Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘Celeste Ng’

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"My novel is going nowhere"

by Celeste Ng

You may have said those words once or twice yourself, perhaps? (If not, please leave this blog. Now.) It may comfort you to know that you are not alone in that sentiment: even established writers think so, now and then—and have for decades, if not centuries. To prove it, Michael Hoffman has combed through the letters of Joseph Roth, finding every mention of his novel The Radetzky March, which would become his masterpiece. Here’s a sampling: November 20, 1930 Joseph Roth to Stefan Zweig: “‘The Radetzky March,’ it’ll be called, set in the Dual Monarchy from 1890 to 1914. I’ll […]


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tiny library + tiny video = big funds?

by Celeste Ng

The town of Shutesbury, in rural western Massachusetts, needs a new public library to replace their tiny, antiquated one (there’s no running water!). The state will cover 60% of the cost—IF the town can raise $1.4 million by June 30. Shutesbury has made this adorable video explaning the situation and making the case for a new library. (And if that’s not enough to convince you to watch, I have two words for you: ukulele soundtrack.) This video—especially the lists of things the patrons hope to do in their new library—remind me that libraries aren’t just shelves of books: they’re community […]


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Soundtracking a story

by Celeste Ng

Earlier this week, I mentioned Heidi Julavits’ novel The Effect of Living Backwards, and how she thanks Track 4 of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in the acknowledgements. She suggests she listened to it over and over while writing the novel—but knowing this, would be interested to read the novel while listening to that track, wouldn’t it? The concept of a soundtrack to a book isn’t exactly new. For some time, the fabulous book and music blog Largehearted Boy has asked writers to make playlists for their books, and the resulting lists include the author’s notes on how the song relates […]


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I'd like to thank the Academy…

by Celeste Ng

On Oscar night, no one listens to the thank-you speeches—except the people being thanked. Likewise, no one reads the author acknowledgements of a book—or do they? On The Millions, Henriette Lazaridis Power delves into the stories behind this oft-overlooked section of a book, from the Brontë sisters to Zadie Smith to Robin Black. And Power argues that the acknowledgements are more than polite thank-you notes; they’re an opportunity: Everyone reads the acknowledgements. In fact, for many of us, the first thing we do when we pull a book off the store shelf is to flip to the back. The writers […]


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Jaw-droppingly gorgeous bookstores

by Celeste Ng

Flavorwire has compiled a list of 20 incredibly gorgeous bookstores—like the Librería El Ateneo Grand Splendid, housed in a converted theater in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Click over to see the whole post—guaranteed to make you want to visit each and every one. Happy Friday! Further Reading: More amazing bookshelves to inspire (or inspire envy) Coolest bookshelves


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Libraries, libraries, everywhere (and we mean everywhere)

by Celeste Ng

Do you have a cell phone? Of course you do.  Everyone does.  So what will become of all those public pay phone booths that no one needs anymore? Columbia architecture grad John Locke has an idea: turn them into public bookshelves.  Reports The Atlantic Cities: [I]n the past few months, the Columbia architecture grad has slipped around Manhattan with a sack of books and custom-made shelves, converting old pay phones into pop-up libraries. The concept, sponsored by Locke’s imaginary Department of Urban Betterment, is that New Yorkers will pick up unfamiliar titles while running their errands and then, perhaps, replace […]


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How to Succeed In Business? Read fiction.

by Celeste Ng

There are lots of reasons to read fiction. But did you know it can also make you a better businessperson? In the Harvard Business Review, Anne Kreamer makes “the business case for reading novels.” She argues: Over the past decade, academic researchers such as Oatley and Raymond Mar from York University have gathered data indicating that fiction-reading activates neuronal pathways in the brain that measurably help the reader better understand real human emotion — improving his or her overall social skillfulness. […] In one of Oatley and Mar’s studies in 2006, 94 subjects were asked to guess the emotional state […]


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Police Composite sketches for literary characters

by Celeste Ng

Like most readers, you probably have your own mental image of Humbert Humbert, or Emma Bovary, or the Misfit. But if you’re the kind of person who likes a visual, check out The Composites, a Tumblr site that plugs literary descriptions of characters into police composite sketch software. The results are… well, take a look below and decide for yourself. Here’s how the police sketch program portrayed the three characters I mentioned above, along with the passages that generated them. (All images via The Composites.) Humbert Humbert, from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: Gloomy good looks…Clean-cut jaw, muscular hand, deep sonorous […]


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Cooler than AWP

by Celeste Ng

So you’re not at AWP right now, and you’re wondering what kind of highjinks you’re missing?   I can promise you, you’re not missing anything as fun as the sessions on Full Stop’s mock AWP schedule, which I must confess looks way more exciting than the original. Here are the sessions I’d be attending at this alterna-AWP: 4 Over 400: The Gutenberg Problem. Noted grimoire authors Merlin, Gandalf, Conor MacLeod, and Albus Dumbledore discuss the potentially disastrous consequences of printing presses. Will the grimoire survive this radical new development in publishing? How should scroll hawkers best adapt to the new […]


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Publinshers capitalize on Linsanity with instant Linterature, on Lindles

by Celeste Ng

Sorry. As a fellow dorky, Asian Harvard grad, I may have gotten swept up in the adoration of Jeremy Lin that’s sweeping the nation world. And, um, the puns—at least the ones that aren’t ethnic slurs. (Don’t get me started on that one, please.) Anyway. Thanks to his underdog-made-good story, Jeremy Lin has thoroughly saturated pop culture—everything from serious discussions of immigration to discount airfares. And now, Linsanity has entered the literary world. In the fortnight since Lin shot to fame, multiple authors have penned ebooks about him for the Kindle. Reports Fast Company: Several of the e-books repurpose publicly […]




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