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Schumacher Literary Hall of Fame

Here is a list of fiction writers who are among my personal favorites (with a representative book listed alongside). These are not the usual suspects, but some of the lesser-known writers I like. Richard Yates, "Revolutionary Road"; John Fante, "Ask the Dust"; Nelson Algren, "The Man with the Golden Arm"; Frederick Exley, "A Fan's Notes"; Charles Portis, "The Dog of the South"; John Williams, "Stoner"; Patrick Hamilton, "Hangover Square"; Richard Russo, "Empire Falls"; Richard Ford, "The Sportswriter"; Don DeLillo, "White Noise"; Jim Harrison, "True North"; Raymond Carver, "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?"; Willy Vlautin, "The Motel Life"; Michael Chabon, "The Wonder Boys"; Ian McEwan, "Atonement"; Colson Whitehead, "John Henry Days"; Orhan Pamuk, "Snow"; Junot Diaz, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao"; Avram Davidson, "Vergil in Averno"

Recent reading: recommended fiction

The Secret of Lost Things (2006), Sheridan Hay; Absurdistan (2006), Gary Shteyngart; Five Skies (2007), Ron Carlson; Citizen Vince (2005), Jess Walter; On Chesil Beach (2007), Ian McEwan; We're in Trouble (2005), Christopher Coake; Returning to Earth (2007), Jim Harrison; The Lay of the Land (2006), Richard Ford

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Geoff Schumacher

What's a dogsbody?

It's British slang for "a worker who has to do all the unpleasant or boring jobs that no one else wants to do."

May 2007



The worst airplane seat ever

Mon, 05/28/07 8:08 P GMT-08
When  I sat down in Seat 16G on my Hawaiian Airlines flight, I initially thought I was fortunate. I was in the front row of the coach section, so I had tons of leg room, just a wall in front of me. My second thought was that I would be among the
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Harper's Index on book sales

Tue, 05/15/07 9:02 P GMT-08
I found this incredibly interesting, but perhaps not for the obvious reason. From the latest Harper's Index:"Minimum number of different books sold in the U.S. last year, as tracked by Nielsen BookScan: 1,446,000."Number of these that s
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Tom Poston was a genius

Wed, 05/02/07 7:58 P GMT-08
When widely recognized television bit players die, newspapers usually print an obit. Most everybody recognizes the picture, if not the name.Tom Poston was a little different. He died this week, and the obits were a little longer than usual for someon