Book Description
This digital document is an article from Australian Academic & Research Libraries, published by Thomson Gale on December 1, 2005. The length of the article is 811 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Vandals in the Stacks? A Response to Nicholson Baker's Assault on Libraries.(Book review)
Author: R.L. Cope
Publication: Australian Academic & Research Libraries (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 36Issue: 4Page: 255(2)

Article Type: Book review

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on June 22, 2003. The length of the article is 2146 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Nicholson Baker. A Box of Matches.(Book Review)
Author: D. Quentin Miller
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2003
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 23Issue: 2Page: 127(1)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
Word count: 3835. ... Read more

Book Description
Since the 1950s, our country’s greatest libraries have, as a matter of common practice, dismantled their collections of original bound newspapers and so-called brittle books, replacing them with microfilmed copies.The marketing of the brittle-paper crisis and the real motives behind it are the subject of this passionately argued book, in which Nicholson Barker pleads the case for saving our recorded heritage in its original form while telling the story of how and why our greatest research libraries betrayed the public trust by auctioning off or pulping irreplaceable collections.The players include the Library of Congress, the CIA, NASA, microfilm lobbyists, newspaper dealers, and a colorful array of librarians and digital futurists, as well as Baker himself — who eventually discovers that the only way to save one important newspaper is to buy it.Double Fold is an intense, brilliantly worded narrative that is sure to provoke discussion and controversy.


From the Hardcover edition.Download Description
Since the 1950s, our country's greatest libraries have, as a matter of common practice, dismantled their collections of original bound newspapers and so-called brittle books, replacing them with microfilmed copies. The marketing of the brittle-paper crisis and the real motives behind it are the subject of this passionately argued book, in which Nicholson Baker pleads the case for saving our recorded heritage in its original form while telling the story of how and why our greatest research libraries betrayed the public trust by auctioning off or pulping irreplaceable collections. The players include the Library of Congress, the CIA, NASA, microfilm lobbyists, newspaper dealers, and a colorful array of librarians and digital futurists, as well as Baker himself -- who eventually discovers that the only way to save one important newspaper archive is to buy it. Double Fold is an intense, brilliantly worded narrative that is sure to provoke discussion and controversy. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Nicholson Baker writes in 360-degree Sensurround--his descriptions of the seemingly banal awakening the most jaded of senses into recognition, admiration, and amusement. In Room Temperature, his self-deprecating, endlessly curious narrator is at home giving his baby girl a bottle and allowing his mind to wander. Uppermost in his thoughts are his wife and daughter, but there is also that obsession with commas and some concern with tiny taboos like nose-picking and stealing change from his parents. Truth-telling is the operative mode; at one point he tries to get his wife to explain a doodle by quoting a review of early Yeats: "Always true is always new." Room Temperature is a rare novel of domestic pleasure and stability, with a twist. "Was there ever a limit between us? Would disgust ever outweigh love?" Baker's alter ego asks, and seems determined to find out.Book Description
In his second novel, Baker turns a young father's feeding-time reverie into a catalog of the minutiae of domestic love. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Breath
Room Temperature is certainly about a father and his child, but there is so much more.In typical Baker style, he examines minutia with elucidating commentary.This, in itself, is worth reading the novel; however, the quality that makes it transcend happens to be his ability to unite the entire book with its central theme: Breath.From the comma, to the mobile in his child's room, to tuba lessons, breath pervades - breath as its metaphor to remember to cherish every moment.

I have never seen a novel so effortlessly and imperceptibly weave a central idea throughout a book.Read this novel for both it compelling insight but also for the extraordinary literary technique.

Sophomore Jinx
A major disappointment after The Mezzanine.Baker goes to the well once too often by trying to recreate that excellent book here. That first book seemed to avoid crossing over into pretentiousness by giving us aself-deprecating narrator and by simply pouring on the wit and intelligentobservations and forcing you to laugh.Here, pretentiousness andself-indulgence abound. The subject matter is just far too personal toconnect with the reader and, simply, it seems that Nick didn't try as hardthe second time around.If you enjoyed the pretentious and turgid essay"Lumber," then this might be for you, but if you were drawn tothis book after reading more engaging Baker fare such as U and I, TheMezzanine or Vox, stay away.

praise for attention to details in "whatever" world
I have read all of Mr.Bakers books, and with the exception of "TheEverlasting Story..." (which indeed did seem to be everlasting) haveread them with delight.Although he's often compared to Updike, I think hesurpasses him due to his wit and his more creative sense of the strangenessof life.In "Room Temperature" we find the antidote, along withhis other novels, to a modern world obsessed with speed, impersonaltechnology and the summational catchphrase "whatever".Howwonderful it is to see an author bend his mind and spirit to the details oflife with so much talent and fervor.And how wonderful to see that hisbooks, plotless and demanding of full attention as they are, sell so well. It gives me hope for our civilization; it really does.On a sidenote - Iam tired of critics and readers thinking he is cheapening his prose bywriting on sexual topics.Sex is one of the most universal and fascinatingand character-revealing subjects around; a great writer can make anythingcerebral and holy, and a writer needs to go where his passions lie. Besides, do we really want every novel to be about rubber bands andbathroom hot air dryers?

Tender, engrossing
Probably the most undeservedly overlooked of Nicholson Baker's novels, Room Temperature is a delightful, heartwarming tome.

Any attempt at synopsis would only serve to make the book sound dreadfully boring.After all, during the entire 116 pages the narrator is feeding his small child.No car chases or steamy love scenes.Just a father feeding his baby.

Rather than relying on typical, often stale plot devices, Baker relies on his considerable talent at description to maintain the reader's interest, and he succeeds in a big way.Room Temperature is touching in a way that none of his other books are.The father-child bond is explored in such breathtaking detail that one finds the book impossible to put down, despite the lack of a discernable plot.

Nicholson Baker is not for everyone.His quirky prose and lack of traditional plot lines are sure to put off many readers, but fans of Updike are sure to find a great read in Room Temperature ... Read more