Coupland a-Go-Go

Coupland a-Go-Go

Doug Coupland's website names this the best commercial ever made.

You be the judge.

Tuesday Round-Up

Tuesday Round-Up

Whitlock takes on CanLit's crusty costume drama tradition.
Whitlock: 1, Historical Fiction: 0.

Bookies bemoan the Booker shortlist.
David Mitchell: 0, Sarah Waters: 1.

And it's Pants McLee versus the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Googling Oneself: 1, Better Things to Do: 0.

Maillard Alert!

Maillard Alert!

Last night, John and I went to see Keith Maillard read from his now complete quartet, Difficulty at the Beginning. There's something so admirable about a writer who has the tenacity to go back and rewrite earlier published work.

Keith's reading was vivid, operatic, and spell-binding, and only reinforced that goddamn, you people need to go out and buy this guy's books right now! Kevin Patterson, the Poison to Keith's Guns n' Roses, also rocked the crowd.

Props to the Robson Square Reading Series. They'z the shizzle.

Ah, Sweet Mailbox!

Ah, Sweet Mailbox!

What did I find in there today, but a copy of Noah Richler's This Is My Country, What's Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada, in which the author describes me as having "a languorous manner and a snappy intelligence." Every man's dream.
(okay, I added that last bit)

Also featured in the Vancouver section are: Timothy Taylor, Eden Robinson, Michael Turner, Lee Henderson, Douglas Coupland and Zsuzsi Gartner.

In more "books in which I appear" news: apparently if you pick up this book, you'll find a photo of me pointing at my left (clothed!) boob.

Knitty Knitterson

Knitty Knitterson

What happens when a writer tries to turn her primary means of procrastination into a legitimate undertaking?

This.