Bookends audiobook

Before reviewing Bookends, I should point out two things about myself:1. I’m an unabashed fan of Michael Chabon’s essays and nonfiction writing. As much as I loved Kavalier & Clay and Wonderboys, I have to admit that I might have enjoyed Manhood for Amateurs and Pops even more. I enjoy his observations about the world and his skillful writing lets him express those observations in a way that sucks me in.2. If there’s one thing I like more than reading my favorite authors, it’s reading my favorite authors write about their favorite authors.Bookends might as well be tailor made for me. It collects a number of forewords and afterwords that Chabon has written for any number of books, comic books, and anthologies throughout his career. To the surprise of no one, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Most of the entries are short, but Chabon’s passion for the subject he’s writing about never fails to come through. It helps that a lot of my reading interests line up with the author’s, so reading his musings on superhero fashion, Norse mythology, Ray Bradbury, or Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg were amusing and, at times, touching.I’m giving this 4 stars because it suffers from the same ailment that plagues any collection or anthology, especially one that collects works from different stages of a writer’s career. It’s hard to have a consistent through line when the topics of each piece can vary from 19th century English horror to an Oakland restaurant across the span of a few pages. You get a sense of Chabon from what he chooses to write about and how he writes about those things, but your enjoyment of any given piece is bound to be up and down depending on your own relationship (or lack thereof) with what’s being introduced. I’d recommend any fan of Chabon to check out this collection. It’s short and the topics are varied. If nothing else, I came out with a lot of new things to add to my TBR list. This one probably isn’t a good place to start for those who don’t have prior experience with Chabon, so I’d check out some of his best fiction before reading this one.

His love for the English language is contagious.

If I knew, I had forgotten, that Kavalier and Clay were real people. More importantly, one of them drank Dr pepper and o.j. So close... so close.

What an odd little book.It is, as the cover will inform you, simply a collection of forewords, introductions, and afterwords written by the author. There's no theme, no overarching narrative or cohesion, other than this:Here are books that Michael Chabon likes, and he's going to tell you precisely why.Forearmed is forewarned, and so I ventured in expecting it to be what it was. Which is, honestly, both irredeemably choppy and also rather lovely. It's time with a charming, garrulous, literary acquaintance, halfway through his third scotch at the height of a party, and he's discovered this book he simply LOVES, and there is not a force in this universe that's going to prevent him from telling you about it. Then do that a dozen times in a row. That's the book.What it ultimately does is give a sense of Chabon himself, which...particularly when he waxed eloquent about his childhood discovery of Ray Bradbury's R is for Rocket...struck a deep harmony in my own bookish evolution.It's a series of introductions, in every sense of the word. So take that as you will.

He's got a lovely turn of phrase, and I got some useful book recommendations from it, but I prefer his fiction.

This was better than expected- It was interesting to read all the intros to these books without the context of the book itself. However I quite liked it. It was cool to read about loads of different topics in one short book.

Michael Chabon's prose leaves me breathless. Whether he's writing fiction or nonfiction, all of his language makes me weak at the knees. I would read a beautiful passage, shake my head and be compelled to stop, pace a bit while I savor the words before resuming.BOOKENDS of course is no different except on completion my reading list exploded.At an interview here in Seattle, Michael Chabon talked about one of his favorite books, W. G. Sebald's RINGS OF SATURN. which I promptly read and was blown away. What a dreamy, fascinating story!Then when he was on tour in support of POPS he mentioned that he repeatedly returned to THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT by Walter Tevis for the sheer brilliance of that author's prose, narrative and character development. I immediately read that as well with the same result. Both are extraordinary books and consequently, I will read anything Chabon suggests!Each essay in BOOKENDS is wonderful in it's own way and all of them delight. In the 'Outros' section, MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH is a more personal story where he explores his evolution of becoming a writer, his influences and the novels that inspired him to write (more TBR's!). It is delicious!In 'Intros' Superheros you learn about their evolution and how impossible it is to replicate the costumes of superheros no matter how many comicons you attend. In another essay he explores the films of Wes Anderson and how they just might be a reflection of our own broken society.These brilliant and erudite essays will make you hunger for the books he mentions. You'll find yourself wanting to read them.Do.But read Chabon most of all.Thank you HarperCollins for the ARE.

Are Chabon completionists even a thing? I thought it was just me. Is this another one of those moments where I discover the things I thought made me special are absolutely quotidian? That it's not just me who likes Gentlemen Take Polaroids?

Eclectic, but took a shot having liked Clay and Cavalier - "That is the great advantage, of course, that reading holds over what we call "real life." Adventure is a dish that is best eaten takeout, in the comfort of one's own home. As you begin your meal, as you set off with Frans Bengtsson and Red Orm and the restless spirit of my aunt, I salute you, and bid you farewell, and even though I have just finished reading the book for the fourth time, I envy you the pleasure you are about to find in the pages of The Long Ships. When you arrive at its bittersweet, but mostly sweet, conclusion, I trust that you will turn to your shipmate, your companion in adventure, and swear by ancient oaths, as I hereby swear to you: It is really good.""All nine-year-olds are sophists and hypocrites; I found it no more difficult than any other kid to withhold my own conduct from consideration in passing measured judgement on the human race.""Every day, Oakland makes and breaks the American promise, a promise so central to the idea of America that we carry it around everywhere we go, in our wallets, jingling in our pockets. I mean, of course, e pluribus unum: out of all the scattered sparks, one shining light. It's a utopian promise, and like all utopian promises, liable to breakage. But even if that promise can never truly be redeemed, it can be - it must be - endlessly renewed. And it's the work that we put in, day after day, toward renewing the promise, and not the promise's fulfillment, that really matters.""The point of the journey, to the everyday wanderer, is the feeling one gets on crossing a threshold of one of those magical places along the way, built on the borderline between here and there, where the stories and the homelands and the crooked routes of history come together in a slice of sweet potato pie.""To come into consciousness of the world as a site of perpetually vanishing glory - of promise squandered, paradise spoiled, utopia unachieved - is and has always been the inheritance of every American, as the famous closing paragraphs of The Great Gatsby make clear.""I had an editor and an agent, and they generously gave me their notes and support and intelligent suggestions, but I didn't have anyone leaning on me, the way a good workshop leans on you, steadily, consistently, even daily, so that ultimately leaning becomes indistinguishable from holding you upright."

There is something enveloping about Michael Chabon's writing. His essays on parenting and fatherhood (Manhood for Amateurs and Pops) have had a clear line to my parenting and ability to see the beauty in the work. His essays on writing (Maps and Legends) illustrate how I feel about writing and reading so perfectly. Bookends is no exception, a collection of intros and outros to books by others and himself had me laughing and crying over the beauty of the written word. He writes eloquently about topics I'm not entirely interested in (Norse mythology, comics, baseball) in such compelling ways I begin to care and appreciate his perspective and insight. The insight that expands beyond the topic and casts it shadow on my life and perspectives.

Purchase Bookends here for just $10! What a joy Bookends was to read. This is a collection of thoughtful forwards and afterwords Chabon has written for other books, including a couple of his own books. And I’m sure just like me that after reading about them here, you will be persuaded to read several of these books for yourself.Alicia - The Book Grocer

At first blush, reading the first couple of dozen pages of this book, I was disappointed. It seemed to be rambling musings. But as I went along, I realized it has one big possibility. It was Chabon's rambling musings about books (and later music) he loved. Like most bibliophiles, I take serious readers' opinions of great books as a notice. If they say something that resonates, that book goes into my "to be read" list. Such was the case here, where it yielded 4 books from the first reading. I read it only for that purpose and that made it a better read for me.

"Prose stylist". Okay, that works. I just like everything Chabon writes, even if I don't get all the references. Maybe when I do some more reading, I'll come back and add the 5th star. The familiar stuff and all of the reflections on his own work and process were spot on; his passion for the language is infectious. A lot of authors make you want to read more of their work. I also want to read more of what he's reading.

Sweet musings and divergent thoughts organized into one book; these are various essays written for books as introductions or commentary. Readers learn wonderful bits and pieces about author Michael Chabon that may or may not be true, much like his work. Regardless, this is an author that can spin words and concepts like fine filigree on a metal chain. Everything leaves the reader just a tad breathless wishing for more. I received y copy from the publisher through edelweiss.

An enjoyable mix of essays by Chabon. Definitely not his most essential work, but I forever love reading him and am always glad to hear his reflections on literature. The essays about his own work were the most interesting to me, but I also picked up at least one suggestion of a book I'm now eager to read.

Super fun collection of intro & Outros & other ephemera. A very fun read--quick and clever.