Comments on: Refresh, Refresh

By: John

John — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:56:15 +0000

Hi. Thanks for this post! I read Joy Williams’s The Changeling a few years ago and was delighted to hear you’re a completist, too.

By: koreanish

koreanish — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:26:50 +0000

Thanks, Michael. And thanks for dropping by.

By: Ann Victor

Ann Victor — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:28:51 +0000

Hmmmm. Almost, almost, am I convinced of caving in and joining Twitter…

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:11:53 +0000

Thanks for this post! Those interview questions were actually prepared by Tao Lin, though I did present them to, and retrieve responses from, Joy on his behalf. I’m certain you will love The Changeling.

By: jadepark

jadepark — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:30:06 +0000

I love that list–it’s inspired me to make a reading list for my students, too. Reading cures so much in life.

And twitter is invaluable to me–writing is such a solitary activity, that it is often my lifeline to friends and support. Also, like you, my friends (on twitter, but also those not on twitter) often help with my research. All of them are going to go in my thank you section, after I finish, and when one day in my dreamy future, it is published.

By: michael carroll

michael carroll — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:36:39 +0000

I read Joy Williams’s The Changeling a few years ago and was delighted to hear you’re a completist, too. I ordered a canceled library copy through the amazon site. It’s an odd one, but has her signature concreteness, mixed in with some directly and not just breezily implied surrealistic moments. I have read all of the work, and love it for the stamp she puts on everything, but think she’s one of the rare ones who’s gotten better over time. Her last two books of fiction and the book of essays all blow me away. Anyway, enjoy The Changeling. Hope you agree she’s incapable of disappointing. Hope your work is good. Glad to know another Williams-ite!

By: Lisa Kenney

Lisa Kenney — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:04:35 +0000

I am in complete agreement with you on Twitter. I signed on in July of 2007 and played around with it for a few days, but like most people I didn’t get it. It just seemed stupid. What I found out months later when I gave it another try was that Twitter only becomes interesting once you find people to follow who are interested in the kinds of things you are — and then you see who they follow and find more interesting folk to follow. If it turns out you’re following people who you’re not in sync with there’s no negative consequence to “unfollowing” someone — it’s not personal, like it would be on Facebook.

My reading list has grown exponentially since I started following other avid readers. Infinite Jest and Gravity’s Rainbow were hanging around my bookshelves for years and I finally read one and then the other with groups of people I’ve “met” on Twitter.

It’s actually too engaging at times. I have to really force myself to shut it down and walk away quite a bit of the time so I can get some work done!