Catching Up with the Literary World

It is Banned Books Week, when we think about books that have been challenged, banned, burned, or otherwise kept from the reading public. I'll have more thoughts on banned books later in the week, but today, we need to catch up on the literary happenings around the internet:

• "My neighborhood was the first stop on the bus from New York. But every one of my friends acted like the neighborhood was some sort of weird, thuggish Brigadoon, and if they left, it would fucking disappear." Junot Diaz and Richard Price on New York City. (Via the Morning News)

• "Happiness is like, Americans always fetishize happiness and harp a lot about it. I don’t always understand what is meant by that. Russians never ask you, ‘Are you happy?’ Happiness isn’t a category as important for people with a Russian mentality. The pursuit of happiness is a uniquely American way of thinking..." Sana Krasikov, one of the 5 of 35, talking about why we read on Luke Ford's blog. (via Jacket Copy)

• Amanda Petrusich, author of It Still Moves, has a new website. She also blogs pretty frequently at pianoparty.blogspot.com.

• "Married to Joanne Woodward, his second wife, for 50 years this winter, Newman always looked at her like something he'd pulled out of a Christmas stocking. He looked at his daughters that way, too. It was like, all these years later, he couldn't quite believe he got to keep them." A fitting tribute to Paul Newman, the philanthropist on Slate.

• Chuck Klosterman's novel Downtown Owl is out. I briefly saw a galley of it earlier in the summer, but I let it get away. After reading this Salon piece, I regret that.

• Don DeLillo is blogging for the Onion. His blog is called Tiny Silver Death Machine. Of course.
  

A Few Things

• This interview with Gore Vidal in the New York Times is pure reading enjoyment:

How did you feel when you heard that Buckley died this year? I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred.

Do you read a lot of contemporary fiction these days? Like everyone else, no, I don’t.

• Bookgasm is a fun site that reviews fun books, books like Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow and Kill Whitey, by Brian Keene. (Thanks to Anne for both of these links!)

• Joseph O'Neill at Vroman's last night:

We have several signed first edition copies of O'Neill's Netherland in stock. They didn't do a huge print run of this, so these first editions are actually pretty rare (They're already on the third printing). Email me if you want to order a signed first.

Collectors are crazy about his book, and after last night's reading, I can see why. He read a beautiful passage describing a rooftop party during the blackout of 2003. The Millions is running dueling reviews of O'Neill's book. Be sure to read the comments on Kevin Hartnett's review.