Watcha Readin'? Part 1

“I Was Told There Would Be Cake”.
Or How Sloane Crosley Gave Chick-Lit A Good Rep.

I first found out about Sloane Crosley through a piece she wrote for Elle UK 3 or 4 years back, about turning 30. I was blown away at how someone could approach such a worn-out, unoriginal and saturated subject with such a fresh and hilarious take. I tore out that article, had it hanging over my desk for a couple of years but, as the ink started to fade, I’ve since taken it down and now keep it in one of my many memory-filled shoe-boxes and will probably hold on to it until it crumbles into dust.

I then found out that Crosley, a literary-publicist-come-writer, once dubbed New York’s most popular publicist, had just released her very first book, I Was Told There’d Be Cake, a collection of 15 essays which quickly became a New York Times bestseller.

Very much like Seinfeld, I Was Told There’d Be Cake is a book about nothing and everything that happens to young New Yorkers, from hateful diva bosses to being locked out twice, on the same day, from different flats, without forgetting an embarrassing secret My Little Pony collection.

I agree: it isn’t exactly ground-breaking stuff. You could fill an Olympic stadium with all the books written by witty New Yorkers telling tales of unpleasant jobs and unfortunate apartments. And, truth be told, I Was Told There’d Be Cake resonates best with women between 20 and 40 tops.

But, still, Crosley stands out from the crowd. Repeatedly compared to both Nora Ephron and David Sedaris’ ironic and self-pillorying yet laugh-out-loud funny styles, critics and reader alike raved about the book, Crosley’s mordant sense of humour and, most importantly, her brilliant writing. She makes it seem effortless and simple when, as every knows, real quality and talent are neither.

Plus, I Was Told There’d Be Cake has a very portable and beautiful edition by Riverhead and, with only 230 pages, it’s the perfect commute book. You’ll be sure to start off your day with a big smile: it’s not so much as reading a book but more like having a laugh with a friend.

I must admit that deep down I envy Crosley and, basically, want her life: she interned at the New Yorker; she’s dabbled in pretty much everything, from essays, interviews to fiction and criticism which have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vogue, the Village Voice and the BlackBook where she’s been a contributing editor and columnist; she’s a publicist for Vintage for the likes of Toni Morrison and Jonathan Lethem … And has notoriously beautiful, shiny hair.

Her sophomore book “How Did You Get This Number” was released in paperback earlier this year and is also very much worth a read, particularly the odd episode with clowns right here in my hometown, Lisbon, Portugal. She tells Craig Ferguson all about it:

NaNoWriMo

Source

Can youwrite a novel in under a month?
Well, the organizers of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as its known, think you can and should.
NaNoWriMo is an annual internet-based creative writing project which challenges participants to write 50,000 words (roughly 175 pages) of a new novel between November 1 and November 30 (or so says Wikipedia).
The project, launched by Chris Baty back in 1999, has since grown from its initial 21 participants to over 200,000 participants at last year’s event.
To participate, you must register with NaNoWriMo’s website and submit until November 30th a 50,000 word novel: it can be about anything, in any genre and in any language. And it doesn’t even need to be a complete novel: you can simply submit the first 50,000 words of a novel to be completed later.
The trick to achieve this daunting task is to write about 1,700 words each day or, if like most of us, your job will wear out any energy or imagination to write at the end of your day, try to cram 12,000 words each weekend (and since I’m posting this a little late, that’s a weekend less to count on…). You must submit as you go along and you’re not allowed to go back and edit what you've already written.
Although this seems to promote the infamous “quantity over quality”, the idea is to free people from the usual writer-blocks and inner-editor and –censurer: just start writing. Stop polishing and rewriting and editing… Just unleash your creativity and write. It doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be a start. The deadline is a mere incentive to get the story going and to put words to paper.
No official prizes are awarded for length, quality, or speed and don’t even consider cheating (i.e. pre-prepared writing) as an option: no precautions are taken to prevent cheating; since the only significant reward for winning is the finished novel itself and the satisfaction of having written it.
It’s no easy task: last year, only about 10% of participants reached the 50,000 word goal. But at least every participant had at least the start of something satisfying.
What are you waiting for?

Watcha Readin'?

There is no friend as loyal as a book. Hemingway supposedly said this. And he killed himself. Hmmm. Guess books can be loyal but they’re pretty shitty when it comes to saving your ass. Still, it’s true: one is never alone with a book. Sure, Angry Birds are great to kill time but nothing compares to the ultimate pleasure of reading a great book: that feeling that the train-ride wasn’t long enough, that you just can’t put the damn book down and are torn between the excitement and sadness of finishing it that you pace your reading by the end.

I've realized I've seldom - dare I say never? - written about books on the Evil Twin despite being a keen reader and enthusiastic book-sharer. I've perhaps feared it would easily become pompous and, in spite of reading a couple of books each month, that amount may vary: holidays mean a book every two days but, shamefully, there are times when I read little more than the back of my cereal box, my TiVo, a left-over-handled-by-at-least-98-passengers Metro on the tube and Facebook updates (that counts as reading, right?).

So here's to new beginnings: “Whatcha Readin’?” will become a new fortnightly feature on the Evil Twin, spice up the blog a bit. I’ll let you know what I’m reading and my thoughts on what I’ve read and, hopefully, in return, all you Evil Twin readers out there will recommend books you've enjoyed! Word of warning, though: not that I’m a literary snob but you might want to rethink Danielle Steele or Nicholas Sparks suggestions. And Proust, for that matter: you haven't read À La Recherche Du Temps Perdu and you never will. As Mark Twain said, “'Classic': A book which people praise and don't read.” (Just realized I shouldn’t be quoting Twain when telling someone off for being pretentious). Anyhow… I digress.

Because I’m currently reading Ayn Rand’s exasperatingly long Atlas Shrugged (arrgh! how many more 200-paged monologues can I take?!), it will probably be a while before I move on to a new book (which hopefully won’t give me hernias and wrist injuries), therefore we’ll start off this segment next week with books I’ve already read and are worth mentioning.

It doesn’t have to be a full on Oprah Book Club kind of deal: I won't announce the book by sing-shouting the title to a hyperventilating, over-excited female crowd. Especially because, unlike Oprah, although books are also one of my favourite things (we have so much in common, Ms. Winfrey and I!), I'm not giving them away. Sorry. You’re lucky if I'll post Amazon's links.

So, think about it, send in your thoughts and recommendations and keep an eye out because, starting next week, we’ll soon know the answer to “Watcha Readin’?”!