to wade through the sales circulars and other evidence of useless deforestation in our local paper of record on Sundays. Somewhere along the line the powers-that-be at the Globe stumbled on the good sense idea of having Powers in every Sunday. Hurrah, I …

Katherine Powers is one really good reason to wade through the sales circulars Read More »

The Boston Globe’s David Mehegan wrote a piece on the year-end closing of Avenue Victor Hugo bookshop. Maybe he got Vince McCaffrey’s 4 page press release—which like so many things dedicated booksellers do, flew in the face of conventional wisdom (keep it short). Anyway, Mehegan was properly reverential and sympathetic. But in the end I …

The Boston Globe’s David Mehegan wrote a piece… Read More »

I had a conversation with Daniel Mason, the young author of The Piano Tuner and the subject of books we read when we were young came up. I had recently watched Milos Forman’s film version of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and was thinking of the other books that were part of …

Books We Read When We Were Young Read More »

Three very different writers remind me why I don’t lose interest in this ongoing conversation with the literary planet/nation. I’m hoping that’s also why they (these talks) might be viewed as fresh and interesting. I’m not bound to anything but my own curiosity and the call and response riffing that a good conversation that produce …

Three very different writers remind me… Read More »

Busy week for me. I’m talking to Dorothy Allison about her republished story collection, editor and poet Jill Bialosky about her fine first novel, House Under Snow, and Mark Winegardner about his short stories and the world of writing, he being the chairman of creative writing at Florida State University…

One of the good reasons to read the Boston Globe is the appearance of Katherine Powers’ column, A Reading Life. Always, or almost always on the money, this weeks entry focuses on diaries—something I am acutely interested in—as I try for the umpteenth time in my life to keep track of well...That’s the nub of …

“One of the good reasons to read the Boston Globe…” –Oct. 6, 2002 Read More »

On the hunt for some older hardcover fiction (Dorothy Allison, Mark Winegardner), I stopped by Avenue Victor Hugo Bookstore on Newbury Street. I was neither shocked nor surprised but indeed saddened, by the news that Vince [McCaffrey] has decided to close his 27-year-old shop by the end of the year. I am sure I will …

“On the hunt for some older hardcover fiction…” –Oct. 3, 2002 Read More »

One of the seasonal blessings of each year is the fall publication of Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Stories and Essays, which has been expanded in recent years to include Travel Writing, Mystery Writing, Sports Writing, Science Writing, Recipes and this year—a Dave Eggers (hmm) guest-edited Best Non-Essential Reading (more hmmm). Beyond my quibbles about the …

“One of the seasonal blessings of each year is the fall publication of Houghton Mifflin’s Best American…” –Oct. 2, 2002 Read More »