Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Bookends: Collected Intros and Outros
    Bookends: Collected Intros and Outros
    Bookends: Collected Intros and Outros
    Audiobook4 hours

    Bookends: Collected Intros and Outros

    Written by Michael Chabon

    Narrated by Michael Chabon and George Newbern

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A brilliant, idiosyncratic collection of introductions and afterwords (plus some liner notes) by New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon—“one of contemporary literature’s most gifted prose stylists” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times).

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 22, 2019
    ISBN9780062908797
    Bookends: Collected Intros and Outros
    Author

    Michael Chabon

    Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Moonglow and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, among many others. He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children.

    More audiobooks from Michael Chabon

    Related to Bookends

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Ceremony

      Sep 6, 2022

      It was something. Out of nowhere, I didn’t give a shit about anything for like a month. Like nothing. I mean yeah, there’d been plenty of times where I didn’t give a shit about something. Oh that thing? Yeah, fuck that thing. I did it all the time. M

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Lighter Side of Dan Chaon

      Apr 11, 2022

      I had a dystopian idea in the beginning, and in the end the dystopia caught up with me. The post The Lighter Side of Dan Chaon appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Urgency of Queer Stories in Contemporary German Fiction

      Mar 1, 2017

      I’m thrilled to be the curator for this year’s Festival Neue Literatur, the only US festival to showcase fiction originally written in German, happening in Manhattan and Brooklyn (starting tomorrow!) from March 2 to 5. The Festival Neue Literatur, w

      4 min read

    • Article

      7 Books to Read on World AIDS Day

      Nov 26, 2019

      So Lucky, by award-winning author Nicola Griffith, is a fascinatingly intense, semiautobiographical novel about a woman facing down her demons. The profoundly personal narrative reads much like a memoir, and readers can’t help but empathize with prot

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Shipstead, Ryan, Walker, and More

      May 17, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Maggie Shipstead, Eimer Ryan, Sarai Walker, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millio

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry

      Dec 18, 2020

      Rattling around the house in the County Sligo hills, swinging from bouts of paranoia to moments of strange, demented hilarity, a 900-page doorstopper was just what I needed to stay grounded. The post A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry appeared first on T

      2 min read

    • Article

      Why Bad Catholics Make Great Art

      Oct 13, 2022

      Some of the best Catholic storytellers achieve their power at a distance from traditional devotion. The post Why Bad Catholics Make Great Art appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Nov 28, 2022

      In James Hannaham’s latest novel, Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta, we meet Carlotta Mercedes, a trans woman who has just spent the last 20 years of her life in a men’s prison. On the day of her release, she finds herself wandering

      3 min read

    • Article

      Beetlemania

      Oct 9, 2020

      Beetlemania
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Humanity of Being Freakish: The Millions Interviews Kevin Wilson

      Nov 15, 2019

      The goal is that my sons, Griff and Patch, eventually don’t need me anymore. But I can’t reconcile that yet. So, again, I write about that anxiety. The post The Humanity of Being Freakish: The Millions Interviews Kevin Wilson appeared first on The Mi

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Robert Jones, Jr.

      Dec 2, 2021

      This year I realized that there is a distinct difference between reading books as an average reader and as someone whose own book is now out in the world, The post A Year in Reading: Robert Jones, Jr. appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Black Cleopatra

      Dec 1, 2023

      When Netflix released the docudrama miniseries Queen Cleopatra in May 2023, controversy quickly arose around the casting of Adele James—a mixedrace English actor with Jamaican ancestry—as Cleopatra. Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities issued

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Bookends

    3.5/5

    33 ratings10 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Reason Read: Michael Chabon, nonfiction work This is about introductions and afterwords that we find in books. Do we read them? Why are they there. They are about "a hope of bringing pleasure to the reader" and "shared pleasure about the pure love of a work of art that has inspired, awakened, and transformed the reader." It's also a book about books. Found in the bookIntrosThe Wes Anderson Collection - Matt Zoller Seitz "cinema"Trickster Makes This World - Lewis Hyde "Trickster" nonfiction examinationThe Long Ships - Frans G. Bengtsson fictionSuperheroes: Fashion and Fantasy - Andrew Bolton (Secret Skin; an essay in Unitard Theory) about what a superhero does for us the readerJulius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer - Ben Katchor, graphic novel Herma - MacDonald Harris Fiction, Paris, Casting the Runes and other Ghost Stories - M R James ghost stories, a model of the short story. Brown Sugar Kitchen (a cookbook) Oakland Soul food for the wanderer Monster Man, Gary Gianni, graphic novel illustratorThe Sailor on the Seas of Fate - Michael Moorcock heroic fantasy American Flagg - Howard Chaykin comic dystopian earthD'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, illustrators winner of CaldecottThe Rocket Man - Ray Bradbury (short story) OWN John Carter of Mars; comics Marv WolfmanThe Escapists - Brian K Vaughan - graphic novelSummerland - Chabon (OWN) faeries and baseballFountain City (excerpt) this was a lost book, only 4 chapters have been recoveredOUTROSMysteries of Pittsburgh - ChabonGentlemen of the Road - Chabon (Jews with Swords) read The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster Wonder When You'll Miss Me - Amanda Davis realistic fiction, YA (a tribute to a beloved friend who died)Appendix: Liner notes Carsickness (a band)Uptown Special Vinyl Edition Mark Roson (music about car care?)Yes it was interesting but it was more a way of finding more to read. I listened to the music and I would say Carsickness is not me, some of the Uptown Special was okay especially the ones that I was familiar.
    • 4/5
      This is a nice collection, edited by Star Trek: Picard showrunner and all around trekkie Michael Chabon.Unlike his daughter, per the introduction to a book about introductions, I do tend to read all the pre- and post-scripts of a book. In hindsight, I find a majority of them unremarkable so I think the daughter is the wise one here.
    • 4/5
      This one is definitely for Michael Chabon fans. It's a collection of writings, but unlike a grouping of essays (like Pops from earlier this year) even Chabon fans are unlikely to have encountered many of these elsewhere. The eclectic nature of the collection means that some will be more interesting to you than others, and which ones those are will differ, no doubt, from you to me. But Chabon is a great writer and that is on display here. Really though, the focus is his passion. He loves books and comics and food and music, and he is writing about things he loves which shows clearly in his words. For me the most interesting pieces were the ones about his own writing, and hands down the winner was the intro starring an old Sam Clay. But Chabon fans will certainly find something worthwhile in here, and as I mentioned these are less likely to be easily found online or to have been read earlier like some of his other writings.
    • 2/5
      Years ago I was introduced to Michael Chabon through Mysteries of Pittsburgh which I liked enough to read his next novel that failed miserably for me. I have witnessed his success through the years with wonder. There was enough interest in him for me to take another look and perhaps understand what makes him tick. This book helped but did nothing to further my enjoyment of him or his writing. What it made me realize is we have little in common, and our relationship must end on what for me is one sad note.
    • 4/5
      This collection of Chabon’s introductions and afterwards is a great read and gives readers a peek behind his reading and personal interests. His passion for comics and reflections on growing up and on Judiaism are charming and thoughtful, but the chance to visit with Sam Clay one more time steals the show.Recommended; I found Bookends to be best enjoyed in small bites over time rather than in one sitting.
    • 4/5
      An enjoyable book for those interested in: the influence of books in early childhood, how these early influences impact on the writer's life, and in particular how these play out in Michael Chabon's life as a person, author and father.Among the examples he writes about are comic books and his own Kavalier and Clay, ethics lessons learned in childhood Hebrew School classes, what he learned from masters such as Borges, his own teacher- MacDonald Harris, and the mythologies of Greek and Nordic cultures.I often thought of James Wood's, The Nearest Thing to Life, another book of childhood reading experiences with long lasting impact.If you enjoy this type of book you will not be disappointed.
    • 4/5
      This charming collection of prefaces and afterwords, or as Chabon says, "intros and outros," reveals his varied and eclectic interests. One of the reasons I love Chabon is his willingness to try diverse genres -- he has written adventure, a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and alternative history, to name a few. As he notes in his preface to Trickster Makes This World, "But now I knew, and have since never forgotten, that I was born to wander along the borderlands. To err -- that is, to wander -- is human. And so is the act of making a story out of our purposeless wanderings, as if they mattered, as if they had a beginning, a middle, and an end. They don't, but there is neither joy nor art nor pleasure to be made from saying so." His ability to relate personally to his subject matter is one of the ways he draws in his reader. He makes me want to love these works as well.This collection comprises comments on film, music, and, of course, novels. It will appeal to readers, and it has certainly encouraged me to add titles to my wishlist.
    • 4/5
      This was one very quirky collection of introductions of book that either meant a lot to Chabon, or were for his own books. There were also some afterwards and other types of verbiage. Some of them were brilliant, but others left me wondering what it was about that particular piece that attracted the editor's eye. Taken all together, the collection had some high points, but wasn't very satisfying overall.
    • 4/5
      “Bookends” is a slim collection of book introductions, afterwards, and short essays written by Michael Chabon during the 90’s to the present. This book is perhaps best enjoyed by (or gifted to) fans of Chabon but he’s a smart and humorous writer with a wide range of cultural interests so there’s a decent variety of topics. Not all selections were a good fit for me but above all, Chabon’s true love of literature shines brightly throughout and the pieces about his own work are especially strong. My favorite selection is a brief essay he wrote about the most personally important short story related to his writing life, Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Rocket Man’. It includes this perfect description: “…I think it was when I got to the butterflies -- in that brief, beautiful image comprising life, death and technology -- that the hair on the back of my neck began to stand on end. All at once, the pleasure I took in reading was altered irrevocably. Before then I had never noticed, somehow, that stories were made not of ideas or exciting twists of plot but of language. And not merely of pretty words and neat turns of phrase, but of systems of imagery, strategies of metaphor. ‘The Rocket Man’ unfolds to its melancholy conclusion in a series of haunting images of light and darkness, of machinery and biology interlocked, of splendor and fragility. The sense of foreboding is powerful; the imagery becomes a kind of plot of its own, a shadow plot…” Overall, Bookends is a good choice for book lovers and for those familiar with Chabon’s writing. He says in the meta-introduction to this book of intros and more, he hopes to bring pleasure to the reader – to some reader, somewhere. A noble and admirable goal, indeed.
    • 3/5
      Michael Chabon is one of my favorite writers, and he has been for a long time, so I figured that even this collection of "Intros" and "Outros" from some of his own favorite books and writers would be an enjoyable experience for someone like me. Sadly enough, I misjudged my own tolerance for such a heavy dose of short pieces on a number of books, most of which I have never heard of. I don't blame Chabon in the least; I, in fact, did read about half the book before my interest in what it contained completely petered out.That said, this book will probably appeal to as many Chabon and Lit fans as it doesn't; it's up to you to decide whether or not it's for you. Thus, my neutral rating.