Melville House Books

Michael Schaub

Back in the early days of book blogging, Jessa Crispin on her Bookslut blog back set the standard for what most have come to think of as a book blogger: a too-smart person who can be wickedly funny and almost shockingly independent of mind, all in a really limited number of words. It didn’t seem possible that anyone could match her — until she herself hired Michael Schaub, who proved to be, well, a too-smart person who can be wickedly funny and almost shockingly independent of mind, all in a really limited number of words.

Schaub left the site a while ago, but he recently rejoined Crispin on what is generally considered the most trafficked — you know, popular! — book blog. In an interview with Willamette Week he talks about the history of the site, and book blogging in general:

Let’s talk about the online magazine. Why call it Bookslut?

The original concept was someone who would do anything for a good book. I mean, we weren’t gonna call it The Great Western Hemispheric Review of World Literature. We wanted to let people know that we were gonna have more fun than that. We worried initially that [the name] would handicap us in terms of being taken seriously. I mean, imagine requesting a review copy from Harvard University Press, and they’re like, what’s the name of the site? But it caught on really quickly. We’re able to have more fun without feeling that we have to be part of some ivory tower, academic conversation. There’s a sense of wonder that doesn’t necessarily come through when you’re writing in AP style.

Whom should Americans read more of?

Stieg Larsson. No, just kidding. It would help if Americans read more authors from other countries. They represent perspectives that Americans often just aren’t exposed to… [Read] Jean-Philippe Toussaint. He’s a great postmodern writer, really funny.

Have you ever been in a literary feud?

I think the concept of a literary feud is pretty hilarious. It’s basically a slap fight between people who were picked on in high school. Come on! We’re all total nerds here. We all got dodgeballs thrown at our heads.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.