The Reading Life: The Collected Columns

By Peter Bollen

Book Overview

Collected columns & Reviews. Interesting exclusive interviews with noted authors.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1663247749
• ISBN13: 9781663247742
• Release Date: December 2022
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Author interviews, humorous account of writers and much more about "The Writing Life."

A savvy book lover once proclaimed: "Televisions are furniture, but books are life." And Bridgton book lover Peter Bollen knows that better than anyone. Bollen is an award-winning editor, juournalist essayist, reviewer, book collector (more than 700 volumes), author of eight books and writer of the bi-weekly review column "The Reading Life: in the Bridgton News. This book is a collection of 84 previously published columns from 2015 to 2020, featuring selected reviews, author interviews and commentaries on writers - their foibles, feuds and unique places in literature and journalism. The pieces are all short, each just a few pages, but they are colorful, poignant and funny, revealing Bollen to be a skilled writer and interviewer, and a true lover of books and the people who write them. One column discusses the "lost" works of famous writers like Harper Lee, Ayn Rand, J.D. Salinger and Dr. Seuss, and how the "lost" works came to light. "Political Suicide" is a review of a book by Erin McHugh (2016) which skewers politicians for their misdeeds and scandals, proving that "Stupid never sleeps." Bollen enjoys exposing famous author feuds, too ("the worst critics of writers are fellow writers"), such as the very public spats between Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal, Mary McCarthy and Lillian Hellman, and William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. Juicy stuff. Bollen has also been lucky enough to interview many well-known authors: Gerry Boyle, Robert B. Parker, Carolyn Chute and Chris Holm, among others. He also includes excerpts from other interviews, revealing tidbits like E.B. White's desire to start each writing day with "a nice dry martini," and Stephen King's wish that humorist Dave Barry write King's biography. Learn about the Hoax Master and which U.S. president thought he would make a good pope. This is fascinating fun. - Bill Bushnell, Book Reviewer for the Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel Er