Liana Liu

Up until six months ago, I had never read anything by Muriel Spark. I had heard of her, of course, and thought I knew a couple of things about her. For example, I knew she was from Australia (wrong). And I knew she was a historical romance novelist (wrong, wrong). Where did I get these ideas from? I cannot remember. Probably from guessing. I am an inveterate guesser which might be why I get lost ALL THE TIME. But that is beside the point. Let us talk about Muriel Spark!

Down the street from where I live, there's this man that hands out fliers. Actually, there is a lot of fliering all around the neighborhood as this is a high-foot-traffic area (annoying! I hate people!), but this guy deserves special notice.

Have you read The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury? If you have, isn't it wonderful? If you haven't, you really should read it. I've been pushing this book onto my friends, my students, and even my teachers, for such a long time now that it only makes sense that I push it upon the general public.

Dearest friends, I'm shaking things up around here and putting the interviews on pause because... I want to! After all, it's summer vacation. Do you want me to stay inside transcribing when I could be staying inside and eating ice cream? Oh, delicious ice cream. Cookies and cream. Mint chocolate chip. Neopolitan. Yes, yes.

This is Part II of Questions Answered by Drunk People at the dislocate Launch Party. For more information, read this. Also, hello summer! In my opinion, this summer is going to be the summer of the romper. I know that I am two (three?) years behind trend on this one, but the idea of wearing a one-piece shorts-suit takes some time to get used to. Fortunately, I am now used to the idea and ready to romp!

First of all, it's supposed to snow tonight. I don't understand.
Second, Thursday night dislocate threw a party to celebrate the release of issue #6 of our print journal, and a rollicking good time was had by all. Except, probably, those people playing boggle while the rest of use were dropping "it" like "it" was hot.

From my interviews I have learned the following: people like hot people, and people reading books in coffee shops are constantly being approached by wannabe lovers. So today I asked myself why I have never been approached by a wannabe lover while reading in a coffee shop.

When I was little I was only allowed to watch movie-musicals, the result being that I really like movie-musicals. Parents and would-be parents take note: it's pretty easy to brainwash your children! In any case, I've seen a lot of musicals, including The King and I. In fact, I can sing several of the songs from The King and I.

Who doesn't love a nice coincidence now and then? I have enjoyed several Minnesota coincidences. However, I recognize that hearing about other people's coincidences is just as boring as hearing about other people's dreams.

I like a good trivia night. I am lousy at answering the questions but good at coming up with team names, obviously. "Minnesota Twincest" is probably my best effort.

Dear friends, it's spring; it's really, finally spring! My students have shed their coats to reveal crop tops and short-shorts; I have exchanged my heavy sweater for a medium one. Everything is beautiful and love is in the air, and when I say "love" I mean "no-strings doing it."

Guess what! I am an annoying, interrupting, sloppy drunk. Who knew? Well, I suspected it. But until now there was never any hard evidence--unless you call accusations made by friends/bartenders "hard evidence."

Wells Tower's reading at Magers and Quinn was so well attended that I had to sit in a narrow aisle, facing long shelves of books. Despite my poor vantage point, I was still able to enjoy his reading because although I wasn't able to gaze at Wells Tower's attractive face, I was able to imagine it while staring at the book spines.

Such a plan I had, what a plan. My column, this column, "Reading People," was meant to consist of interviews with the general public about their bookish feelings.