
The End of Oulipo?

The End of Oulipo? My book (co-authored with Lauren Elkin), published by Zero Books. Available everywhere. Order it from Amazon, or find it in bookstores nationwide. The End of Oulipo

Lady Chatterley’s Brother

Lady Chatterley's Brother. The first ebook in the new TQC Long Essays series, Lady Chatterley's Brothercalled “an exciting new project” by Chad Post of Open Letter and Three Percent. Why can't Nicholson Baker write about sex? And why can Javier Marias? We investigate why porn is a dead end, and why seduction paves the way for the sex writing of the future. Read an excerpt.

Available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and direct from this site:


Translate This Book!

Ever wonder what English is missing? Called "a fascinating Life Perecread" by The New Yorker, Translate This Book! brings together over 40 of the top translators, publishers, and authors to tell us what books need to be published in English. Get it on Kindle.

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Fall Read: The Tunnel by William H. Gass

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Naked Singularity

Summer Read: A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava

Fans of Gaddis, Pynchon, DeLillo: A group read of the book that went from Xlibris to the University of Chicago Press. Info here. Buy the book here and support this site.

Life Perec

Life A User's Manual by Georges Perec

Starting March 2011, read the greatest novel from an experimental master. Info here. Buy the book here and support this site.

Last Samurai

Fall Read: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt

A group read of one of the '00s most-lauded postmodern novels. Info here. Buy the book here and support this site.

Tale of Genji

The Summer of Genji

Two great online lit magazines team up to read a mammoth court drama, the world's first novel.

Your Face Tomorrow

Your Face This Spring

A 3-month read of Javier Marias' mammoth book Your Face Tomorrow

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Ten Memorable Quotes from William Gaddis’ Letters

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Here are ten of my favorite moments from these hugely interesting letters.


Interviews from Conversational Reading

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See this page for interviews with leading authors, translators, publishers, and more.


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  • The Country Road by Regina Ullmann March 15, 2015
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  • The Fall of Language in the Age of English by Minae Mizumura March 14, 2015
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On “Quitting Amazon”

Over the past few weeks I’ve been “quitting Amazon,” not so much because I think they’re evil, etc, but just because their recent moves have been so incredibly stupid and tone-deaf that’s it’s hard not to react in some way. I already buy most of my books through local stores, so this has been more a matter of going directly to the manufacturer websites of non-book products Amazon sells. I’ve even found that it’s quite easy and helpful to use Amazon to “showroom” items; i.e., to tap into all of the rich base of knowledge and customer reviews available on that site, and then buy my product elsewhere.

The links on this site go to Amazon, and this will remain so. They’re really the only place that makes affiliate links worthwhile for a meager blogger such as myself, and I don’t want to waste the time trying to patch together an alternative that isn’t going to work anyway.

The links are basically there for people who are going to buy the book through Amazon anyway. You’re all adults, you all have the resources to shop where you want. I don’t think linking to Amazon is going to unduly influence any of you. If you’re going to purchase things through Amazon, please use my links as a small thanks for all this richly opinionated knowledge I purvey. If you’re not going to purchase through Amazon, don’t feel obliged to so, so that I’ll get 7% of your purchase price.

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  1. Why Be An Amazon Affiliate? Max runs down some reasons why he uses Amazon for his book links on The Millions. I don't want to rehash all his points, but...
  2. Amazon Stores? William Ackerman, a billionaire with a majority share in Borders, is hoping Amazon will buy up Borders’s bricks and mortars and move in. "Amazon could...
  3. Amazon Purchases Seems like it would be fun and perhaps a bit revealing to check in every so often and see what readers are buying through the...
  4. Reckoning with the Amazon Giant The Boston Review has a fairly good overview of recent changes in the books industry vis a vis the new industry titan, Amazon. I didn't...
  5. Most Popular Amazon Purchases, Q1 & Q2 2010 Those who pay very close attention to this site might have noticed that I didn't do my usual roundup of popular Amazon purchases at the...

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5 comments to On “Quitting Amazon”

  • I’d love to quit Amazon, but unfortunately in large swaths of the country independent book stores suck. The independents here in St. Louis rarely carry what I’m looking for. If the book’s not in stock & I have to order it, then I go with Amazon or Barnes & Noble because their shipping service is so much better.

    It’s frustratingly hard to find the latest smaller presses. Not a single store in St. Louis has any Knausgaard volume in stock right now. My success rate for finding what I’m looking for in stock at a local store is probably around 30%. That makes it hard to resist Amazon.

    • P.T. Smith

      Mike, do the stores have membership programs? The one independent store in my town has a mostly terrible selection, but for a 25 dollar year-membership, I get 20% off any book I buy, including those ordered. I make up for that 25 bucks pretty quickly. If a store you like doesn’t have a program like this, you could try suggesting it to them. It’s the only way it made it feasible for me to stop turning to Amazon for books.

      • That’s a good question – I don’t know. They have loyalty programs (buy 10 books, get $10 off your next purchase). I pay for a B&N membership; I’d definitely be willing to pay for one at a local store. I’m even happy to pay full retail price, as long as the shipping is free and fast.

        It’s also clear to me that for whatever reason, the selection at any single store in St. Louis just isn’t as good as what I find when I travel to bigger places like Chicago or San Francisco.

  • [...] Addendum Just adding in on the comments here, one reason I will mildly defend Amazon is that it gets the books to people who have no other way to get the books. In a lot of places Amazon (or Barnes & Noble) is the only valid way to get books, which does [...]

  • Thomas

    I have the same problem here in Crete. I prefer to order from Book Depository because shipping rates can get high for me out here, or from Abebooks. The problem is that Amazon has bought out both of them.

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