What do you think?
Rate this book
The Believer #116
The Believer 116 December 2017 / January 2018: December/January
Susana Ferreira examines the evangelical war on Vodou
Grace Simonoff Dunham self-administers a Kinsey test
Jennifer Kabat on the horse tails, hooves, and happenings of British performance artist Rose English
Rob Curran on the final, fateful expedition of Scottish botanist Jamie Taggart
Peter Orner contemplates Levi's god question, Akhmatova's most mysterious line, and other literary concerns
Daniel Handler discusses a very long Norwegian play from 1903 and Nick Hornby reads a cowboy novel next to a pool
Plus interviews with John Cale, Bear Grylls, Lynne Tillman, and Pope.L
And a beginner's guide to medieval demonsThe Believer, a five-time National Magazine Award finalist, is a bimonthly literature, arts, and culture magazine. In each issue, readers will find journalism and essays that are frequently very long, book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and interviews that are intimate, frank, and also very long. There are intricate illustrations by Tony Millionaire and a rotating cast of guest artists, poems, and regular columns by Nick Hornby and Daniel Handler.
Grace Simonoff Dunham self-administers a Kinsey test
Jennifer Kabat on the horse tails, hooves, and happenings of British performance artist Rose English
Rob Curran on the final, fateful expedition of Scottish botanist Jamie Taggart
Peter Orner contemplates Levi's god question, Akhmatova's most mysterious line, and other literary concerns
Daniel Handler discusses a very long Norwegian play from 1903 and Nick Hornby reads a cowboy novel next to a pool
Plus interviews with John Cale, Bear Grylls, Lynne Tillman, and Pope.L
And a beginner's guide to medieval demonsThe Believer, a five-time National Magazine Award finalist, is a bimonthly literature, arts, and culture magazine. In each issue, readers will find journalism and essays that are frequently very long, book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and interviews that are intimate, frank, and also very long. There are intricate illustrations by Tony Millionaire and a rotating cast of guest artists, poems, and regular columns by Nick Hornby and Daniel Handler.
88 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 2015
About the author
The Believer
36 books23 followersThe Believer is a United States literary magazine that also covers other arts and general culture. Founded and designed in 2003 by the writer and publisher Dave Eggers, it is edited by Vendela Vida, Heidi Julavits and Ed Park. It is published in San Francisco nine times a year.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 16, 2020
The notes below are really for me. They are personal, but not necessarily private.
---
There are certain books that stand out because you read them at exactly the right time and there are books (or magazine issues) that stand out because you were reading them at a memorable moment.
I recall finishing The Wonder Boys on a morning commute to my nonprofit job in New York City. I paused outside the station to finish the last few pages, then went inside to discover, along with the rest of the world, that an airplane hit one of the World Trade Center towers. This however, is not about Michael Chabon's incredible novel or the rest of those events.
Due to a move to another city, May 1st was the long-planned departure from my job. Yes, departing a job in the midst of a pandemic was foolhardy, but I intended to take some time as a "sabbatical" to work on a few projects and get to know my new community. Most of the original plans (trips, classes, and such) were scrapped by that point, but I still intended to do what I could to ease into the next thing.
On May 7th, thanks in part to my kind spouse, I planned to take a leisurely morning and make a little progress on my backlog of Believer issues. I had finally crossed into the first few issues after the production reins switched from McSweeney's to The Black Mountain Institute.
I was on page 77 of the magazine, in the middle of the John Cale interview, when my wife handed me her phone. (My phone was in silent-mode in a distant room.) My brother said that my dad had passed away.
The rest of the day was spent figuring out the quickest and safest way to travel during a pandemic, so I could arrive that night to help my mother. I dropped this issue on top of my bedside table, where it stayed for the 8 following weeks while I was out of town. Truth be told, my normal reading habits dropped to nearly nothing in those 8 weeks. On the flights and in the airports, I decided to leave everything, including books, inside my bag. One night I read a short stack of old kids books, but it was a month before I found the right book and some time to read.
When I returned home, it took me nearly two weeks until I was ready to return to the issue to finish the Cale interview and finish the issue. Truth be told, there was part of me that was a little hesitant and nervous. I finished the issue to prove that it was not a dark talisman.
I have been understandably a bit out of sorts with the move, pandemic, job change, and loss of a parent. I'm not the only one who is searching for stable ground. The Believer's 116th issue may not be a harbinger or dark talisman, but the last thing on the issue that I read was the spine. Every issue of The Believer (since the third issue) has a word phrase, motto, or descriptor on the spine. This time I read:
---
One of the pieces in this issue was about the Amazon 5-star rating system, the incongruity of using the same rating system for cat furniture and for art, and how the rating system drives the algorithm to determine what to consume next...even when you have not finished using the current thing.
I flag this because of how I use GoodReads to track what I am reading and what I want to read, including a rating for the book.
How exactly do you rate what you were reading when you found out your father died? GoodReads says:
1 star - did not like it
2 stars - it was ok
3 stars - liked it
4 stars - really liked it
5 stars - it was amazing
I did not really like this experience, but it will be ok and was not related to the works found inside these pages. I would have probably rated the issue with 4-stars, but this one serves as a personal marker, so that somehow translates to 5 stars.
---
There are certain books that stand out because you read them at exactly the right time and there are books (or magazine issues) that stand out because you were reading them at a memorable moment.
I recall finishing The Wonder Boys on a morning commute to my nonprofit job in New York City. I paused outside the station to finish the last few pages, then went inside to discover, along with the rest of the world, that an airplane hit one of the World Trade Center towers. This however, is not about Michael Chabon's incredible novel or the rest of those events.
Due to a move to another city, May 1st was the long-planned departure from my job. Yes, departing a job in the midst of a pandemic was foolhardy, but I intended to take some time as a "sabbatical" to work on a few projects and get to know my new community. Most of the original plans (trips, classes, and such) were scrapped by that point, but I still intended to do what I could to ease into the next thing.
On May 7th, thanks in part to my kind spouse, I planned to take a leisurely morning and make a little progress on my backlog of Believer issues. I had finally crossed into the first few issues after the production reins switched from McSweeney's to The Black Mountain Institute.
I was on page 77 of the magazine, in the middle of the John Cale interview, when my wife handed me her phone. (My phone was in silent-mode in a distant room.) My brother said that my dad had passed away.
The rest of the day was spent figuring out the quickest and safest way to travel during a pandemic, so I could arrive that night to help my mother. I dropped this issue on top of my bedside table, where it stayed for the 8 following weeks while I was out of town. Truth be told, my normal reading habits dropped to nearly nothing in those 8 weeks. On the flights and in the airports, I decided to leave everything, including books, inside my bag. One night I read a short stack of old kids books, but it was a month before I found the right book and some time to read.
When I returned home, it took me nearly two weeks until I was ready to return to the issue to finish the Cale interview and finish the issue. Truth be told, there was part of me that was a little hesitant and nervous. I finished the issue to prove that it was not a dark talisman.
I have been understandably a bit out of sorts with the move, pandemic, job change, and loss of a parent. I'm not the only one who is searching for stable ground. The Believer's 116th issue may not be a harbinger or dark talisman, but the last thing on the issue that I read was the spine. Every issue of The Believer (since the third issue) has a word phrase, motto, or descriptor on the spine. This time I read:
ONE-HUNDRED SIXTEENTH ISSUE: WHERE TO START
---
One of the pieces in this issue was about the Amazon 5-star rating system, the incongruity of using the same rating system for cat furniture and for art, and how the rating system drives the algorithm to determine what to consume next...even when you have not finished using the current thing.
I flag this because of how I use GoodReads to track what I am reading and what I want to read, including a rating for the book.
How exactly do you rate what you were reading when you found out your father died? GoodReads says:
1 star - did not like it
2 stars - it was ok
3 stars - liked it
4 stars - really liked it
5 stars - it was amazing
I did not really like this experience, but it will be ok and was not related to the works found inside these pages. I would have probably rated the issue with 4-stars, but this one serves as a personal marker, so that somehow translates to 5 stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review