Ask a Book Question
January 21, 2006
Ask a Book Question: The 42nd in a Series (Garcia Marquez and Kawabata) 1
by C. Max Magee
Ashok writes in with this question about a pair of “magical realists:” I heard that Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Memories of My Melancholy Whores can be read as a continuation of a Yasunari Kawabata novel. Can you tell me which is that novel? Kawabata was the first Japanese Nobel Laureate in literature (1968), and while not [...]
August 2, 2005
Ask a Book Question: The 41st in a Series (Inflating print runs) 0
by C. Max Magee
Laurie noticed that she sometimes sees two different print numbers for the same book and wrote in with this question: How do you find out how many copies are being printed of a new book? Is there a single website that lists this? I’ve only occasionally seen the number printed in a first run, sometimes [...]
July 24, 2005
Ask a Book Question: The 40th in a Series (The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford) 0
by C. Max Magee
Dee writes in with this question: Do you know when Richard Ford’s sequel to Independence Day will be published? Richard Ford’s Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award winning Independence Day from 1995 revisits Frank Bascombe, who Ford first introduced to readers as The Sportswriter in 1986. In the novels, Ford plumbs the angst of the 1980s [...]
July 12, 2005
Ask a Book Question: The 39th in a Series (Finding First Editions) 0
by C. Max Magee
Michael writes in with this question: I want to know how to determine if I have a first edition book or not. I have several books, Black Beauty 1945 without any other copyright dates, I also have The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin, without any dates but the one given, Darwin doesn’t even have [...]
April 12, 2005
Ask a Book Question: The 38th in a Series (The Fiction of LA) 0
by C. Max Magee
Edan writes in with this question: In preparation for this novel I’d like to write, I am restricting (most) of my reading to novels/stories about Los Angeles. So far, I’ve read the very entertaining and very haunting The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, and am just now starting Southland by Nina Revoyr. Can you recommend [...]
April 9, 2005
Ask a Book Question: The 37th in a Series (Prater? Violet?) 0
by C. Max Magee
Linara writes in with a question about Christopher Isherwood’s classic, Prater Violet: What does the title Prater Violet imply? what is Prater Violet? The Prater is a large public park in Vienna that contains amusement park rides, a planetarium and other attractions. (Learn more about The Prater here) The book Prater Violet is about the [...]
