My interviewer was so earnest and enthusiastic and optimistic about her post-college future. When she pulled out a list of hand-written questions she had prepared I nearly died, and when she sheepishly asked me for a pen I wanted to hug her and put her in my hip pocket for safekeeping.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration, because I actually did die when I handed her the MN Reads pin that says “I finished Infinite Jest” and she asked what Infinite Jest was.

“What?” I screeched as my head fell right off my shoulders. I picked my head up from the floor of The Loft, which was quaking in disbelief, dusted it off and put it back in place. “David Foster Wallace?”
“I don’t know who he is,” she said.
“Oh my god,” I said, which I hope came off as ‘what are they teaching you’ and not ‘yer so dum.’ There are a crapton of books in the world and I hate when people screech at me for not reading something that have deemed important. It’s annoying. But at the same time, goddamnit, to never even hear of David Foster Wallace? “He wrote experimental fiction. He won the McArthur Genius Grant. . .”
She just shook her head at me.
“Wow.”
“I can’t wait to learn more about Infinite Jest after this interview,” she sparkled at me.
“Wow.”

Later Thursday, before class, I was relaying the tale of my interview to FFJ.

“She was just so cute and earnest and smart and hopeful,” I said.
“Like a bright shiny penny,” she said.
“Yes! I wish I was twenty again,” I said.

FFJ wrinkled her nose and sneered a little.

“Not really,” I said. “Being in my twenties sucked.
“You just want to be a shiny penny,” she said.
“Exactly!” I said. “I never had that. We never had that. In the 90s we were bitter and jaded from the start, worrying about selling out and if our flannel was genuine enough.”
FFJ nodded her head in agreement. “Damn the man, fight the system, riotgrrl.”
“But come on, David Foster Wallace?” I whined.
“He’s not a writer for her generation,” she said.
“But never hear of him. He died three years ago, wouldn’t she have heard of that?”
“She was probably seventeen when he died. She worried about the prom.”

Damn.

The post The bright, shiny penny & David Foster Wallace appeared first on I Will Dare.

Waking up this morning was not fun. About half a cup of coffee into the day, I hopped onto the Internet and went over to Christa’s place where I read this:

This deserves a post of its own because writing for Minnesota Reads is my favorite writing stunt that I do, and Minnesota Reads is my favorite site on the whole Internet. Confession: I click on it every day at exactly 10 a.m. when I know the latest post goes live. I’m a total Minnesota Reads psycho stalker.

My heart exploded. Seeing that one other person loved MN Reads as much as I did made my face hurt I was smiling so much.

Like Christa, of all the crap I do on the Internet (for my clients and for myself) Minnesota Reads brings me the greatest pleasure. Every minutes I spend working on that site is pure joy. Even when I’m doing some mundane task like updating the events calendar, I’m happy doing it.

I’m someone notorious for not responding to e-mail. Ask any of my friends and family. But if an MN Reads’ reviewer e-mails me, I’m like Jodi on the spot. Instant responses!

I don’t have more that I really wanted to add. Just to point out that having someone else as into the site as I am makes it about 38,211 more awesome.

The post Every minute is pure joy appeared first on I Will Dare.

Okay the more things change, the more they stay the same?

Anyway, it’s been a year and since the traditional gift for First Anniversaries is paper, we’re giving away Five of our favorite books by Minnesotans. You should go over there and enter the contest. You don’t even have to be from/in Minnesota to win, that’s how kind and generous we are.

The post It’s the paper anniversary appeared first on I Will Dare.

I like it when people want to pay writers. Writers should be paid for what they do. In my dream world where I ride to work on a rainbow-maned unicorn and come home to Ethan Canin cooking me dinner, I would pay the contributors to MN Reads scads of dollars. In the real world where I drive Ruby to work and come home to cats begging for dinner, I can’t.

Anyway, I said that I was lucky because oftentimes booknerds are happy to get free books. Hell, for me a free book is like money in my pocket (because instead of spending that money on the book I just got I keep it in my pocket). He said free CDs don’t often cut it.

Of course free CDs don’t cut it, because music doesn’t have the same sort of value that books do. Music has become something that is perceived to be worth very little actual money. Books, even with libraries around for 1000s of years, still seem to be worth something. You can’t download the latest book on the Internet. (Shut it with the Kindle, okay, it’s different and you know it).

Plus, being a booknerd is so much easier than being a musicgeek.

Musicgeeks, particularly the ones who cover the Twin Cities, are badass. They’re like the post office — neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night will keep them from covering their assigned show. Being a musicgeek involves wearing pants a lot and leaving the house. You have to deal with people and hipsters. I shudder to think.

Plus, the sheer volume of music and concerts is in and of itself daunting. As a musicgeek you have to know your stuff and always be at the top of your game. There are tons of other musicgeeks and musicgeek wannabes who want to show you up. To be a true musicgeek you have to know crap about producers and well a bunch of other stuff that I don’t know but hear about when someone geeks out.

Being a booknerd involves pajamas and oftentimes a blanket. If we don’t count the people in our head, we don’t have to deal with the annoying, unwashed, under-read masses too often. While the sheer number of books that we haven’t yet read can sometimes keep us up at night, we realize that there is just not enough time to read all the books. We accept that. Plus, our favorite writers put out a new book like every three or so years. It’s not hard to keep up.

And being shown up? Riiiighhtt. First of all, people are super impressed if you even remember the names of more than four books, and if you’ve read a book in the past month people think you’re brilliant. Plus, Booknerds are usually so excited to meet another of their species that we’ll even listen to a Sci-Fi geek yammer on and on.

See? Totally easier to be booknerd.

The post Why being a booknerd is so much easier than being a musicgeek appeared first on I Will Dare.

There are a lot of books and generally when people come over for the first time the conversation usually starts with books in some way.

This was no different with the TTHM who visited the HQ for the first time last night. Before he even had his coat off he was mumbling something about The Gargoyle and how he was waiting for his library to get it.

“Oh,” I said. “I loved it which means you’ll probably hate it.”
“But Christa liked it,” he said. “I love everything Christa reads.”

Then I punched him in the stomach. I don’t care if he is an old man, you don’t do that to me in my own home.

The post Defending my turf appeared first on I Will Dare.