Tasting plate

Howard Jacobson is all over the internet thanks to his surprise win in the 2010 Man Booker Prize with The Finkler Question, sold out now at a bookstore near you.
So is Nobel Prize in Literature winner Mario Vargas Llosa. He sounds like an interesting dude (among others he wrote The Bad Girl, based on Madame Bovary, and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter). Bookforum.com has compiled a swag of interviews and info about him from NPR, LRB, Paris Review and The Guardian.
America is abuzz with the announcement of finalists in the National Book Award and the name causing most of the commotion is Jonathan Franzen, whose mega-selling Freedom didn't make the list. Peter Carey did - go figure.
Berkelouw has a flash new website.
And, it's Friday! Which means tomorrow is Saturday - when my favourite writing chair will arrive fresh from being restored after an unfortunate * ahem * reclining incident...
Happy weekend :)

Manna from heaven

Look! The universe gifted me with two literary treasures today: 

The latest LRB landed in my letterbox from London and I discovered Patrick White. 

Neither of which will in any way fan the flames of self-confidence in a wannabee writer but both should inspire nonetheless...

And, if you happen to pass by my favourite local second-hand bookstore, drop in and ask to see Desire Books' latest acquisition, a 1958 first British edition On The Road, one of only 3000 in the original print run. Don't need to tell you how much I love a bit of Jack.

Why poetry is cool

Came across this image taken by Steve McLaughlin in Montreal on the LRB blog. 
Literary graffiti - love it!

'I found words to console me, they call it "poetry".' So true.

McLaughlin is bussing it around America and Canada interviewing 'semi-prominent figures in experimental, or semi-experimental, poetry' for a series of podcasts. Read all about it here.

London Review of...blokes

They've been quite hard to come by in Sydney so, in the past whenever I happened upon a copy of the London Review of Books, I always made sure it went home with me. 
Then I got jack of looking for it and subscribed. Now my appetite is sated on a regular basis. (Plus, it means you get exciting mail, instead of just boring white envelopes with little windows that always spell B-I-L-L.)
LRB is a fortnightly rag full of insightful opinions about all things literary, written by contributors who are seriously clued up about their subject matter. 
Love the in-depth book reviews, philosophical discourse, intellectual essays (which sometimes lose me but I try) and even some of the political enquiry.
It has its own bookshop in Bloomsbury which, of course, required a visit on a recent trip to London, where they sell cakes that 'express the ethos of the London Review of Books: independent-minded, surprising and energetic'. Yum. They were good.
Anyhow, despite the veritable feast of brain food contained within, the page I always flip to first is...
Page 39. Personals. Completely unexpected and hilarity ensues.
Check these out, from July 8 2010:
'Semi-detached youngish man (62), wide range of interests, from the mind, through politics, to rugby, invites younger woman to tour the Highlands end July in E-type. Meet London or nearby to check compatibility.' M, 62
'The only danger involved in dating me is that my cosmic reverberations may make you pass a kidney stone of pure solid gold. They call me the Flusher. I also enjoy the music of Billy Joel.' M, 43
'I've been reading LRB for at least six years - time to cash in on that and get me some sex. Ladies? M, 43.'
And this dude even recited original verse...'Bookish girl wanted. Audio poem: hellobookishboy.blogspot.com' Which must have worked because the link seems to have disappeared...go Bookish Boy!