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TP: Meaning first of all that I like books that I can hold in my hand. Made of paper. I don’t need to plug them in, and I don’t have to buy batteries for them. They look different from each other, and I like that. I like looking at Bleak House and being able to tell that it embodies a different sen…

I once had a relationship with William H. Gass’s The Tunnel. It was a difficult couple of months. We didn’t get along—even though on the surface it seemed we would be a perfect couple. It was certainly no Ulysses. But I stuck with it to the very end, searching for any glimmer of connection or love,…

It’s possible that books are like relationships. Some people may be quite happy hopping from one book to the next, looking for easy reads in the same way you might troll the bars for easy lays. There are thousands of completely forgettable books that will amuse you for an evening or two; they seduc…

Otto turned for the waiter, whom he’d been having trouble reaching since they sat down. He’d brought her to a small restaurant which, with excess of garlic in everything but dessert and coffee (though it lingered even there), and very dry martini cocktails served by disdainfully subservient waiters…

The books that have had the greatest impact on my life are not the ones that entertained me the most—rather, they’re the ones I’ve had to endure. Ulysses wasn’t a “good read”—it was a project, a mission, a brief military stint undertaken by a strong-willed, idealistic youth. It was a labor to car…