Where I'm Reading From: The Changing World of Books

Why do we need fiction? Why do books need  to be printed on paper, copyrighted, read to the finish? Do we read to challenge our vision of  the world or to confirm it? Has novel writing turned into a job like any other? In Where I’m Reading From, the novelist and critic Tim Parks ranges over decades of critical reading—from Leopardi, Dickens, and Chekhov, to Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, and Thomas Bernhard, and on to contemporary work by Peter Stamm, Alice Munro, and many others—to upend our assumptions about literature and its purpose. In thirty-seven interlocking essays, Where I’m Reading From examines the rise of the “international” novel and the disappearance of “national” literary styles; how market forces shape “serious” fiction; the unintended effects of translation; the growing stasis of literary criticism; and the problematic relationship between writers’ lives and their work. Through dazzling close readings and probing self-examination, Parks wonders whether writers—and readers—can escape the twin pressures of the new global system and the novel that has become its emblematic genre.

Table of Contents:
Part I: The World Around the Book 1    1.  Do We Need Stories? 3    2.  Why Finish Books? 9    3.  E-books are for Grown-ups 15    4. Does Copyright Matter? 19    5.  The Dull New Global Novel 25    6.  Reading It Wrong 29    7.  Why Readers Disagree 35    8. Where I’m Reading From 41 Part II: The Book in the World 47    1.  What’s Wrong with the Nobel? 49    2.  A Game without Rules 55    3.  Most Favored Nations 61    4.  Writing Adrift in the World 67    5.  Art That Stays Home 73    6.  Writing without Style 81    7.  Literature and Bureaucracy 89    8.  In the Chloroformed Sanctuary 95    9. Writers into Saints 101 Part III: The Writer’s World 107    1. The Writer’s Job 109    2.  Writing to Win 117    3.  Does Money Make Us Write Better? 123    4.  Fear and Courage 129    5.  To Tell and Not to Tell 137    1.  Stupid Questions 143    2.  The Chattering Mind 149    3.  Trapped inside the Novel 155    4.  Changing Our Stories 161    5.  Writing to Death 167 Part IV: writing across worlds 173    1. ‘Are You the Tim Parks Who...?’ 175    2.  Ugly Americans Abroad 181    3. Your English Is Showing 189    4.  Learning to Speak American 195    5.  In Praise of the Language Police 201    6.  Translating in the Dark 207    7.  Listening for the Jabberwock 213    8.  In the Wilds of Leopardi 219    9.  Echoes from the Gloom 227    10.  My Novel, Their Culture 233

About the Author :
Tim Parks has written seventeen novels, including Europa, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and most recently, Painting Death. He is the author of several works of non-fiction, including Italian Neighbors and Italian Ways. Parks has also translated the works of Alberto Moravia, Giacomo Leopardi, and Niccolò Machiavelli, among others, and he is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. He lives in Italy.

Review :
"Parks...seeks to puncture readers’ complacent assumptions about books and publishing in 37 pithy, discerning, adept, witty, and mischievously impertinent inquiries...Parks offers a tart assessment of the Nobel Prize, an intriguing discussion of literary style and what is lost in translation, and provocative forays into the complexities and mysteries of writing and reading, from the influence of “fear and courage” to the conflict between idealism and the need to earn money too—in the autobiographical title essay—what has shaped his literary hunger, perceptions, and preferences. Parks’ bold and subtle, passionate and clever musings on the history and future of books will elicit both umbrage and delight." —Booklist Selected as one of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Spring 2015 Literary Biographies, Essays & Criticism titles. "In this lively collection of 37 essays, novelist and translator Parks, who is also one of the most eloquent and provocative critics, explores a range of topics in contemporary literature and publishing...As the character of the printed word and the nature of reading continue to change, Parks’s essays probe the positive and negative effects of these changes for our reading lives.” —Publishers Weekly "Why do books matter? British novelist, essayist, translator, and critic Parks considers the current state of writing and reading in short, contemplative literary musings...'Do We Need Stories?' 'Why Finish Books?' 'What's Wrong with the Nobel?' 'Does Money Make Us Write Better?' Readers vexed by such questions will welcome Parks' thoughtful responses."–Kirkus “Brilliantly skewers the pieties of the literary world.” —Lionel Shriver, Prospect Magazine “Quietly incendiary.”  —Tim Adams, The Observer “He asks why people want to become writers and his wry and well-evidenced answers are ones that Dr. Johnson would have perfectly well recognized.”  —John Mullan, The Guardian “If by its end you still feel writing is the career for you, then don’t say you were not warned.” —Alan Taylor, Herald Scotland