Bookends : collected intros and outros / Michael Chabon

Meta-introduction -- Intros. The Wes Anderson collection, Matt Zoller Seitz ; Trickster makes this world, Lewis Hyde ; The long ships, Frans G. Bengtsson ; Superheroes : fashion and fantasy, Andrew Bolton ; Julius Knipl, real estate photographer, Ben Katchor ; Herma, MacDonald Harris ; Casting the runes and other ghost stories, M.R. James ; Brown sugar kitchen, Tanya Holland ; Monster man, Gary Gianni ; The sailor on the seas of fate, Michael Moorcock ; American Flagg!, Howard Chaykin ; D'Aulaires' Norse myths, Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire ; "The rocket man," Ray Bradbury ; John Carter of Mars : warlord of Mars, Marv Wolfman, Gil Kane et al. ; The escapists, Brian K. Vaughan ; Summerland ; Fountain city, excerpt -- Outros. Fountain city, excerpt ; The mysteries of Pittsburgh ; Gentlemen of the road ; The phantom tollbooth, Norton Juster ; Wonder when you'll miss me, Amanda Davis -- Appendix : liner notes. 1980-1996, Carsickness ; Uptown special vinyl edition, Mark Ronson

"In Bookends, Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon offers a compilation of pieces about literature--age-old classics as well as his own--that presents a unique look into his literary origins and influences, the books that shaped his taste and formed his ideas about writing and reading. Chabon asks why anyone would write an introduction, or for that matter, read one. His own daughter Rose prefers to skip them. Chabon's answer is simple and simultaneously profound: "a hope of bringing pleasure for the reader." Likewise, afterwords--they are all about shared pleasure, about the "pure love" of a work of art that has inspired, awakened, transformed the reader. Ultimately, this thought-provoking compendium is a series of love letters and thank-you notes, unified by the simple theme of the shared pleasure of discovery, whether it's the boyhood revelation of the most important story in Chabon's life (Ray Bradbury's "The Rocket Man"); a celebration of "the greatest literary cartographer of the planet Mars" (Edgar Rice Burroughs, with his character John Carter); a reintroduction to a forgotten master of ghost stories (M. R. James, ironically "the happiest of men"); the recognition that the worlds of Wes Anderson's films are reassembled scale models of our own broken reality (as is all art); Chabon's own rude awakening from the muse as he writes his debut novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; or a playful parody of lyrical interpretation in the liner notes for Mark Ronson's Uptown Special, the true purpose of which, Chabon insists, is to "spread the gospel of sensible automotive safety and maintenance practices." Galaxies away from academic or didactic, Bookends celebrates wonder--and like the copy of The Phantom Tollbooth handed to young Michael by a friend of his father he never saw again--it is a treasured gift."-- Publisher's description

The introductions and afterwords of books are often overlooked by readers but Chabon often finds them to be treasures: transitive acts of seduction. He explains how they can be explanatory, triumphal, bibliographic-- even score-settling. His compilation of pieces about books gives readers a unique look into Chabon's literary origins and influences: the literature that shaped his taste and formed his ideas about writing and reading. -- adapted from introduction and back cover