Finale

So, how many of you actually read it/are reading it???

Show yourselves! Make yourselves known!

I will admit that I got distracted with baby books (against my best laid plans) but am on it now, and will be done by Aug. 1.

So, let's meet on Aug. 1.

How many? We need to have an idea, so we know what kind of venue to use...

Pipe up!

Little Known Fact #5

Faulkner was unwilling to buy a new suit to wear when he received the Nobel Prize, so he rented one. Afterwards, he told his publisher, Bennett Cerf, that he wanted to keep the suit. When asked what he would do with it, Faulkner said, "Well, I might stuff it and put it in the living room and charge people to come in and see it, or I might rent it out, but I want that suit." Random House bought the suit for him.


And, so, how's it going? Thoughts about the book so far?

Little Known Fact #4

When Faulkner first went to MGM to work as a screenwriter in 1932, he volunteered to Story Department chief Samuel Marx to write not feature films but two types of movies he claimed he was most familiar with: newsreels and Mickey Mouse cartoons.

Supreme Sentences

I started reading last night. Yes, the sentences are LOOONNNNNGGGG, but they are also LUSCIOUS.

Faulkner's sentences are like they were crafted by The Eternal.

Delicious.

It's books like this that make me swear I'll never read any smut or lame chick lit again. But I will.

Little Known Fact #3

Faulkner felt tremendous guilt over the death of his brother Dean: he had sold the airplane to Dean, and he had encouraged him in his flying. At the time of Dean's death, Faulkner was writing Absalom, Absalom! (The central mystery, if you don't already know, concerns the murder of one brother by another brother.)

My book finally came - hardback! I had no idea I was getting hardback. Most people I know treasure hardback books and prefer them, but I do not. I think they are gangly and heavy and hard to manage. Likewise, I no longer have a penchant for keeping books long after I have read them. I don't have room for a proper library, so I don't see the point in storing and hoarding them. Unless they are true favorites I'll read again and again, I pass them on or sell them at The Dusty Bookshelf, or, better, Half Price Books.

It's a busy weekend, but I am hoping to have time to get started reading on Sunday.

Little Known Fact #2

Have you bought your book yet? I decided to purchase rather than borrow one, so I can write in it. Going after work today to get it. I feel guilty because I am in the middle of two other books now, but I think I'm going to abandon them so I can get a headstart on Faulkner.

Do you write in your books? If so, what? Why?


And, some trivia:

In 1932 Faulkner went dove hunting with Howard Hawks and a friend of his, an actor named Clark Gable. Hawks began talking with Faulkner about books, during which Gable remained silent. Finally, Gable asked Faulkner who he thought were the best living writers. After a moment, Faulkner answered, "Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, Thomas Mann, John Dos Passos, and myself."

Gable paused for a moment and said, "Oh, do you write?"

"Yes, Mr. Gable," Faulkner said. "What do you do?"

Little Known Fact #1

Did you know that Faulkner once served as the postmaster at the University of Mississsippi post office?

He apparently sucked. Was known to throw away mail, ignore patrons, and otherwise lack customer service skills.

Which sounds like he was a very normal postal employee, indeed.

When asked to resign (which he readily agreed to), Faulkner reportedly said, "I reckon I'll be at the beck and call of folks with money all my life, but thank God I won't ever again have to be at the beck and call of every son of a bitch who's got two cents to buy a stamp."

Summertime, and the Livin's Easy.

So if you're here it's probably because you agreed to read Absalom, Absalom! this summer, with the rest of your book-nerd friends. Please, please, feel free to get as many of your other friends to join in the fun. This is open to anyone and everyone, and I'm hoping to have a huge group to get together at the end. However, if it's only three of four of us in the end, that will be perfect too, as then I can host the thing at my own house, before it is overrun with baby paraphernalia.

This is meant to be fun and not to feel like stress or pressure. If you don't finish the book in time, come to the "finale" anyway. If you hate the book, quit it.

I'll be posting this and that as I go, regarding the book, history, thoughts, etc.

If you would like to have access to post here, please let me know and I'll send you an authorship invitation. I think you probably have to have a gmail address to make that work, by the way.

Ready, set, read!