This is just to let you know that my new book, Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books, is out today from Farrar, Straus & Giroux. I feel a bit abashed at tooting my own horn, but if I don’t do it, then who will? Nothing much happens to an author on the official pub date: the reviews have already started (good ones came in last Sunday from the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, and the Dallas Morning News), and the readings have yet to commence. So I am celebrating January 7 in my own way, by telling you about this new book, my tenth, which happens to be on a favorite subject of mine. You can sample the introductory chapter at today’s Huffington Post, and maybe you’ll want to buy the whole thing—at your local bookstore, I hope, if such a thing still exists near you, and otherwise from one of the many online sources. Enjoy!
About
I decided to start a blog for three reasons:
1) People felt that there should be a part of the Threepenny website that was available only online, not in the printed magazine.
2) Some of the things I wanted to write about seemed as if they would benefit from a slightly more timely response than our usual quarterly publication permitted.
3) I was seeing and hearing so much interesting art — especially in the areas of dance and music, though also in literature, theater, and the visual arts — that I couldn't fit everything I wanted to say into The Threepenny Review without taking over the whole publication. And if you are not Diderot or Karl Kraus (and I am certainly neither), it is never a good idea to write the whole magazine yourself. But I figured the rules of blogs would allow me to monopolize one of those.
I struggled to come up with a good title for the blog and at first resisted using my own name, feeling (as those named Lesser are bound to feel) that diminishment is not necessarily a selling point. But then I figured that if people named Grudge or Drudge can use their names on websites, I should certainly not be abashed at calling this The Lesser Blog. So here it is, and I hope you enjoy it.
Wendy Lesser
Editor, The Threepenny Review-
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I have read your book the very day it became available on Kindle (yes I read your comments about your husband and Kindle. I just find reading much faster).
I loved your book and sent “heads-up” to every member of our family, as well as some friends. To single out just one; fiction can be as or more true than journalism, we just assume that those Platonic shadows are the truth. You led me on the path of understanding why we like novels or any fiction, if there is such a thing anyway. The author, in godlike fashion, sets up both cause and effect, which makes it a complete package and if he remains true to this scenario…we have a winner.
Kind regards, Les
I read the excerpt of “Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books” in Salon magazine and I am forwarding it to all my family and friends who love to read good stuff* (*includes all categories from books to books reviews, blogs and all good writing in between). You get a Stuff Rating–highly mathematical calculation–of 10 out of 10.
Oh yeah, and I just ordered the book!
Keep writing!!!
Ken
I’ve only heard good things about it and I’m about to purchase a copy!
Hi Ms. Lesser —
It is with great anticipation that I pick up my reserved copy of “Why I Read” at a local B&N tonite.
I read (rather, my goal is to read) a book every two weeks, and your offering is next.
Will you be doing any readings\signings in New Jersey?
Thank you,
Steve
Just finished a copy from the county library – it will encourage you that I was 85th or so on the holds list- and will buy a copy for myself and at least one as a gift. Thanks for an exhilarating reminder of the joy and mind-expanding nature of reading. This may be my favorite among your books (or maybe a tie with the Shostakovich book and a small lead over the re-reading book on the grounds that I disagree with your assessment of Lucky Jim).
I’ve been saving Henry James until I retire and can concentrate properly on him, but I think you’ve finally persuaded me to start in a few years early.
And I urge you to read the last book in the Patrick Melrose series (Some Hope) if you gave up on St. Aubyn. It returns, nearly, to the exceptional quality of the first book.