false <![CDATA[Shoplifting from American Apparel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1244502456m/6096464.jpg 6096464 1 Set mostly in Manhattan—although also featuring Atlantic City, Brooklyn, GMail Chat, and Gainsville, Florida—this autobiographical novella, spanning two years in the life of a young writer with a cultish following, has been described by the author as “A shoplifting book about vague relationships,” “2 parts shoplifting arrest, 5 parts vague relationship issues,” and “An ultimately life-affirming book about how the unidirectional nature of time renders everything beautiful and sad.” From VIP rooms in “hip” New York City clubs to central booking in Chinatown, from New York University’s Bobst Library to a bus in someone’s backyard in a college-town in Florida, from Bret Easton Ellis to Lorrie Moore, and from Moby to Ghost Mice, it explores class, culture, and the arts in all their American forms through the funny, journalistic, and existentially-minded narrative of someone trying to both “not be a bad person” and “find some kind of happiness or something,” while he is driven by his failures and successes at managing his art, morals, finances, relationships, loneliness, confusion, boredom, future, and depression. 6273557 book 15 9 2009 Shoplifting from American Apparel total:98|5:21|4:35|3:31|2:8|1:3| 98 357 239 18 3 2 false false Thu Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 18:13:15 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 04:44:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 12 false false Mon Oct 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 16:01:20 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 16:24:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Oct 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 16:09:37 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 16:12:45 -0700 2009 3 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 09:44:22 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 09:49:30 -0700 2009

Read the STOP SMILING Interview with Tao Lin:

Reading About Other People's Lives

Stop Smiling: You’ve said that your target demographic includes hipsters, happy but sensitive teenagers, depressed vegans, Europeans and college students. Does it strike you as odd when oth...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Sep 20 08:46:09 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 09:30:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 2 false false Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 10:16:23 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 10:23:04 -0700 2009
And for the first sixty pages of this little book, I was super pumped about it. "This is gre...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Oct 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 15:40:13 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 15:43:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Oct 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 01:45:31 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 09:12:13 -0700 2009 Maybe the book is the opposite of a one-liner. How it expresses meaninglessness is meaningful.
Also, does the ending refers to the ending in Raymond Carver's poem Shiftless, I wonder. I wrote dwonder. Th...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Oct 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 21:20:20 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 18:46:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Nov 09 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 09 13:14:47 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 09 13:15:30 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Nov 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 17:56:35 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 17:58:26 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat Oct 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Nov 13 09:14:57 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 13 09:15:57 -0800 2009
]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 17 10:53:52 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 10:54:41 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Aug 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 16:17:30 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 16:18:51 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Oct 26 12:34:27 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 12:34:37 -0700 2009 4 1 false false Mon Aug 31 19:34:16 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 19:34:33 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Tue Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 11:09:15 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 22 19:50:54 -0800 2009
"...I feel like something has changed, something is missing. I feel this is not what it used to be. I feel there is a difference. Go backwards..."

read the full review here:

http://rumble.sy2.com/stories/shopliftin...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Oct 07 15:59:57 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 18 20:40:40 -0800 2009 talking. text. in between. jail. ginseng.
tofu. health food. oscar wilde. stupid. ]]> 5 0 false false Mon Nov 23 07:28:28 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 23 07:28:28 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sun Nov 22 20:56:45 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 22 20:56:45 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=6096464