Now in Papervision: The Future of Literature! Plus, I Skive Off Again

Just pointers to two things that I wrote, which are not unrelated. The first is a piece about the Hunger Games books, the first of which came out from Scholastic last fall. There was a lot of buzz about them, and I picked the first one up … and then put it down again. It [...]

John Granger, Dean of Harry Potter Scholars: The Nerd World Interview

John Granger writes rigorous but accessible literary criticism about Harry Potter. He’s written four books on the subject so far, most recently Harry Potter’s Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures, and he blogs at HogwartsProfessor.com. He is, basically, the scholar that I set out to become but never did. When I met John [...]

Legend of Neil, Etc.: A Housekeeping Post

OK, I totally need to do a new post, because the last one is growing comments in this weird, tumorous way that made me think it might become sentient shortly.

I Am on Day 5 Without a Cell Phone, and I Am James Bond

My phone broke the other day. And when I say it broke I mean I broke it. I had had a piece of good news, I went out and celebrated, I drank a lot. (Pro tip: if you are not James Bond, do not order a “vesper.”) Then I took a bath. My phone took [...]

I’m Back and I Want to Talk About Enigmo

Hey Lev Grossman, you’re a big rock star. You spend weeks on the road, cruising from juke joints to road houses to small independent bookstores, reading your work to literally dozens of listless, distracted fans. The pressure must be intense, man. How do you keep your head together?

Dead Screenwriters Quiz

Three important screenwriters died recently.  Which writer’s work will have the greatest impact on the future of movie-making?

Why I’m Not Posting This Week

I’m on vacation. Sort of — I’m touring to promote my book. I thought I might be able to keep up posting while I was on the road, but it doesn’t seem to be happening. Sorry about that. I’ll be back on Monday.

Friday Morning Non-Post: The Gentlemen Broncos Trailer

I blog this morning from Cambridge, Mass., where I am sitting in the living room of my parents’ apartment. Something about being here automatically regresses me to the emotional age of about 13. A time when there were no blogs.

Fun With Dopamine! Part 2

The Post About the Book

So anyway, I wrote a book called The Magicians. I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to post about it, because it seems weird to do it, and it seems weird to ignore it. But since the book is out this week, and I’m a whore for publicity, I figure I might as well [...]

Con Report: I Was a 40-year-old Worldcon Virgin

Worldcon is the World Science Fiction Convention. It happens every year. It has happened 67 times so far. This year it happened in a convention center in downtown Montreal. It’s a big event — 4,000 people or so. Not Comic-con big, but big. The convention center itself was huge, I must have walked its length [...]