Rick Gekoski’s idea of bliss involves reading a book a day. He’s a Man Booker judge for 2005. And with 130 titles to read in five or six months, the real question here is how much is too much. And is Gekoski the intelligensia’s answer to Harriet Klausner? (via Bookninja)
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell: This marvelous collection of essays chronicles everything from film shoots to novelists rescued from oblivion. (The essay on the Underground Literary Alliance, with its portrait of raucous factions, unexpectedly reveals how soft today's literary world has become.) But if you peer between the cracks of these smart pieces, you may very well see how cultural lives are formed from the most unexpected life choices. And as we follow Bissell's development as a writer over the years, that goes for Bissell as well. (Bat Segundo interview with Bissell)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: Harkaway's latest novel greatly improves on his previous book, The Gone-Away World, which I'm already on record as praising. Angelmaker adopts genre elements without ever feeling like a genre book, and it leads me to believe that Harkaway is well on his way to a narrative grace close to China Miéville's. Yet inexplicably this very fun book, which includes an eightysomething badass named Edie Banister, a mysterious mechanical object that may destroy the world, farcical scenarios involving lawyers and the police, and some unexpectedly moving moments about fatherhood, doesn't appear to be getting much attention in American newspapers. Nothing from the snobs at The New York Times Book Review, nothing from The Washington Post. And since I can't get Harkaway on Bat Segundo, I hope this Jump Up and Down mention gets you hopping as well.
The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel: Unless you're really pressed for time, forget Jonah Lehrer. If you want to understand creativity and its relationship to neuroscience, then the bowtie-wearing Nobel laureate is your man. In addition to being a physically beautiful book (you will drool over many of the paintings), there are helpful overviews on optical illusions, science, biographical backgrounds, and many vital figures from the Vienna Secession. Kandel's enthusiasm (and his call for greater unity between the humanities and science) is contagious. 
I’ve actually set myself the task of reading a book a day this year in the hopes of enriching my life as a novelist. Since I was 10 – 32 years ago – I’ve averaged 100-250 books a year, but I opted this year for the book-a-day approach, because I do think it will help me better define what kind of novelist I want to be. So far in 2005, I’ve read 98 books. OK, it’s official: I’m a geek!
Lauren: 98 books! Wow! That’s exceptionally admirable. I average around 90-130 books a year, a good deal of them dense, ambitious and literary. But while I probably couldn’t live without books, the idea of devoting my entire life to literature, without so much as a nice bicycle ride on a partially clouded day or a good meal or a fantastic show or some strange new experience (like learning how to construct a homemade snare drum or something), would probably also stop me in my tracks. It’s all about balance.
Ed, I am crappy at maintaining balance, which is why I am no good on a bike. I actually only plan on keeping this up for the one year. Then I’ll go back to, er, normal.
Courage, dear Lauren. Courage. You have it in you to find the balance that works for you.
That’s enCOURAGEing! But, you know, me being me, balance will probably never happen. Anyway, I’d asked on someone else’s blog yesterday if the “brownie” is named for the Brown University study that exposed what some of us have long suspected without actually counting the numbers: that the NYTBR skews to the testes. Regardless, you certainly are championing a subject close to my heart. Just yesterday I was saying I’d like to organize a Million Chick March on the NYTBR’s editorial offices.