papercuts and major life decisions.

my new favorite blog to read is papercuts at the new york times site which is, not surprisingly, "a blog about books". i think Dwight Garner has such potent personality coming across in his entries-- something that i admire and am thinking its about time to emulate. in a post on book-tearing voyeurism, he writes a simple enough introduction,

"I’ve occasionally, I suppose, gotten a thrill from tossing a bad book across the room, or out into the back lawn, or dropping one straight into a Manhattan trash can.

And once, traveling in Mexico, I ripped in two a copy of a paperback I was reading – Jayne Anne Phillips’s “Machine Dreams” – so my wife could start the first half while I polished off the second."

shocking, right? (i'm totally serious.) one of my favorite features, a longish piece titled The Long Ride Home, is just notable for its sensitivity to things. things in general.

he features interesting people, to whom he asks all the same questions. Miranda July just put up a playlist and almost convinced me to actually buy something off itunes. i was happy to see Ricardo's dad, Dagoberto Gilb being interviewed for his new book. when asked about a short story he's currently writing, gilb explains, "I was asked to write it for an anthology, and I really love my life when I am asked to write exactly what I want to write."

in response to one of garner's stock questions, "How much time - if any - do you spend on the Web? Is it a distraction or a blessing?" Daniel Clowes answers, "I’m kind of an incompetent and unfocused “Web surfer” (that sounds like something my grandmother would say - surely there’s a more current phrase?)" i wanted to quote that just because i think it articulates how i feel all the time on the internet and i was charmed. (in response to the same question, Gilb quips, "Is e-mail the Web? Too much of that, though I think of e-mail as a form of belles-lettres (though I also would say the tacos down at La Moreliana are gourmet good).")

but i suppose i shouldn't be shocked or charmed. i mean, clowes is probably a funny, artistic guy with a good interview more often than not. and of course, garner has made a career as a new york times blogger for a reason. his posts are interesting--they pull from a lot of different sources all over the web and his personal history-- they are diverse, they illuminate a lot of niche arenas of the "book world," and most importantly, they're not overdone.

anyway, all this talking... before i sound like i'm writing an essay, or worse, before i become a total black ink review cliche, all this to say that maybe it's about time to start writing more on my own little blog to no one. now that i'm a production line for problem sets and am using my laptop more for its ram processing than for word processing, i think i should try to sharpen my mental pencils and keep writing. even if only more fleshed out thoughts and considerations of the pretty pictures i might put up here. so with dwight garner's framed photo on my metaphorical desk, i'll do my best to dutifully tap away. though it feels ironically more self conscious to be publicly doing this for nobody but myself... oh. hi, mary.