Has anyone read Shoplifting from American Apparel by Tao Lin?
It's a novella (which I tend to like reading because by the time I get bored they're over) and it received great reviews but I found it to be boring, boring, boring. It's very dry.
Just wondering if I missed something.
I went to the big chain bookstore in my neighborhood last weekend (Dear BookCourt, I didn't buy anything) and I was amazed to see how big the section was for graphic novels. I was even more amazed to see that it was filled with people—mostly teens—checking out the goods.
I'm telling you this because I just read about Jonathan Ames' new graphic novel, The Alcoholic, in today's NY Times.
Btw, Jonathan Ames lives in my neighborhood and I ate lunch next to him once in a cafe. (But I didn't say anything; I'm a chicken.)
Anywho, can you see yourself reading a graphic novel as an adult? Is this something I should be thinking about?
Hmmm... maybe something called "The Adventures of Elvis the Bush Cat and his little sister Bev."
Or, perhaps this is the perfect venue for "The Adventures of Picky and Choosy, My Unborn Children."
Hey Brits... buy this book!
The Virago Book of The Joy of Shopping by Jill Foulston.
I have to say, I LOVE the company I keep in the first paragraph of the description...
Jane Austen found her sister Cassandra a locket. Joan Didion bought nail enamel and a toaster on impulse. Karyn Bosnak charged $20,000 on credit cards, and Elizabeth Wurtzel got caught shoplifting. George Eliot, for some reason, hated shopping.
As people began to shop more, novelists imagined them doing it. Jane Eyre cringes at Mr Rochester's pre-wedding excess, while Undine Spragg's spending drives her husband to despair. The Girl with a Pearl Earring turns up her nose at some stale meat, Tom Ripley lusts after Venetian leather, and Mrs Dalloway chooses flowers on Bond Street.
The darker side of shopping is here in the letters, diaries and memoirs of those who remember blackmarkets and rations. There are even records from the Old Bailey of audacious and desperate five-finger discounts, and a recent account of brawling at IKEA.
The Virago Book of Shopping revels in the lists, the etiquette and the thrills of finding just the right thing.
This is it. Buy it.
The Virago Book of Shopping is now available in the UK. It will be released in the US in April 2008.
PS - I found out that I was in this book by Googling myself. You'd think the author or publicist would've emailed to let me know so I could write about it on my blog and give them a little publicity, but they didn't.
My friend BJ just sent me this. It's a real book.
The funny thing is that I think I have an older version of this at home, only it's called something like "The Pooh Cook Book." It was my sister's waaaay back in the day, like in 1970s. I'm going to look for it when I get home.
UPDATE: I found the book. Here it is.
It never occurred to me until now that the title could be funny.
Someone sent me the link to this book, Secrets of a Former Fat Girl, saying the cover looks just like 20 Times a Lady.
Ha ha—it does! They both have the same notebook background, font, and pink and yellow accent colors. (The blue along the right side of mine is actually part of a map on the next page.) I think that font is popular right now with book covers because I was at the book store this weekend and kept seeing it everywhere.
Anyway, has anyone read this book? It looks good. The author, Lisa Delaney, is an editor at Health magazine. From her website:
Once upon a time I was a fat girl...
I thought like a fat girl, acted like a fat girl—oh yeah, and I looked like one, too. But not any more. Through trial and error (lots of error!), I dropped 70 pounds and said good bye to the fat-girl image I had of myself. For almost 20 years now, I’ve been living like the powerful, confident, worthy woman I always was inside. And I’m ready to share my secrets with you. All the advice, information, inspiration, and motivation you need is just a click or two away!"
Books