by Nicholson Baker
I disagreed with Baker's base Poetics (rhyme is not and has never been what draws me to poetry & I actually really enjoy iambic pentameter), and I often found his prose as purple as the plum on the cover--but even so I adored this book, as I adore practically everything else Baker has written. He ne...
If you love poetry, you will love this book, no prevarication, You Will Love This Book. If poetry was a joy, a love that you put aside as childish whimsy, this will re-introduce you to that love, will spark a curiosity, that will combust to no mere bonfire in your heart.
Easily the best I've ever read from him.
this book crept up on me. crept up on me and then hit me over the head. i didn't like it at first. i wondered at around chapter 6 or 7 if i oughtn't stick it in the "didn't finish" pile and move on. for some reason, though, i didn't. perhaps because i was almost halfway through and it seemed a waste...
Lovely meandering book, but then I do have a meandering mind right now and have started countless books without finishing them. So this one suits me just fine.Apropos nothing, carpe diem means plucking the day, as in gently instead of snatching it aggressively. Somehow I like it better that way.
A lovely novel consisting entirely of ruminations about writer's block, from which the protagonist/narrator suffers, with many forays into stories of regret and inadequacy in his romantic and professional lives, plus a great deal about his opinions on rhyme and scansion in English language poetry. I...
Paul Chowder is trying to write the introduction to a new anthology of rhyming verse, but he’s having a hard time getting started. The result of his fitful struggles is The Anthologist, a brilliantly funny and exquisite love story about poetry. (from the cover blurb) It’s also a love story about his...
Paul Chowder is trying to write the introduction to a new anthology of rhyming verse, but he’s having a hard time getting started. The result of his fitful struggles is The Anthologist, a brilliantly funny and exquisite love story about poetry. (from the cover blurb) It’s also a love story about his...
I really enjoyed Nicholson Baker's anti-hero, Paul Chowder, and his endless diatribes on poetry. I'm looking forward to reading [b:The Mezzanine] now. [full review]
What if Nabokov had farmed out the writing of Pale Fire to Alain de Botton, or maybe Sarah Vowell, or even better, Nicholson Baker? And what if he'd said, "Oh, and don't worry about being all eggheady like me or anything. Have some fun with it."?Who knows. Fortunately, it doesn't matter, because thi...
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