Way back when I had hair, and that hair had actual color, Roger Lathbury, who was then Roger Lewis, was one of my favorite professors. We’ve been in touch on and off over the years. I have no idea, really, why he bothers with me, but for me, his impossibly cool erudition make him something of an ideal reader, and a lot of times when I’m writing, I think of him, as in, what would Roger think?, which can be a powerful means for making the really crappy sentence jump right off the page—and force me to take advantage of that jumping to swat it away.

So imagine my pleasure and surprise… Continue reading →

After the departure of Marie Arana and much rumor, The Washington Post announced last week that it was going to discontinue Book World as a standalone tabloid in the Sunday paper. (For the record, I wrote a couple of reviews for her several years back and found her to be a wonderful editor.)

Of course the Post is not the only newspaper to eliminate its book section qua book section, nor likely will it be the last. Continue reading →