Our Magazine Archive - Beaufort Books

“We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?” – Norman Bates

Thursday, October 31st, 2013

So, unless you are in some parts of the Midwest (where apparently Halloween has been postponed until tomorrow), it’s Halloween! And you know what that means: hilarious costumes, great parties, adorable children demanding candy, and, most importantly, it is time to put your cats in their witch hats for approximately 14 seconds to capture the perfectly appropriate picture to post on social media. I’m not dressing up this year, but I am living vicariously through my mom and brother and their awesome costumes (Skyler White and Fix-it Felix Jr., respectively). My own form of celebration usually comes from listening to Halloween-themed music (which we are doing in the office today), watching my favorite horror movies all night (John Carpenter’s Halloween is by far the best, followed closely by Gus Van Sant’s revamp of Psycho), and eating as much candy as I possibly can.

In Cold Blood I love horror movies, even the bad ones (especially the bad ones). But I’ve found that I always find the “based on a true story” movies (and books) to be the scariest. Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers is definitely one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen. As far as books go, there have been a few books that I have read that have kept me up at night. A couple of years ago, I was getting ready to go on vacation in New Hampshire with my family. As usual, picking out the books I would bring with me (this was pre-Kindle) was an important step in my packing process. I grabbed a couple of books that I had recently bought and hadn’t read before. When I finally got to New Hampshire, my reading binge began. Sitting on the sand at Onway Lake, I breezed through Atonement, which one of my best friends told me I would love (I didn’t, but my mom did). After finishing that, I decided to start reading In Cold Blood. I knew that it was a true-crime, hard-to-categorize “novel” about the murder of a family in Kansas…and that’s about all I knew. I started reading the book and was immediately drawn into the first section, which details the lives of the Clutter family in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas. Quickly, however, I began to regret the decision to read this book on my vacation.

During the day, I leisurely read the book on the beach while I took breaks from swimming and hanging out with my family. In broad daylight, there was nothing so terrifying about the book. However, in New Hampshire, we stayed in cottages on the lake that were very isolated and had (at times) faulty locks. We were on the edge of a large wooded area and, as I remember, I had bad cell phone reception. The setting itself sounds like a horror story. Even though it was lovely during the day, after reading about the family’s murder and the trial, I wasn’t able to sleep for the rest of the week. I was convinced that Dick Hickcock and Perry Smith were going to break into the cottage while I was asleep (even though they had been dead for about 50 years). The isolation of the Clutter’s farm where the family was murdered was eerily similar to the isolation I felt in New Hampshire. Even after I finished the book, I still found it hard to sleep in the cottage. Although the vacation was great, I was so happy to go home to a completely overpopulated and crowded New Jersey so that I could finally get some sleep.

-There’s Always Money in the Beaunana Stand

Hiker’s an inspiration to women experiencing wilderness

Thursday, October 31st, 2013

This article was originally published on 77Square.com. Click here to read the original article.

By Stephanie Bedford, October 31, 2013

When you can put “Adventurer” on your business card without bragging or exaggeration, you are doing something right. Jennifer Pharr Davis, record-holding long-distance hiker, author and new mom, is one of the few people around who can call herself by that title with utter impunity, having been named an 2011 Adventurer of the Year by National Geographic Magazine, a publication that knows a little something about adventuring. Among the records Davis holds, perhaps the most impressive is the Overall Appalachian Trail Record. That’s not the women’s record, it’s the record. She through-hiked the trail from start to finish — 2,181 miles — in 46 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes, a trek that takes the highly-above-average outdoorsy Joe (or Josephine) months to complete.

You might think a person of Pharr Davis’ level of hard-core hiking accomplishment would be intimidating — maybe not the first person you’d think of to encourage a novice who’s thinking about going out for a walk in the Arboretum for an hour or so. You’d be wrong. I had the pleasure of interviewing her over the phone recently during a rare stretch of at-home time for the peripatetic Pharr Davis, to talk about her latest book, “Called Again: A Story of Love and Triumph.” The book documents her record-setting 2011 hike, accomplished with the unflagging support of her husband, Brew, and a network of old and new friends.

“I was just thinking how weird it is that I’m working from home today,” Pharr Davis told me right off the bat. “I haven’t done this in two months.” She and her husband and their new daughter had just returned from Utah and were hitting the road again in less than a week, touring the U.S. by car in support of “Called Again.” As you might suspect, they would be getting some hiking in as well. “We decided to make it our goal to hike in all 50 states,” she says. “We have a 9-month-old baby, so this is a really wonderful way to experience the trail as a family.”

For Pharr Davis, work means running the Blue Ridge Hiking Company, which she founded in 2005 and operates from her home in North Carolina. Its mission: “Making the wilderness accessible and enjoyable through written and spoken word, instruction and guiding.” Her books are no small part of this. It’s impossible to read her hiking memoirs — “Called Again” or “Becoming Odyssa,” which chronicles her first through-hike of the Appalachian Trail at age 21 — without succumbing to the urge to light out on one’s own (considerably less ambitious) wilderness trek.

Perhaps the reason Pharr Davis is so adept at getting novice hikers out the door is that she was one herself when she first hiked the Appalachian Trail. “I think ‘casual hiker’ would have probably been a generous term,” she says. “I think because I was an athlete and I loved to be outdoors, I thought that my transition to the trail would be natural. I was overconfident and pretty ignorant about how hard it would really be, and it kicked me in the butt. It was very humbling, in a good way.”

Her successful record attempt in 2011 was prompted by the knowledge that she planned to start a family soon. “One of the reasons I wanted to try for the record was that I knew having kids would change everything,” Pharr Davis says.

Taking her young daughter out hiking has been a fringe benefit of touring the country to talk about “Called Again.” “The nice thing is, because of the baby, we’re not limited to just long-distance trails — we can go to state parks,” she says, laughing.

Pharr Davis’s husband, Brew, is by her side throughout her adventures. Formerly a teacher (his summer vacation enabled him to support his wife’s 2011 trail record), he now works with his wife. “Called Again” is as much about a moment in the couple’s partnership as it is an adventure story. “When I set the record, my husband was pretty much perfect,” Pharr Davis says. “He’s not perfect all the time — like any couple, we fight and argue and have our moments — but I couldn’t have set the record without him.”

While comparisons to Cheryl Strayed’s runaway bestseller “Wild” seem unavoidable, Pharr Davis feels that there’s plenty of room on the shelves for books about hiking — the more, the merrier. “It raises awareness of women in the outdoors,” she says. “I’m all about that. And ‘Wild’ is an awesome PR piece for the Pacific Crest Trail.” Pharr Davis’ books do the same thing not just for the Appalachian Trail, but for hiking anywhere, whether it’s an ambitious long-distance trip or just a short walk.

“Don’t let fear of doing something wrong keep you indoors,” Pharr Davis says. “I encourage people to start inside their comfort zone. If that means starting with day hikes, or going out with groups or a dog instead of going out alone, I think it’s important while you’re learning what to do, to make sure it’s a positive experience.”

Jennifer Pharr Davis to Speak at Brevard College on November 7

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013

This article was originally published on Mountain Express. Click here to read the original article.

By Brandy Carl on 10/29/2013 07:03 PM

Brevard College will host a presentation by long-distance hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7 in the College’s Porter Center for Performing Arts.

In 2011, Davis became the first woman to claim the overall thru-hike record on the Appalachian Trail by finishing the 2,181-mile journey in 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes.

During her talk, Davis will share stories from her hiking adventures and her book, Becoming Odyssa: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail.

The presentation, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by one of the College’s Brevard Common Experience (BCE) 111 classes. The class, which is comprised of first year students, has spent this semester exploring the history, development and use of trails as well as reading Davis’ account of her first thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail.

Her adventure memoir, “Becoming Odyssa,” follows every step she takes as she transitions from an over-confident college graduate to a student of the trail, braving situations she never imagined before her thru-hike. When tragedy strikes, Davis learns that she can depend on other people to help her in times of need.

Davis, who currently holds endurance records on three trails, has hiked more than 11,000 miles on six continents. She has received numerous awards recognizing her as a world class athlete, including National GeographicAdventurer of the Year, Ultra-Running Magazine’s Top Female Performer and Blue Ridge Outdoors Person of the Year. She has also appeared in the Sunday edition of the New York Times; and on national television and radio shows such as CNN Headline News, the CBS Early Show, and NPR’s Talk of the Nation.

Following her presentation, Davis will be available to sign her most recent memoir, Called Again: A Story of Love and Triumph. Called Again details her 2011 record-breaking hike of the Appalachian Trail and the relationships she forms with her support team that guides her to success.

William B. Bradshaw: Why I Wrote A Grammar Book

Monday, October 28th, 2013

bigten3 This article was written by William B. Bradshaw and was originally published on the Huffington Post website. Click here to find the article on their website.

People often ask me why I wrote a grammar book. During most of my professional career, I worked with not-for-profit institutions in various parts of the country. Regardless of where I was located — no matter the state or the setting — I found that the people I encountered all had something in common. From the highest authority to the youngest student, from the hotshot financier to the working-class parent, I found that they all had one thing in common: they tended to make the same grammatical errors.

When I retired from a formal position that required my going to the office each day, I began a systematic study of the typical grammatical errors people make. I read newspapers, those from
small towns that are known primarily to regional readers and some of the biggies with national and international audiences; I read professional journals from religious, educational, and philanthropic publishers; I listened to radio newscasters and watched the TV news from the major, cable, and satellite networks; I watched movies — old ones and new ones; I patiently listened to and watched commercials on radio and TV; I paid attention to highway billboards; I listened to the speeches of politicians and read their newsletters; I even resorted to watching soap operas. Again and again, I found the same grammatical errors. These findings led me to write The Big Ten of Grammar: Identifying and Fixing the Ten Most Frequent Grammatical Errors.

(more…)

Sheldon Harnick, Coauthor of The Outdoor Museum, Receives Feature in Playbill.com

Monday, October 28th, 2013

SCHOOLS OF THE STARS: Fiddler Lyricist Sheldon Harnick

pub_book4ebc4532536fc3.44804199_large By Robert Viagas
27 Oct 2013

The lyricist of Fiddler on the Roof, The Applie Tree, She Loves Me, Tenderloinand Fiorello! tells how Northwestern University changed his life.

Sheldon Harnick did not start out to be a Tony- and Pulitzer-winning lyricist. In the 1940s the future wordsmith ofFiddler on the Roof, the Applie Tree, She Loves Me, Tenderloin and Fiorello! tells PlaybillEDU™ that he was a student at Carl Schurz High School in Chicago, planning to study the violin.

“I played in my high school orchestra and my local community orchestra,” he said. “A friend of mine who was a year ahead of me invited me to go up to Northwestern to see the WAA-MU Show. These are revues written and staged by the students, and so lavish that critics from the Chicago newspapers would come. [The annual shows are still in existence]. I had done some lyric writing in high school, but seeing those WAA-MU shows changed my life.”

Harnick applied to Northwestern and was accepted. In his freshman year he wrote one song for WAA-MU, and by time he graduated he was writing half the show. “I learned what it meant to write for the theatre: working with musicians, working with actors. Northwestern had an amazing talent pool. Charlton Heston had just graduated and Charlotte Rae was one of my classmates and sang my songs.”

“Going to Northwestern was a very important experience for me. I learned there that theatre was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

This article was found on playbill.com. Click here to view the article on their website.

Gone Girl, Lost Jacket

Friday, October 11th, 2013

The saga of reading the dusty books on my shelf continues! This time I picked up Gone Girl Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

I came across this book in sort of a strange way (ok, maybe not that strange). I hadn’t heard about it at all, despite the rush of posts about the upcoming movie, until my father gave me a copy. He had happened across it somehow and had no use for it, so he gave it to me, the Daughter Who Reads A Lot. It’s a hardcover copy which is missing a dust jacket, so I couldn’t check out the synopsis. Instead of looking up the book on Amazon I decided to start reading without any information.

This brings me to the topic of today’s blog post: the novelty of reading a book with no prior knowledge, and no assumptions. I can’t remember the last time I started reading a book without knowing the author’s work, or reading the synopsis, or finding some reviews online, or going off the recommendation of a friend. I don’t buy books without at least looking at the back cover to check out the synopsis, and I don’t think I’m alone in this habit. Even if I ignored the synopsis, it’s difficult to avoid the multitude of media entries that cover new books. It’s a wonder I managed to avoid the articles gushing about the casting for the Gone Girl movie, expected to come out in 2014.

Happily, your local library might be able to help you out. You might have heard of the blind date with a book, the trend that’s sweeping the nation!

The idea is, if you haven’t yet heard of it, to give brief details about the subject matter (e.g. thriller, non-fiction, history) and maybe a few quick facts. This won’t help you out with recognizing the book once you’ve ripped the packaging, but it might help you in your ambling search through the aisles.

As far as my opinion of Gone Girl, I read it in about three days. I started out hating the two main characters- which I believe is intentional, having now finished the book and looked up reviews- and certainly had no idea that the wife would suddenly disappear, something I would have known if I’d read the synopsis. There’s a huge plot twist which I won’t spoil, so if I were you I would check this book out! I’m also excited to see the movie when it comes out. The casting seems great so far. I’m especially excited about Niel Patrick Harris- of course, he’s always the right choice (well documented fact based on my highly esteemed opinion), and this role seems especially perfect.

I am now reading a crime thriller, as I seem to be on a thriller kick. This one is by Marcia Muller, who shares my last name. Did I buy it because we have the same last name? Yes. Yes I did. After I finish this, however, I think I will have to start digging into the top shelf on my bookcase. I affectionately call it the I Have a BA In English, I Should Be Reading These shelf. It’s not my favorite shelf.

-A Little Beau Told Me

The Importance of Being Tyrion

Thursday, October 10th, 2013

I’ll admit it: I relapsed. I wanted to read comedies to change up what I was reading…and I really tried. I read Tina Fey’s Bossypants, which was great. And hilarious. But then, I found myself looking up the fifth Song of Ice and Fire book, A Dance With Dragons. So obviously I had to buy it. Begrudgingly, I started reading what I knew would be a depressing, dreary, and soul-shattering tale about the demise of many of my favorite characters. I’m only about 25% of the way into the book and yes, it is very depressing. It is dreary, gloomy, and many other rejected Disney dwarf names. George R.R. Martin has a unique way of crushing the hopes and dreams of all of his readers with just a few words. But, for me, there is a saving grace in these books: Tyrion.

Tyrion Lannister has made me realize the true importance of a character that offers comic relief in an otherwise very serious story. I’m not trying to trivialize Tyrion’s place in the story or make it seem as if his own, super complicated story line isn’t pivotal to the plot; I think that Tyrion’s character is probably the most important one in all of the series, simply because he does offer a bit of relief for the reader in between Martin tearing out your soul and putting it through an obstacle course of emotions.

Throughout the series, Tyrion has always been a sympathetic, extremely intelligent, and humorous character. He is the character that you can always root for as a reader, whereas other characters throughout the series have made some questionable decisions that make you consider your loyalty to them. Even when Tyrion is killing someone, he is usually 100% justified and you support his decision. In the days of the bromance of Bronn and Tyrion, I found myself actually laughing out loud while I was reading. Of course that laughter quickly turned to horrified sobs, but at least I had laughed. There are some characters that come in and out of the books to provide some additional comic relief, but most of that burden lies on Tyrion’s slightly smaller, capable shoulders.

In any story, I think it is important for there to be a buffer between the drama and the reader. Whether that is a humorous narrator or a snarky character, without these voices most of the books that I read would throw me into dark, dismal places that I would never be able to climb out of. Tyrion in ASoIaF, Stephano and Trinculo in The Tempest, and even Stiva from Anna Karenina, Anna’s fun-loving, rambunctious brother, make these books much more tolerable and slightly less depressing. I know that George R.R. Martin has claimed that the final scene of the series should be snow drifting across a graveyard of all of hischaracters, but I really hope he can let Tyrion live. At least until the end of this book. Please???

-There’s Always Money in the Beaunana Stand

Banned Books Week

Tuesday, September 24th, 2013

This week is Banned Books Week, so I am going to write about my (terribly important) opinions about a couple of banned and challenged books of this year. Let me start off by saying that many of the books that are banned in schools and libraries tend to veer towards the ridiculous side of the spectrum, e.g. the Captain Underpants series (REALLY?!). While it may not be the most thought-provoking children’s book of its time, this series has a wide audience and is not meant to be an educational, informational book. Unless you need an education on boogers and wedgies. Then they’ve got your whole curriculum covered. Banning and challenging other, more intellectual and educational books, in my opinion, can be limiting to the education of the students in school. An excellent example of a great book that was largely challenged this year is Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi.

This autobiographical account of Satrapi’s personal struggles during the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 was written as a graphic novel, taking a more lighthearted approach to a lot of serious and troubling subjects. Satrapi writes as a young version of herself, living in Iran, watching the changes around her in Iran’s culture and government, and also noticing changes within herself as a young woman. As a graphic novel, the book is able to give visuals to readers and create a more complete picture of what was going on in Satrapi’s life and in Iran. The fact that this autobiography is written as a graphic novel also makes the difficult subject matter more accessible to a younger audience, and makes the book a perfect addition to a middle school or high school’s library. While some of the content of the book might go over the heads of some younger readers (the political discussions, Satrapi’s satire and sarcasm, etc.), there are a lot of things covered in the book that I was surprised I didn’t already know about, and I read it as a college freshman.

As I was researching why this book was challenged and on the Banned Books list of 2013, I learned that community leaders and school officials in Chicago attempted to pull this book off of the shelves earlier this year, but there was a major uprising from the students and parents to keep the book as part of the school system’s curriculum. In the novel, Satrapi writes about her struggles with the oppressive government of Iran during her childhood and young adult life, and particularly focuses on her lack of freedom of speech, which was stifling for her as an adolescent who was trying to find her voice amidst the revolution. The students in Chicago used Satrapi’s message to fuel their fight against the censorship that their school was enforcing. From that situation alone, the ideals and importance of Satrapi’s story are clearly evident. Her words created the motivation for these students and parents to question their authority figures, to have their voices heard, and to uphold the principles of the freedom of speech. This story from Chicago showcases what Banned Books Week is all about for me, really.

Read more about other banned and challenged books here: http://www.ila.org/BannedBooks/BBW_2012-2013_Shortlist.pdf

-There’s Always Money in the Beaunana Stand

Free to a good home: book, gently used

Monday, September 23rd, 2013

In my quest to read the poor abandoned books on my shelf I was bound to pick up a dud at some point, and I did. I then continued to read it for about five days or so before finally abandoning it. When passersby asked me how the book was going (family members, coworkers, confused strangers), I responded with my complaints about the book thus far. Most accepted my frustrations. One finally asked, “So why are you putting up with it?” It’s a good question. If I hated it so much, why didn’t I just stop reading it? The answer is that I felt, in some ways, that I owed something to the author. As if abandoning the book a quarter of the way through would insult the author (who happens to be deceased), or insult the book itself. So that got me thinking- are there rules about when you can abandon a book? What is the threshold one must pass before deeming a book unworthy? Does it depend on the book, on the general esteem of the author, or something else?

This brings me to this article by goodreads.com:

According to goodreads, most readers will finish the book regardless of their frustrations. It surprised me to find that so many people will finish a book despite disliking it, but I suppose there could be contributing factors- bragging rights for something like Ulysses, staying current in pop culture for something like Twilight. Coming in second is ditching the book after 50-100 pages. This is the method I seem to hold with most often, as I think I finished around 60 pages or so. It’s enough time to allow the book to pick up the pace if it has been slow thus far, and enough time to establish whether or not I think it will be worth my while in the near future.

But am I being unfair to the book, or to the author? I think this article makes my case for me. Says the author, “Stop reading a book if [you] don’t enjoy it…I’ve put down several books over the last few weeks–and it is such a relief. More time for reading good books! Less time reading books out of a sense of obligation.” Personally, I agree. I read books while traveling, more often than not- on the train, on a break at work, while walking down the street. I don’t want to be unhappy and frustrated while doing those things. I’d rather read a book that makes me happy…like the 30 pound Game of Thrones book in my bag which I tote around everywhere.

-A Little Beau Told Me

“Canned food is a perversion.”

Thursday, September 12th, 2013

Early this year, I finally finished reading Anna Karenina and was feeling very gloomy. I also found myself much more aware and alert when I was at train stations. I read the book at the perfect time, since the dreary, dismal outlook of the book matched the ugly February weather. I don’t want to give anything away to anyone that hasn’t conquered Karenina yet, but it’s not a feel-good story. I needed to bring my spirits up after traveling through the dark, ominous, Russian countryside for over a month. For many years, my mom told me that I should read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I had never heard of the book before and was still severely engrossed in my depressing, Russian classics. I was planning on re-reading Crime and Punishment after finishing Anna Karenina. But my mom, in her Hail Mary attempt to get me to finally read her recommendation and bring me out of my depressing Russian phase, bought the book for me and sent it to my Kindle. So I read it.

I went into the book with no expectations. I asked my mom what the book was about, and she said that she couldn’t really explain it. She told me it was funny and that I would enjoy it. I was skeptical. I was still in school studying depressing literature and was not really exposing myself to comedic books. My book-radar was shut off from that genre, thinking it was low-brow or somehow inferior to what I was reading for class. But, what was I going to do? It was already on the home page of my Kindle, taunting me. I started reading the book cautiously but openly. And I finished it in about three days. It’s not that it was a short book or an easy read. I just couldn’t put it down.

What caught my comedic interest was the absurdity of the story. The title of this blog post, for example, is a quote from the novel. The protagonist/antagonist/focal point of the novel is named Ignatius Riley, an overweight, thirty-year-old man who lives with his mother in New Orleans. Sounds like a real catch, right? Ignatius has a warped sense of reality, and eventually spreads his warped reality to anyone that encounters him. My mom was right: this book is really hard to explain, but it does involve pirates, pornography, burlesque dancers and their birds, hats with flaps, and medieval philosophy. What more does a book really need?

Digression: While I was refreshing my memory about the book for this blog post, I stumbled upon “The Confederacy of Dunces Curse.” A curse?! I needed to know more. I found out that the author of the book, John Kennedy Toole, had committed suicide at the age of thirty-one. After the book was published, it was shopped around to film makers and studios to make into a movie…and here’s where it gets creepy. John Belushi was first chosen to portray Ignatius, but Belushi’s premature death halted production of this adaptation. The next in line to play Ignatius was John Candy, who also died at a young age and delayed the film even further. Next up was Chris Farley. Are you noticing a pattern?! How weird!

There are still rumors around Hollywood that there will be a movie made of this book, and some names that have been mentioned are Will Ferrell, Jack Black and Zach Galifianakis. For their sakes, I hope this movie is never made. Even though it would be so great. (If you want to read more about the catastrophes and deaths surrounding the production of this movie, check out this link: http://splitsider.com/2013/03/8-actors-who-came-close-to-starring-in-a-confederacy-of-dunces/)

-There’s Always Money in the Beaunana Stand

Lolita? More like LOL-ita!

Thursday, September 5th, 2013

Hey reader. I’m Veronica, or There’s Always Money in the Beaunana Stand, one of the new interns at Beaufort, and I’m an Arrested Development addict. AD’s irreverent, awkward, and oftentimes completely insensitive and inappropriate humor is something that I find hilarious, both on television and in the real-world. Finding this particular nom de plume on the list of possible Beaufort puns in the office made me feel a lot more comfortable after I saw it on my first day. As you might expect from my pen-name and confessed interest in the wide world of comedy, I try to find the humor in life. I’ve been told that I laugh at anything, but that is not the case. I just happen to find normal, everyday things to be funnier than the average person might.

As an avid reader and over-all book enthusiast, I have found a general lack of humor in the books that I read. This could possibly be attributed to the fact that I generally read classics (since they are free on my Kindle: thank goodness for public domain books!). Also, I was a Literature major in college and, unfortunately, not many of my required readings were really all that funny. Unless you think Confessions of an Opium Eater is funny. But I didn’t. Due to the amount of depressing and dreary books I have read over the past four years, I have been trying to broaden my scope of potential books to include some more amusing content. I am still enjoying reading my classics (I am currently reading Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night), but I am breaking up these intense, serious reads with spurts of comedy. Or, at least, I’m trying to.

This past summer my brother gave me a book by John Hodgman, a correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (but better known as the guy that played PC in the old Apple versus PC commercials with Justin Long), for my college graduation.

Hodgman on left.

The book is entitled That is All, which my brother thought would be fitting considering I was ending my college career with no job prospects. Thanks brother. After letting the book sit on my desk all summer, mocking me, I finally decided that I would read it. I figured I needed some joy in my life, since I had just finished reading Lolita. If you have never read Lolita and are thinking about reading it, consider your mental state. If you are having a relatively nice time in your life and want to stay positive and upbeat, steer clear. If you are in a dark, dismal funk and want to travel further into the abyss, Lolita is the book for you.

Serious cover page, huh?

But after crawling out of the abyss that I found myself in from Lolita, That is All was the perfect rebound. Hodgman wrote the book in 2012, when the Mayan apocalypse was impending. He wrote the book as a continuation to his first two books (which I have plans to read, if my brother can ever find them in his room). His first two books are titled The Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require. These two books function as fictionalized historical and informational books from the mind of Mr. Hodgman. He fabricates historical events and portrays them as seemingly common-knowledge facts (more specifically common knowledge to those with money and influence, which he finds to be an extremely important gateway to the world). That is All acts as a kind of training manual or preparatory instruction for the impending apocalypse, and hilarity ensues.

I devoured this book. After reading Lolita, this was exactly the kind of book that I was craving. It has sections entitled “How to be a Deranged Millionaire” and “A List of Seven Hundred Ancient and Unspeakable Gods.” I found myself laughing out-loud when reading many sections of this book, which was a new thing for me and got to be a little embarrassing when I read the book at the gym (although not as embarrassing as reading Lolita in the gym). Sometimes, when I read something funny I will giggle quietly or smirk, but this book had me chortling and having to take breaks from reading because I was laughing too hard. After finishing the book, I wanted to read more books that made me feel good, unlike most of the depressing, disheartening books that I normally read. My literary goal at the moment, therefore, is to change up the genre of books I read and steer myself in a more humorous direction. We’ll see how that goes.

-There’s Always Money in the Beaunana Stand

A Few Podcasts

Tuesday, August 20th, 2013

For the last two weeks I have been traveling forty five minutes in the morning and forty five minutes in the evening, participating in a ritual that modern humans refer to as a “commute.” I stand or sit in the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or Q trains, and I try not to touch the people near me, although sometimes this cannot be avoided. This morning I touched a rabbi’s hand, for example. I try to focus on my shoes and discretely look out the windows to see whether I am close to my stop (I have not yet attuned my circadian rhythms to the subway system) and inevitably make eye contact with someone across from me. I look back at my shoes.

Such is the true life cliché that I live, a Californian transplant in New York City, used to my hermetically sealed box with wheels that modern humans refer to as a “car” but thrust into the sardine box/melting pot/other anthropological-food metaphor that is the MTA. It is both nerve-wracking and utterly boring, and so I have had to develop a few habits to keep my mind occupied in a productive way. Of course by habits I mean “podcasts,” and by develop I mean “find.” So, without further ado, here are some of the (writing-relevant) programs I have been listening to:

1. The New Yorker Fiction Podcast

Are you a fan of Italo Calvino, Colum Mcann, John Cheever, Donald Antrim, Donald Barthelme, Denis Johnson, George Saunders, or any other authors published in the New Yorker? Do you appreciate an ethos of studious consideration of and respect for literature? Did you enjoy having stories read to you in soft tones as a child? Welcome to the New Yorker Fiction Podcast, brought to you by Deborah Treisman, the magazine’s very own fiction editor.

In this podcast, Treisman welcomes a New Yorker author, has them read their favorite story published in the magazine, and concludes by discussing with them the story they have read. The podcast is like a double feature in this way: not only do you hear the work of great literary geniuses that the magazine helped establish, you also learn the names and writer-ly habits of the next generation of literary geniuses fostered in its offices. Check in on the first of every month for a new update.

2. The New Yorker Political Scene

Dorothy Wickenden, who I recently heard lecture at Columbia, hosts this weekly podcast, in which she discusses new political events with New Yorker writers. Wickenden is the Executive Editor at the magazine; shrewd and gracious, she has a great radio presence. She also has the uncanny ability to speak in fully-formed paragraphs and speaks with an awesome but unplaceable accent. I highly recommend any of the podcasts that feature George Packer, famous for his books Assassin’s Gate and The Unwinding (and his general pessimism about America’s future). Check in on Wednesdays or Thursdays for new updates.

3. The New Yorker Out Loud

The New Yorker Out Loud has two hosts. The first is Colin Fox, who is an editor of the website and introduces the podcast. The second host, Sasha Weiss, who is the literary editor of the magazine, usually interviews one New Yorker writer about their piece that came out that week. It’s great and highly variable. My favorites are the ones with Emily Nussbaum, the magazine’s TV critic, a former PhD candidate and writer for Lingua Franca. Check in on Mondays for new updates.

4. Longform

Longform.org is a website that aggregates long-form journalism from both the past and the present. You can find both the famous “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” and the newest profile in GQ, so long as it isn’t behind a pay wall. They are also lucky to have their offices right across the hall from the Atavist, a similar upstart founded by Evan Ratliff, Jefferson Rabb, and Nicholas Thompson that created a platform for multimedia storytelling.

I haven’t quite figured out whether these two companies distinguish between themselves (since Evan Ratliff often serves as a host and has been interviewed on the podcast and in his interview referred to “the office” as if it was the Atavist office), nor can I figure out who the host is. Regardless, they have managed to interview really awesome talents like Jay Caspian Kang, Molly Young, and Emily Nussbaum. Writers interviewing writers about writing is the premise; the shows last for 45 minutes to an hour; check in Wednesdays for new content.

All of these podcasts are free and available on iTunes. So go subscribe! Expand your mind amidst the metal squeals and casual intimacy of Gotham’s subway.

Happy listening,

BEAUseph Conrad

Short Stories, Little Patience

Monday, August 19th, 2013

A Little Beau here! Mind blowing news update—I have actually kept my promise. If you read my last blog post, you might remember my tendency to buy books and then never read them. I vowed to pick up one of those poor, neglected books, and this morning I did! (To be honest, the real reason is that I finished book four of Game of Thrones and haven’t managed to pick up book five yet, but let’s focus on the positives here).

Here’s what I picked up:

I bought this sometime around last January at Book Revue in Huntington. The book is a collection of short stories written by Connolly that share a common theme: they’re all somewhat on the other side of creepy. I’m only on the first story so far, entitled “The Cancer Cowboy Rides.” It’s about a man who has some sort of affliction (possibly an alien parasite? some kind of supernatural power?) that causes him to fill with a black cancer. The only way to rid himself of this is to touch others and cause them to fall prey to the black cancer. The story takes place in various locations of Small Town America and reminds me of The Twilight Zone. So far I’m very much enjoying it, though perhaps my decision to read it on the train in a dark tunnel wasn’t such a great idea. Will this stop me from doing it again tomorrow? Not a chance.

I can’t remember what exactly drew me to pick up the book but I know what caused me to buy it; I adore short stories. There’s just something about not having to be tied down to one story line and one cast of characters for 200 or so pages. With a collection of short stories you get just a taste of that world, discover the main conflict, and have it solved in just a few pages. And there’s always something left out in a short story—What happened to the main character after he got that job? What happened in her childhood that led this character to act out in that way? How did those characters manage to escape? A creative writing professor once told me that allowing your audience to interact with your book, by filling in some of the blanks or by leaving questions unanswered, makes for a gripping story. I’ve always found this to be true, and I think that’s something I love about short stories.

Speaking of that creative writing professor, here’s a book of short stories he assigned for our class that I loved:

This book is composed of very, very short stories. Often, the stories are no more than a page or two long. It’s a great way to pick up a book if you know you don’t have a lot of time to commit to it. I don’t think I can sum it up any better than this user review on the book’s Amazon page: “It’s like a big sampler box of chocolates, only there are no yucky ones, none of those jelly-centered losers.” Thanks, Lou Beach, I couldn’t have said it any better.

Do you have a favorite collection of short stories? Do you hate short stories with a burning passion? Post below in the comments!

-A Little Beau Told Me

Independent Bookstores in the City

Tuesday, August 13th, 2013

Hello readers! I am Ryan, one of the new fall interns at Beaufort. I thought for my introductory blog post I would talk about some of the independent bookstores in the city. I just heard the good news on Shelf Awareness that Michael de Zayas, of gourmet cheese fame in Crown Heights, is creating a new bookstore on the corner of Bedford and Park Place (just one block from my apartment). De Zayas has already proven himself a capable businessman in the neighborhood: he’s the man behind Wedge, an artisan cheese and bread store, and Little Zelda, a coffeehouse next door. Given his success on Franklin Ave. with two such hipster retreats, hopes should be high for a third, especially since the nearest local bookstore is a twenty minute walk away (though some would undoubtedly claim that Unnameable Books is worth the walk).

Beaufort’s office is actually located in a particularly dense bookstore cluster, only a few blocks from the iconic Union Square triumvirate of The Strand, St. Mark’s Bookshop, and Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers.

The Strand is the biggest of the three with a huge fiction selection, three floors, great prices, and good vibes.

The Strand * 828 Broadway New York, NY 10003 * (212) 473-1452

St. Mark’s Bookshop is a bit more arty and spare and is located right in the heart of St. Mark’s (hence the name)—stop in for that anthology on Foucault and you will pass by the Continental bar, with its infamous 5 shots for $10 deal.

St. Mark’s * 31 3rd Ave New York, NY 10003 * (212) 260-7853

Shakespeare & Co. is part of a small NYC chain of three bookstores that form an axis on the East Side. The one I’m talking about is right next to NYU and has a definite college feel in terms of its staff and its course book offerings. It lives up to the hype of its name both in the selection for Shakespeare titles and in its smell, mahogany shelves, and comfy chairs.

Shakespeare & Co. * 716 Broadway New York, NY 10003 * (212) 529-1330

The country’s largest Barnes and Noble is also right on Union Square, and, given its huge collection, it’s a great place to find that sought after book you just can’t find anywhere else. It’s also a great place to find that sought after bathroom after drinking three cups of coffee at the Farmer’s Market.

B&N * 33 E 17th St New York, NY 10003 * (212) 253-0810

I’ve recently been working at Book Culture, an independent bookstore in Morningside Heights beloved by Columbia students. Come by our main location on 112th mid-block between Broadway and Amsterdam, or, if you are with kids or are just looking for bestselling fiction, try our newish location on 114th and Broadway.

Book Culture’s 112th location

Book Culture’s Broadway location

Since the advent of e-readers, independent booksellers have been characterized in the media as a relic of the past, but the truth is that they have actually become more important than ever. With their carefully curated selection and knowledgeable staff, they have become cultural beacons, as important as publishers in determining the trajectory of literature. Amazon may have millions of titles, but it has no way of sifting through its offerings and determining what is relevant to you, unlike the former English majors roaming the stacks and re-shelving overstock who can make recommendations, tell you what people are buying, and talk to you about your favorite authors. Apple offers great convenience with e-books, but independent bookstores offer you one-of-a-kind events in the form of author readings, lectures, and Q&As.

It’s not that Amazon and Apple are worse than independent booksellers, or vice versa—they’re just different and provide equally necessary services for the book world. So stop by and support your local store: they’ll appreciate your business and, who knows, maybe you will get to meet a really interesting person.

Cheerio,

BEAUseph Conrad

A Little Beau Told Me

Monday, August 12th, 2013

Hi there! I’m Sarah, the new publicity intern. Henceforth I’ll go by A Little Beau Told Me, so chosen because of my family’s tendency to use nicknames based on birds.

Lately I’ve had a tendency to collect books faster than I can read them. I just can’t help picking up a book if, say, I peruse a used bookstore or if a friend is passing off a few unwanted titles. I give them a home on my increasingly overfilled bookshelf and it is there that they go to die under a layer of dust. But yes, I needed to buy that copy of Great Expectations because I was an English major and I should read that, shouldn’t I? And I just have to pick up this copy of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil from my friend who doesn’t even remember buying it because I liked that movie three years ago, didn’t I?

You really don’t want to know how many copies of Jane Eyre I’ve collected. There was a book I read, or possibly a movie I watched, where the protagonist once owned a book that had an inscription from her father. She proceeds to lose it, so she develops a habit of picking up copies of the book at used bookstores in an attempt to find the missing copy. Every time I mention this someone tells me what movie it’s from and every time I forget, but I still feel the need to own 5 copies of Jane Eyre. My favorite is a 100 year old copy that I picked up for £3 while studying abroad, but I digress.

These books deserve to be read, and I resolve to read them all! I must give Les Miserables another chance, I must try the silly novels I keep telling myself will be great for beach reading, and I must stop buying books that I know I won’t read. Or at least, I should try. At some point. Maybe after I’m done reading Game of Thrones.

I’ll get back to you on that.