Well, pantagrapher, since you were the only person to suggest a Convince Us this month, you win in finally getting us to read a David Foster Wallace suggestion. We'll be reading his first novel, The Broom of the System. We hope everyone reads along. At the end of the month (we'd better get started, eep) we'll review it and ask for a new Convince Us book on a theme. Happy reading!......

We got some fantastic suggestions for August's "travel" Convince Us. Close choices were the Collected Traveler Anthologies, which look absolutely delectable, and Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine's Last Chance to See. We find reading about travel and places you haven't experienced enriching but terribly heartbreaking at the same time. They kill you to read about and not visit. It gives us awful wanderlust. Having spent half a year in South Africa and the surrounding countries,......

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. We were so busy between scouring the Printer’s Row Book Fair and lounging at the Chicago Blues Fest that we almost forgot to pick just one book for this month, in fact, we couldn’t and had to let fate, otherwise known as the Post Office, decide. You guys had some pretty awesome suggestions and we almost thought there would be a throw down over whose author was more prestigious......

Today's letter is F. And today's word is Forward. It's been a week and a day since we announced Animal Farm as this month's take for Convince Us, which means that everybody should be a fourth of the way through the book. It also means if you haven't gotten into it yet but want to, you still can. We're a little behind because we got caught up reading the preface by Russell Baker and forward......

We were thrilled with the number and caliber of responses to this month's Convince Us about junior high. It was a hard choice, part of us wanted to revisit the sorrowful Where the Red Fern Grows. We also wanted to go back to the banned-at-our-high-school-so-we-actually-read-it The Outsiders, but in the end, we turned to Mr. Orwell. We were supposed to read Animal Farm in seventh grade, but we had a soccer game that weekend and......

After a personnel shift and lots of soul searching, the Chicagoist Department for the Advancement of Literature has decided to revamp and reinstate Convince Us, a little more like a book club, or thanks to our handy office thesaurus, a tome society, because then it sounds mysterious (and yes, ridiculous). We love reader participation, and know that you are as well read as us (considering you’re reading our work here, we think you have......

Normally, we usually plan our "Beer of the Week" reviews at least a month or two in advance. May is no exception; we already have them picked out and ready to publish for your reading pleasure. For June, we want to do something different. In the spirit of the "Convince Us" book posts, we want your input. We want to know about your favorite beers: why you like them, why you keep coming back to......

For this month’s Convince Us, we asked you to recommend a love story. We picked The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. We picked it because of the Chicago connection, but also because we can’t stand to keep hearing about a book we haven’t read. The story is about Henry, a man with Chrono-Displacement disorder, or in other words, a time traveler. Henry meets and falls in love with Clare: “I met Clare for the......

We got some great suggestions for Convince Us this month. If we hadn't already read Lolita, we probably would have picked it. We love that it came up so many times under "love story." We were also fascinated by a couple of other suggestions, but we're going to pick The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffennegger. We've heard so much about this book, and it has the Chicago connection. We'll read the book and post......

We've been kicking it on Convince Us the past few months. We loved The Quiet American from our classics challenge and we loved, loved, LOVED Ender's Game from the sci-fi challenge. Now, with the eventual coming of spring and thoughts of tulips and romantic summer nights; we ask you to recommend your favorite love story. It can be classic or contemporary, fiction or non, but it has got to be a love story through and......

For this month’s Convince Us we asked you to recommend a sci-fi book. We got a lot of great suggestions, and the book we ended picking was Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. And we’re really sorry we did, what a load. NO NO, just kidding. Seriously. We loved Ender’s Game. We loved Ender’s Game so much that we finished it in a day. We read it every second we had the chance, on the......

You guys gave us some seriously awesome recommendations for this month’s sci-fi Convince Us. We love that there’s so much to read, and it just makes our little biblio-hearts so happy to know there’s so many good books we didn't know about. But alas, we can only choose one, and the one we have chosen is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. We chose it because it was recommended first by Ian and seconded by......

Thank you to everyone who recommended a book for last month’s Convince Us. We loved The Quiet American, and the rest of your suggestions helped us fill out our future reading list. But now we want something … a little more “out there”. So for this month, convince us to read your favorite science fiction book. We’ll admit, we’re not huge sci-fi fans, but we have really enjoyed what we have read so far. So......

For this month’s Convince Us we asked you to recommend a classic. We decided on The Quiet American by Graham Greene and — oh my — are we happy we did. After reading through the book once, we thought, “hmmm, what an interesting love story.” Admitting our lack of knowledge about then Indochina, Vietnam and the like, we did a little reading, studied Greene, and read some essays about the book and the history behind......

Wow, what a great response we had to yesterday’s request for classic novels for this month’s Convince Us. We actually love the classics, and have read and enjoyed many of these suggestions. The book that we’re going to pick is The Quiet American by Graham Greene. We’ve almost picked up his books a million times and ended walking away with something else, so now’s his chance. The selection seems timely and was seconded in the......

We here at Chicagoist have been focusing a little too much on the “new”; new Christmas toys, new TV shows and new books. We’ve been burned lately by the newness, and we decided we want to go back to the standard, something we can count on. So for this month’s Convince Us, please give us a suggestion of a classic book, a book that holds up as a fine piece of literature. We want a......

For last month’s Convince Us, we asked you for the worst book you have ever read. We chose Paris Trout by Pete Dexter. We were worried that we were going to have slog through another “young, black girl in the south” coming-of-age story. Another The Color Purple without the quality writing. Paris Trout begins with poor Rosie Sayers, a 14-year-old black girl with a mean momma, a lonely heart and a streak of bad luck.......

Well, we can say with absolute joy that your recommendations for this month's Convince Us had us laughing out loud. Many of you suggested On the Road by Jack Kerouac, but alas, we've already read it, and it's been thrown across the room a couple of times already. So the book that we picked, the book that we'll face with an open mind and sickening sense of dread will be Paris Trout by Peter Dexter.......

In honor of the holiday spirit, and in honor of all things good and true, let's turn the holiday on its head and be as negative as possible. Fun! For this month's Convince Us, recommend to us a book you hated, the worst book you have ever read, the book you wanted to throw across the room, the book you wished on your worst enemy, the book you struggled to get through, but actually finished.......

For this month’s Convince Us, we asked you — our darling readers — to provide us with a great biography. We chose Lords of the Levee by Lloyd Wendt and Herman Kogan. The book describes the rise and fall of “Bathhouse” John Coughlin and “Hinky Dink” Kenna, the kings of the 1st Ward — the vice district — at the turn of the century. Where to begin? Yes, OK then, we’ll start at the beginning.......

Thanks to everyone for all the great recommendations for Convince Us this month. We’re going to go with Mister C’s suggestion of “Lords of the Levee” by Lloyd Wendt, Herman Kogan and Rick Kogan. We like that you all offered up some Chicago books, and since we already read “American Pharoah”, we’ll see whatup with the Hinky Dinks. While we’re here talking about our fair city, let us remind you that tomorrow night is the......

Sometimes we here at Chicagoist find ourselves neglecting things -- the litter box, our family, other people’s children; so for this month’s Convince Us we need suggestions for reading biographies. We haven’t read many biographies, either auto or otherwise, and we feel the need to see what real life is like instead of the make-'em-ups. So give us your suggestion of a biography we should read; we’ll pick one, read it, review it and post......

Dammit. Our heads are reeling, and we’re feeling, don’t know, slightly under the weather … like the room is shaking, and our heads are shaking and shit … shouldn’t have snorted all that coke, feel like strangling someone, need piano wire. Where is that letter? The letter, where is it, where did we put it? That letter about this month’s Convince Us. We were reading "House of Leaves," and Scott Smith of Chicagoist wrote this......

Hey! Remember how we're reading Mark Danielewski's "House of Leaves" for our Convince Us this month? Handily enough, Mr. Danielewski will be at the Bookslut Reading Series this week. Weird, huh? Purely coincidence? We think not. Creepy. You can see Mark Danielewski at the Bookslut Reading Series on Wed., Oct. 11, 7:30 p.m. at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark, 2nd Floor.......

First off, you guys are awesome. We got so many great recommendations for scary books for this month's Convince Us. It was hard to choose, what with the late addition of Chuck Palahniuk's "Haunted" (sounds gross and awesome, kinda like our dates) to the short stories of Ray Bradbury; we had a hard time making a decision. We ended up choosing "House of Leaves" by Mark Danielewski. We've never read it, and our curiosity is......

We can't believe it's already October. Red and yellow leaves fall to the ground, neighbors put webbing and jack o’ lanterns on their porches, and it’s the only time of year that Chicagoist feels okay about dogs wearing costumes. So for this month’s Convince Us, let us go with a theme: recommend to us the scariest book you have ever read. Remember that episode of "Friends" (yes, fine, we're making a "Friends" reference, maybe we're......

Last month’s Convince Us asked for the book that made you cry. We picked Curmudgeon’s recommendation, “Oh My Stars” by Lorna Landvik. And let us say a big, hearty thank you, because we loved “Oh My Stars”. The book is the story of a homely, awkward teenager, Violet. Violet is too tall, too vulnerable and too loving for her own good. When her mother runs off with the local druggist, Violet is stuck with her......

We’ve had some great suggestions for this month’s Convince Us. This time we asked for books that made you cry on the el. We had a lot of great suggestions (we second “A Prayer for Owen Meany”), and we're glad to see we’re not the only ones weeping over the written word. We decided on “Oh My Stars” by Lorna Landvik. The book was suggested by Curmudgeon, who awhile back suggested we read some Trevanian.......

We have a distinct memory of sitting on the el, quietly reading "Great Expectations" and being completely lost in it. We had given ourselves over to the story of orphaned Pip, the beautiful Estella, and crazy Miss Havisham. We loved Pip's belief in his great expectations.We revelled in the beauty of his unrequited love for Estella. We marvelled at the complexity of plot, but the ease in which it was told. And on the el,......