Table-talk of Parkus Grammaticus for February 8

I. Over at Powell's, I give the thumbs-up to some of my favorite fiction, nonfiction, and poetry of 2007. But one of the most significant bookish things for me last year was actually going to Powell's in Portland.

II. Like Murakami, I want to buy a house on Kauai.

III. If you're a poet, try your hand at prose...

IV. At Moistworks:

It's hard to like the Kinks because of Wes Anderson. No. I said it wrong. What I mean is that these days it's hard to make sense of exactly how much I like the glory period of the early career of the Kinks, in part because the cultural overtones of those songs have become highly specific as a result of their inclusion in a number of mostly excellent Wes Anderson films. Everyone knows what I mean, right? This is just an introductory paragraph and I don't want it to get too clotted....

V. I had a nice time reading from Personal Days at the Brooklyn Public Library last night — I am very sorry for people who made the trek, only to be denied entrance! There is a nice write-up over at Galleycat.

Messrs. Shteyngart and Winkler were brilliantly funny, and David Rees/Amy Sedaris, I think, could have gone on for hours—very entertaining!

VI. Over at Paper Cuts, Dave Itzkoff on PKD's YA novel, Nick and the Glimmung. Here's the opening:

Nick knew exactly why his family intended to leave Earth and go to another planet, a colony world, and settle there. It had to do with him and his cat, Horace. Owning animals of any kind had, since the year 1992, become illegal. Horace, in fact, was illegal, whether anyone owned him or not....

(Via Educating Alice)