It has become fashionable in the last few months for writers and literary commentators to talk back when anyone brings up the now infamous National Endowment of the Arts study claiming that the death of “literary reading” is imminent. According to the NEA study, readers of all ages are succumbing to the lure of the Internet, video games, high-definition TVs, and ever-newer gadgets in such large numbers that the entire publishing industry is in danger of being snuffed out. Bookmark Now, a 2005 collection of twenty-four essays from young writers compiled by Kevin Smokler, makes a strong case that the NEA study is stridently misleading.

Smokler has divided this optimistic set of essays into four sections, sections that explore different aspects of the writing experience from the early days of a writing career right through to what writers can expect in the future. In the first section, labeled “Beginnings,” five young writers recall how it was that they turned into writers, something that seems almost accidental for some of them. They may have gotten there in different ways but what they all have in common is that they were avid readers long before they tried their own hand at the craft. My favorite essay from this section is Pamela Ribon’s “Look the Part” in which she discusses everything from those sometimes awful author photos that grace the backs of books to how she only became a “real” writer when she lost funding for her online blog.

The second section, “The Writing Life,” includes seven essays discussing the everyday lives of those for whom writing has become the job that puts food on the table. Dan Kennedy discusses a bad case of writer’s block, something he professes not to believe in, that he got between his first and second books in “Welcome, Grab a Broom.” There are pieces on writer collaboration, including one from Kelley Eskridge and Nicola Griffith, a lesbian couple who trust in each other’s judgment to such an extent that sounding each other out has become an integral part of the writing process for both of them. And the section includes one of my favorites, Glen David Gold’s “Your Own Personal Satan” in which he humorously details his addiction to looking up his own name in Google over and over again.

Section three, “The Now,” is of particular interest because it covers many of the challenges that face both new and established writers today. Of all the essays in this section, it is Tom Bissell who comes down hardest on non-readers in his contribution, “Distractions,” in which he says: “Talk to people who do not read for pleasure. Really talk to them. Notice the panic in their eyes as you steer the conservation to anything related to the larger world; note the anger with which they respond to anything that requires them to step outside themselves. Most nonreaders are nothing but an agglomeration of third-hand opinion and blindly received wisdom.” This section also includes the touching Paul Collins essay, another of my favorites, in which he compares reading 121 years worth of the British “Notes and Queries” magazine to “spending a year in another country, one where I spoke the language but did not know the first thing about its culture.”

The three essays, particularly the piece by Douglas Rushkoff, in the books fourth section, “The Future,” should help calm the frazzled nerves of writers and publishers alike. Rushkoff points out, for instance, that “…the Internet has been nothing but great for my own writing career, and those of just about every other writer that I know. Even better the Internet serves to disseminate our ideas – which is the real reason anyone worth his or her pulp should be writing in the first place.” He points out the obvious: name recognition sells books and name recognition is a product of having people discuss an author’s ideas and writing. If it takes giving away electronic copies of his work in order to build name recognition, Rushkoff is all for it.

Not all of the essays in Bookmark Now worked for me, but those that did were filled with opinions and facts that make me feel better about the long-term future of books as we know them today. Book lovers will find this one worth their time.

Rated at: 3.5 ( )

I picked up a copy of Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times recently because I saw that it contained a piece by Paul Collins; I was pleased to find that its other contents were also worth reading. Editor Kevin Smokler has collected a series of essays by young writers on the topics of writing, reading and books, partly in response to the 2004 NEA report "Reading at Risk." Smokler and most of the authors here argue that the state of American literature is much stronger - if in different ways - than the "Reading at Risk" report indicated. Smokler writes in the introduction "This is an amazing time for books. If reading and literature are in crisis, it certainly isn't one of apathy but one of seismic rumblings of change that will have a profound effect on the future."

The vast majority of the essays here were both fun to read and thought-provoking. I enjoyed and chuckled repeatedly at Pamela Ribbon's musings on author photos, and found Michelle Richmond's critique of the MFA culture utterly disturbing. Glen David Gold's essay on Googling oneself and Robert Lanham's tutorial on how to break into the McSweeney's mindset are recommended, and I empathized entirely with Tracy Chevalier's inability to come up with a literary Top Ten list (ask me my favorite book, watch my head explode). Douglas Rushkoff's thoughts on the safe future of the book are important and spot-on.

But Paul Collins' essay was, as expected, my favorite. In "121 Years of Solitude," Collins discusses his discovery of Notes and Queries, the great Victorian periodical of questions and answers. Bookmark Now is worth buying just for this, in which Collins reads 120 years worth of the journal, making discoveries and finding reassurance in the marginalia of a previous reader. Incidentally, many early editions of N&Q are available online (here, or here). I can attest to the fact that they make fascinating reading, but after reading Collins' thoughts I think I'll read them differently.

If the writers who contributed to this book continue to write, American letters are in good hands. Literature will change with the times, but it always has done, and reading's still going strong.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2007/10/book-review-bookmark-now.html ( )

Watch Bethanne Patrick interview Kevin Smokler on The Book Studio.