Nicholson Baker

Follows the journey of the hero up the escalator and learn why straws don't sink in milk cartons; whether the hot air blowers in bathrooms are really more sanitary than towels; the physics of shoelaces; and how the most trivial of objects can lead to the deepest revelations of the human heart.

The Anthologist is narrated by Paul Chowder-a once-in-a-while-published kind of poet who is writing the introduction to a new anthology of poetry. He's having a hard time getting started because his career is floundering; his girlfriend Roz has recently left him; and he is thinking about the great poets throughout history who have suffered far worse and deserve to feel sorry for themselves. He has also promised to reveal many wonderful secrets and...

The ostensible purpose of a library is to preserve the printed word. But for fifty years our country’s libraries–including the Library of Congress–have been doing just the opposite, destroying hundreds of thousands of historic newspapers and replacing them with microfilm copies that are difficult to read, lack all the color and quality of the original paper and illustrations, and deteriorate with age.
With meticulous detective...

"Ten years into researching a book about the possibility that the United States had used biological weapons in the Korean War, Nicholson Baker was frustrated and disheartened. In the course of his research, he had become deeply disillusioned with the process of FOIA requests. He has been forced to wait years in some cases, while other requests have been answered only with documents rendered inscrutable, or even illegible, by copious redactions. Rather...

Mike's thought on his newfound parenthood lead him back to his own childhood and to reflections on the objects of his youth-- from glass peanut butter jars to French horns.

A Howie, un joven oficinista, se le han roto los cordones de sus zapatos con tan solo un día de diferencia. Mientras sube en las escaleras automáticas que le llevan de vuelta a su puesto de trabajo en la entreplanta de un edificio de oficinas, hace un repaso mental de su día después de ir a comprar en su hora del almuerzo unos cordones nuevos. A través de sus pensamientos, minuciosos, exhaustivos, asistimos a una virtuosa disección de objetos...

"Nicholson Baker's journey into the craft of painting before and through the COVID-19 pandemic, as he sets out to learn how to paint via books, workshops, and tutorials, alongside personal reflections on past artists he admires"--

During a conversation between two old friends, Ben and Jay, the two men discuss cameras, the effects of Wal-Mart on American culture, Iraq, abortion, free-range chickens, light bulbs, the figures in McDonald's Happy Meals, and Jay's upcoming plans to assassinate President Bush, in a darkly funny, provocative novella by the author of VOX.