Jim Nelson's Blog, page 25

What happened to Longform.org?

Way back in 2008, Michael Agger wrote for Slate about “How we read online”, a State-of-the-Union address on the dreadful shape of Web journalism. Agger’s piece enumerated all the accepted practices of online writing that had been pounded into place by the invisible fist of SEO Darwinism: short paragraphs, quick sentences, lots of boldface to anchor attention, and lots of bulleted lists to attract eyeballs. Add a dash of in-the-know sarcasm and a pinch of holier-than-thou smarm, bake until bub...

Up at The Tusk, “This Shit Ain’t Ever Going to Work”

The Tusk has posted a new piece of mine about the tortured history of my new novel Edward Teller Dreams of Barbecuing People. A sample:

And how could I forget my friend’s father returning home one afternoon from work, tie loose and hair splayed, bedraggled from wrestling some top-secret problem? Most likely not a problem scientific in nature, but bureaucratic. Thirteen years of age or so, a computer geek-in-training (largely because I wanted to grow up and write video games, unaware that a pre...

Announcing Edward Teller Dreams of Barbecuing People

It’s with a great deal of relief I announce the publication of my new novel, Edward Teller Dreams of Barbecuing People.

Yes, relief. I’ve worked on this book for over ten years taking it through six major revisions, including one of Melvillean proportions (the manuscript was too large for Microsoft Word, forcing me to split it into two files). What started as a throwaway line from an unrelated short story—”His father studied thermonuclear reactions. He could explain Nagasaki at the subatomic l...

Into the Wild and the Continued Fascination with Christopher McCandless’ Death

Twenty-four hours agoI learned that Carine McCandless is publishing a new book abouther brother Christopher, aka “Alexander Supertramp,” the young man who died in 1992 in Denali National Park after a drifter’s life across the Western United States, the young man who then became the subject of Jon Krakauer’s bestseller Into the Wild. You might say in those twenty-four hours I’ve invitedChris McCandless’story back into my life,and in the process revisited a slewof mixed feelings that developedi...

Twenty Writers: Haruki Murakami, Underground & Studs Terkel, Working

See my Introduction for more information about the “Twenty Writers, Twenty Books” project. The current list of reviews and essays may be found at the “Twenty Writers” home page.

On sale now! My short story collection

A Concordance of One’s Life and novella Everywhere Man

Haruki Murakami is the enviable writer who, in certain circles, has become a canon unto himself. Murakami is often compared to many different authors—Kafka, Carver, Brautigan—but the list is so diverse it’s difficult to pigeonh...

Twenty Writers: Haruki Murakami, “Underground” & Studs Terkel, “Working”

See my Introduction for more information about the “Twenty Writers, Twenty Books” project. The current list of reviews and essays may be found at the “Twenty Writers” home page.

On sale now! My short story collection

A Concordance of One’s Life and novella Everywhere Man

Haruki Murakami is the enviable writer who, in certain circles, has become a canon unto himself. Murakami is often compared to many different authors—Kafka, Carver, Brautigan—but the list is so diverse it’s difficult to pigeonh...

Twenty Writers: B. Traven, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

See my Introduction for more information about the “Twenty Writers, Twenty Books” project. The current list of reviews and essays may be found at the “Twenty Writers” home page.

On sale now! My first short story collection

A Concordance of One’s Life and novella Everywhere Man

My hunch is that “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” is more famous than its writer, the movie, even the novel itself. By that I mean the swashbuckling title has become a kind of meme evoking high adventure in the Sonoran d...

Twenty Writers: B. Traven, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”

See my Introduction for more information about the “Twenty Writers, Twenty Books” project. The current list of reviews and essays may be found atthe “Twenty Writers” homepage.

On sale now! My first short story collection

A Concordance of One’s Life and novella Everywhere Man

My hunchis that “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” is more famous than its writer, the movie, even the novel itself. By that Imean the swashbuckling title has becomea kind of meme evoking high adventure in the Sonoran desert...

Twenty Writers, Twenty Books

Please read my Introduction to the“Twenty Writers, Twenty Books” project.

Treat this as a table of contents for the “Twenty Writers, Twenty Books” project. I’ll update this page as new entries becomeavailable.

All “Twenty Writers” entries area part of my blog, but if you want to follow themseparately, they’re available at the project’stopic page (with an RSS feed available). My introduction explains the questionable sanity of starting this project.

The list so far:

B. Traven,The Treasure of the S...

Twenty Writers, Twenty Books: Introduction

See the “Twenty Writers” home page for the current list of “Twenty Writers, Twenty Books”

Every so often an Internet-age chain letter makesthe rounds on the social networks that asks the recipient to list their top tenbooks. Most people are game because it’s fun to make these lists. Sites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy have built media empires on list-making. David Letterman and “Top 10″ are synonymous. We like lists. They’re oddly cozy.

Generally my friends’ lists of books are a little of the fami...