Some thoughts about Billy the Kid...

- Who is the narrator of this book?

- My copy had blank photographs in it. I had the knee jerk response to an experimental form, "is this a typo?" What were the blank photographs, or whatever they were, about?

- Ondaatje started his career writing very nonlinear texts like Billy but slowly his works came to have more straight forward narratives. Are artists by nature more daring at the beginning of their careers?

- It feels to me that Billy the Kid has lost some of his mystique since the 19th century. Does the American West have the same appeal as it used to, or have we deconstructed it beyond "repair"? Do we have any contemporary figures that youth simultaneously look up to or are afraid of in equal measure?

- Can you define "cowboy psychedelia"?

Come discuss The Collected Works of Billy the Kid Saturday May 15th at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink.

Our next book is The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient comes a visionary novel, a virtuoso synthesis of storytelling, history, and myth, about William Bonney, a.k.a. "Billy the Kid, " a bloodthirsty ogre and outlaw saint.

A major gear shift after Infinite Jest, Ondaatje's volume combines photography, historical documents and poetry.

Come discuss The Collected Works of Billy the Kid Saturday May 15th at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink.

Some more thoughts about Infinite Jest...

- Does this book have a protagonist?

- One theme is the idea that people have to bottom out before they can change: drug addicts destroy their lives, tennis students eliminate their personalities. References to self annihilation occur often, especially via destruction of the head-brain-mind: the infinite jest mind wipe, reference to people being "unmapped," and James Incandenza's microwave suicide. What is this about?

- Marathe says Americans would gladly kill themselves for the "entertainment," aka Infinite Jest V or VI. Is this true? Are Americans more puerile than other people?

- Were Avril, John Wayne, Gately and Hal part of a Quebecois conspiracy?

D.F. Wallace's papers were recently acquired by University of Texas at Austin. Go here to check out handwritten manuscripts and pages from Wallace's personal dog-eared dictionary.

Wallace did a stint in a substance abuse recovery house not unlike Ennet House. This anonymous resident's account of his experience there has been attributed toWallace.

Come discuss the second half of Infinite Jest Saturday March 20th at the Main Library in the 3rd Floor Program Room at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink.

A new space for the Experimental Literature Book Club

Starting March 20th the Experimental Literature Book Club will meet in the 3rd Floor Program Room. This is the space which used to house the Interlibrary Loan office, behind the nonfiction service desk on the third floor. This is a permanent change.

It is an asymmetrical space for an asymmetrical book club... sort of. This gives book clubs at NPL a permanent place to meet and frees up the conference rooms for rental.

Our next book is... the same book: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

As we barrel down the highway of elite tennis academies and Boston AA meetings (are they different from other cities'?) I have to wonder how it will all end. If it will end... Infinite Jest get it. Will Hal and Don ever be together? Find out during the stunning conclusion of Infinite Jest, or at least our discussion thereof.

Come discuss the second half of Infinite Jest Saturday March 20th at the Main Library in Conference Rm 3 at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink.

Some thoughts about the first half of Infinite Jest

- There was massive hype around this book before it was even published. Wallace's suicide only added to the book's mythology. Did this effect your approach to the text?

- What are the long passages of intricate detail all about? Pages and pages about tennis drills, calculus war games, and AA meetings: what is there function?

- If Hal and Don are the protagonists, are there any parallels between the two of them?

- Does AA work? If you think it does, why do you think it does? In a related matter, what makes a good tennis player?

Come discuss the first half of this book (around pg. 490) Saturday January 16th at the Main Library in Conference Rm 3 at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink.

Our Next Book is Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. The world was shocked by author's death in 2008, come discuss the first half of his masterwork. We discuss the second half in March.

We want some entertainment value! I'm about to file for entertainment bankruptcy!

Come discuss this book Saturday January 16th at the Main Library in Conference Rm 3 at 11am. Feel free to bring food and drink.