I haven't kept up -- my first reaction to "cell phone novel" was Steven King's Cell. Where cell phones are a key part of the story, but it definitely isn't a cell phone novel.
'Shindig'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Emeline got a personally inscribed copy of Blueberry Girl from our friend Anne this weekend. Damn book made me cry. But she LOVES it. It is quite beautiful. A must-have for young girl children.
She is building up quite the collection of personalized books. She already has The Wolves in the Walls, Micawber (by John Lithgow) and this winter she'll be getting The Last Unicorn since Peter S. Beagle will be at the Con that we always go to.
I'm about a third of the way through A Game of Thrones, and so far am really enjoying it. I haven't read fantasy (Tolkien and Harry Potter excluded) in years, so I'm pleased that this book holding my interest.
Wikipedia can be so awesome sometimes: [link]
So it appears that The Hotel New Hampshire is the Ultimate John Irving Novel.
That is excellent.
Also, it's fucked up yet unsurprising that the Irving books I loved the most in college (Garp, Hotel New Hampshire) were the ones that had all (or almost all) of the recurring themes.
were the ones that had all (or almost all) of the recurring themes.
Water Method Man and Setting Free the Bears both have the usual set of early Irving obsessions: Bears, Austria, Whores, Comic Mayhem, Ironic Death.
Favourite Irving: Owen Meaney. Possibly because I like slightly twisted takes on religion.
That's my only Irving.
My only Irving is Hotel New Hampshire a long, long time ago.