Welcome to Litsy!

The book started strong. I found the first couple essays very amusing. As the book continued, I was less and less charmed. The essays were ok, but nothing great. By the end of the book, I was ready for it to be finished. Also, the book feels like nonfiction, but is marketed as fiction. That confused me.

I think of that moment often now. I think: how often the effort of knowing someone is undermined by one‘s wish to. I mean, it can be quite hard to see or hear a person amid the bright bellowing of one‘s own projections. The world is a negotiation of wishes, after all, and where desire is strongest, so are illusions. (pg. 240-41)

Dating Tips for the Unemployed by Iris Smyles on my (dusty) nightstand #currentread #day9 #riotgrams📚

“But what happens—movies never address this—when there are no people left? Will the zombies starve?have a seat? Begin to think perhaps they acted rashly? Become university chairs? Occupy tollbooths?”

I close my eyes and think of Dante and Fitzgerald and Hemingway, of my own great potential—a Towering Inferno in which I‘m trapped at the top. I place myself at the end of a long line of great authors, a top ten list of literary insomniacs. Dante, Fitzgerald, Hemingway ... What great works might I yet write? I could become a great author! I could become ... I could become ...

I‘m pretty underwhelmed with this book so far, but I‘m embarrassed to admit how much I relate to “The Friendship Registry” chapter.

And this is why my circle is so tiny.

Anyone else order a somewhat obscure or unwieldy domestic product (say, bulk sponges, or a specific brand of spatula) through Amazon & use it as an excuse to also order a couple books that have been hanging out in your cart‘s “save for later” section?

I did. 🛒🛍📚😅 #bookhaul

This has been on my TBR list for a while. Imagine my surprise when I was notified that I won a copy from a Goodreads Giveaway!! Score!!!🏆🏆 #imawinner #goodreadsgiveaway #goodreads

I'm so into this book, I committed the cardinal sin of not returning it to the library on time 😳 (I'm returning it tomorrow & paying the fees ASAP, I swear!)

See this book right here? Yeah, I'm buying this one next time I: a. have $$$, and b. am at the bookstore! Just skimming this unique book had me guffawing. Luckily, I was surrounded by other bibliophiles, so they just slowly nodded their heads with Cheshire Cat grins of respectful acknowledgment, silently saying, "Oh yeeeaaah, this is how we rooollll at the bookstoorre". ??

Had the delightful pleasure of stepping into the literary ring with Iris Smyles at last night's Stony Brook Southampton Writer's Conference and The Southampton Review hosted Literary Death Match. I look forward to reading her latest book, Dating Tips for the Unemployed.

I'm getting ready to start this, tho I'm not convinced I'm going to relate, I *think* this collection of 24 pieces focuses on early adulthood and the difficulties of making true connections in contemporary New York. Have you read it?

When a review copy comes with several pages full of this, it gets my attention. This was originally part of the manuscript. I'm intrigued.