For Agger completists.
I really liked his new novel, The Ask.
“We walk the halls of Barnes & Noble, lost, pale, and discontent. Surrounded by rows and rows of Nice Writing, we search in vain for a novel that will make us laugh. We gaze fondly at the Amises, remember our dear friend Bonfiglioli, reread the best passages of Scoop and A Handful of Dust, salute Joseph Heller, give Vonnegut a friendly page riffle, and end up where we always do. Right ho, Jeeves.”
Got a chance to correspond with one of my favorite authors, James Salter.
Such Great Heights: The best novel every written about the outdoor life.
I reviewed Jaron Lanier’s new book for Slate. He’s not too thrilled about the current state of the Internet. We are all bunch of remixers and rehashers who serve the collective hive mind at the expense of our individuality.
My pick for the book of the year:
John Updike’s Endpoint is a final burst of fluency from the New England master. Who else could spin a charming poem out of a trip to Best Buy to buy a new computer? “Brave world! The geeks in matching shirts/ talked gigabytes to girls with blue tattoos.” Updike’s lyric gift carried him to the end. His words meet death both obliquely and directly. Read this book late in the evening, with a stiff drink by your side. Then marvel at Updike’s metaphors, like the one about Payne Stewart’s swing: “its aftermath shimmered in the air: dragonfly wings.” Or at his cold-palmed observations, as when studying the departure gate for Florida: “Now, agèd, average, dullish, lame, and halt/ we claim our due, our fun doom in the sun.” And at his gentle knocks on your soul: “Birthday, death day—what day is not both?”
Finally whittled down all of your suggestions for the best iPhone apps for kids.
New article on Slate today about the iPhone as the ultimate kid pacification device.
Since writing the article, I’ve had to delete Slotz Racer off my phone due to it’s mind-control over both me and my son.
Does your e-mail reveal how productive you are?
This is an article I wrote about Cataphora, a company of mathematicians and linguists that sifts through e-mail, IMs, and the office communications structure to model your behavior as an employee. This won’t be the last you hear of them.
Would you rather have a magic driver that added 20 yards to your drive, or a magic driver that hit your drives 20% straighter? These are the questions I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I’m trying to expand on this article:
Moneygolf: What can stats tells us about what it takes to win on the links?
From all across this great nation (and Canada), entries arrived in my inbox for Slate‘s Google Suggest contest. The question at hand: What’s the best example of “less intelligent” Google query contrasted with a “more intelligent” Google query?
Sorting through the contenders led to more than a few instances of intellectual whiplash. One moment, I’d be considering a stemwinder such as “Why is it that only part of the energy stored in one trophic level is passed on to the next level?” and the next moment, I’d be learning about “cake farts.”
Without further descent into fetishes, let’s go to the top five.
Michael Agger 