Read Something

The novelist John Updike has died.  One of the most acclaimed writers of the past fifty years, Updike was celebrated for his novels set in suburbia, including the “Rabbit” tetralogy (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; and Rabbit at Rest).  He also wrote poetry, essays, and book reviews.

Here is an AP obituary; check back for more articles and appreciations.  This is a big deal.

UPDATES:

Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times offers an appraisal.

The New Yorker shares rememberances from several writers and an essay Updike once wrote about Ted Williams.

The Times of London has a nice obituary as well.

Students,

An assessment of an artist’s body of work is a nice thing to put in your critical journal.  Here is one man’s take on Billy Joel.  Note how the writer’s tone and diction reflect a seething anger that Joel even exists, much less that he writes and performs mediocre music.

Here is the Word file with Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance.”

emerson-self-reliance

Interestingly, our new President says this essay is a big influence.  See if you can figure out why.

Recently, Karl Rove wrote a column for The Wall Street Journal about the competition he and now-former President Bush held every year to see how many books they could read.

Today, New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani has an article about the books that have influenced Barack Obama.  Nice to see that he’s a fan of Moby Dick and Marilynne Robinson.

Here is the Thoreau piece you need to read by Tuesday:

“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”

Feel free to tweak the Word document however you like.  If you want to read more Thoreau, you can find more of him here.

And here is your Wendell Berry reading for Thursday:

Wendell Berry, “Life Is a Miracle” and “Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer”

If you like Wendell Berry, you can find more of him here.