And if you ever wondered what the cast looked like away from Downton, check this out.  Some of these transformations are pretty amazing.

The Millions has  a nice piece on the price of fame featuring Nirvana and Tennessee Williams.

Worst book ever?  Sure sounds like it might be in the top 5.

The snarkiest announcement of the upcoming production of Atlas Shrugged Part 2:  The Crap-enning that you’ll read all day:

But do not underestimate such men of the mind, who would fight for the virtue of their pride, fight for the essence of that which is man, and fight for the necessary financing to make a sequel to a film that earned just under a $5 million return on a $20 million investment—financing that could be seen as an altruistic donation under the circumstances, if altruism were not something that only communists and lepers believe in.

Man, I hate Ayn Rand.

J Franz: E-books = bad.  NPR: Can we stop with the e-books vs print books arguments, please?

Flavorwire has your guide to faking that you’ve read James Joyce

10 of the best books set in Tokyo

The 10 most dangerous novels of all time

Best YA novels of 2012

American Psycho as written by P.G. Wodehouse

How Bloggers Sparked the Indie Publishing Revolution.  In other news, there is an indie publishing revolution…

Where can you go to see poetry readings like this? And do you really call a female poet a “poetess?”

Taking place during the wee hours of one night when most people are sleeping, we are told from the very beginning that we are mere observers into the story – a bird flying above or a solitary camera.  The narration begins objectively to find nineteen year old Mari Asai reading alone in a Tokyo Denny’s.  She is approached by college student Takehashi, a  part time jazz trombonist who reminds her that he has met her and her model sister Eri before.  This chance meeting drags Mari into a virtual foreign world far from her suburban life.  Fluent in Chinese, Mari soon finds herself in a “love hotel” helping a Chinese prostitute who had just been beaten.  As the night continues, she becomes familiar with the hotel’s staff and not only learns their secrets, but confesses her own.  Many of Mari’s secrets relate to her insecurities surrounding her beautiful sister.

During Mari’s story, Mr. Murakami reminds us that we are just observers as we frequently visit Mari’s sleeping sister Eri.  We learn later that Eri has been sleeping for two months and no one knows why.  And frankly, neither do I.  Mr. Murakami takes the reader on a bizarre journey from Eri’s sleeping room, into a television set with a man with no face. Uh, ok.

The camera also jumps into the life of the man who beat the Chinese prostitute.  Not a very interesting man, he works a lot of hours at a company while his wife dutifully waits for him at home.

I found After Dark very odd.  The individual stories were compelling enough to hear through to their respective conclusions, and the third party observer perspective was unique. Although not giving any obvious insight into the actual thoughts of the characters, I was able to form my own judgments based on their dialogue and actions.

After traveling through the book as a simple observer, my take away is the story of the two sisters, one who deeply cares for the other.  I also enjoyed the Tokyo setting and little American references – the Denny’s where the story begins and the mention of Hall & Oates on the sound system.

Once in a while I am interested in broadening my horizons to challenge myself.  I’m not giving up on Mr. Murakami, he has received accolades for his work.  Maybe after experiencing a couple more books, I will come back to After Dark and say “A-ha, of course!”

Coming soon: French Men Don’t Wear Tube Socks: One American Man Discovers the Wisdom of French Sport Hosiery

I hadn’t realized that Hemingway’s final work, A Moveable Feast (which I have not read), was a memoir that told of his time in Paris with Hadley and the generation of literary intellectuals hanging out there at the time — Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and others.  McLain, having read A Moveable Feast, has opted in her book to tell the other side of the story — Hadley’s side — from the first person, relying on correspondence, notes, and incredible amounts of research.  And as you read The Paris Wife, you can’t help but think that Hadley is writing it herself.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Hemingway and Hadley’s marriage didn’t last; most who have even a passing familiarity with Hemingway know that he had many wives (four) and an untold number of lovers outside of his marriages.  But at the end of A Moveable Feast, Hemingway notably said that he would have rather died than have fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.  He ruined their marriage, but it appears that when he looked back on his life, he realized that she was his one true love.

This story is so well-written that it leaves me deeply torn.  The first Hemingway book that I read was The Sun Also Rises, and only through reading The Paris Wife did I realize that Sun was based on actual events involving Hemingway, Hadley, and a group of friends who traveled to Pamplona together.  I don’t know how I would have felt if I had read them in the opposite order; had I read Sun reflecting on how Hemingway was characterizing events and his friends as characters, I might have thought entirely differently about that book.  As things stand, I have a deep admiration for Hemingway — both for his writing, and for what he accomplished; he was sort of like a method actor, but as a writer.  It seems that all of his stories are based on things that happened in his life, and he purposely put himself in those situations to live the events, thereby being better able to write about them.

And while that is an admirable feat, arguably requiring tremendous courage, you cannot help but start thinking that he was a world-class ***hole.  He deliberately sabotaged friendships and played one-upsmanship games with people who went out on a limb for him to help him along, both professionally and personally.  It’s hard to like him as a person, although it’s impossible not to be interested in him as a character.

Hadley, on the other hand, demonstrated such strength, devotion, and loyalty, that you cannot question that she is a heroine.  And I am happy to have learned that she subsequently remarried and lived a wonderful life with her second husband.

If Hemingway, Paris, the Jazz Age generation, or biographical material interest you, you should read this book.  It’s fantastic.

Atlanta ranked forth most literate city. bit.ly/xx4C3r

— AJC(@ajc) January 26, 2012

The closing of another Atlanta indie bookstore also suggests that “forth” might be too high on the list.

Electric Literature’s January Mixtape is for Leigh Stein’s The Fallback Plan.  I’m reading it now.  It’s excellent.

Check out Melville’s House’s Making the Cover slide show to see the design iterations for The Fallback Plan. I’m all about The Fallback Plan right now.

And speaking of Electric Literature, they somehow dug up a picture of me reading Moby-Dick to use as their latest cover.  I’m also all about the Electric Literature right now.

On average, Kindle books are cheaper than Nook books.

A list of McSweeney’s 10 best literary lists

Johnny Ramone autobiography?  Yes, please.

The new hybrid book economy

10 Bestselling Books with More than 80 One Star Reviews

What Your Favorite Blog Says About You – doesn’t include BGB  - but rest assured that if BGB is your favorite blog it means that you are awesome.  And you are probably my mom.

Sign this petition if ensuring that all children have access to a functioning school library is something that you believe in.