Augusten Burroughs, the memoirist who told tales of his mother in Running With Scissors and his father in the recent A Wolf at the Table, takes note of another father figure - Robert Redford.

Writing a diary entry that ran this weekend on The Times of London's web site, Burroughs described his recent visit to Redford's Sundance resort - and how he found in an eccentric ceiling fan evidence that the resort's atmosphere "is a father's work."

Burroughs writes:

At Sundance, when you need to go down the hill to the store, you do not get into your car. You call the front desk and tell them that you'd like a ride. Then you go outside and wait. And while you wait, it is impossible not to feel like a kid again, waiting for your father to pick you up for soccer practice or violin lessons. After dinner somebody asks: "Do you need a lift home?" If at first this annoys you, it will come to be the thing that charms you most.

A developer, perhaps, would have offered a bus. Only a father, however, would give you a ride.

Burroughs has video online from his Sundance visit posted on his website. Check it out.

Labels: Books, Robert Redford, Sundance

Big props to author (and former Salt Lake Tribune reporter) Tom Zoellner, who appeared Thursday night on "The Daily Show" - and succeeded at making fascinating conversation out of a rock.

Zoellner touted his new book, Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Reshaped the World, a history of the element and its role in our nuclear lives. He and Stewart, who was clearly engaged in the topic, talked for several minutes about the history of uranium, and mankind's unfortunate ability to use any newfound material to, as Stewart put it, "blow s*** up."

Zoellner's appearance Thursday night made up for a previously booked appearance three weeks ago, when Zoellner was bumped so Stewart could have his notorious showdown with CNBC's Jim Cramer.

Here's Zoellner's appearance on "The Daily Show":

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Tom Zoellner
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Labels: Books

Those of us who get paid to put words on paper get a little defensive when someone suggests that print - whether in the form of newspapers, magazines or books - is dead.

The recent announcement that Sam Weller's Books is leaving its 48-year-old perch on Salt Lake City's Main Street for an as-yet-unknown downtown location started another round of hand-wringing about the fate of books.

Ken Sanders (pictured), the sage who runs his own rare-book store a few blocks from the old Weller's location, offers his thoughts on the matter on his store's web site. In the end, Sanders - who professes to a lifelong worship of the God called Biblio - is an island of calm in a sea of worry. Take, for example, the conclusion of his article:

"Google, Wikipedia, the world wide web, Kindle, e-books, print on demand, and the next new thing threaten to extinguish the old-fashioned book. Perhaps. I think not: the transformation will continue. The value of books transcends the informational, and while some of us in the book world will become extinct, the rest of us will always be here, wherever here is, in the far-off reaches, in the margins, doing what we have always done: loving books, keeping Biblio alive in the world."

Amen, Brother Sanders - though it's mildly ironic that such an opinion is disseminated not through ink-and-paper, but via the Internet.

Labels: Books, Sam Weller's

Tony Hillerman's first agent told him that if he ever wanted to get his writing published, he would have to "get rid of that Indian stuff."

Hillerman didn't listen to that agent, and his acclaimed mystery novels mixed exciting plots with observations of life among the Navajo, or Dineh, people.

Hillerman died Sunday at an Albuquerque hospital. He was 83.

Hillerman is best known for two characters - Navajo Tribal Police investigators, the veteran Lt. Joe Leaphorn and the younger Officer Jim Chee - who, in 18 novels including The Blessing Way, The Dark Wind, Skinwalkers and A Thief of Time, solved crimes while trying to bridge the cultural gap between the Dineh and the outside world.

The books didn't translate well to film. "The Dark Wind," which was notable as documentarian Errol Morris' first narrative film and was controversial for casting non-Indians Lou Diamond Phillips and Fred Ward as Chee and Leaphorn, bombed when it was released in 1991. PBS had better success with adaptations of "Coyote Waits" and "A Thief of Time," executive produced by Robert Redford and starring Adam Beach ("Flags of Our Fathers") and Wes Studi ("Geronimo: An American Legend") as Chee and Leaphorn.

Labels: Books

Ooh, this is exciting: Culture Vulture's first official correspondent!

Jessica Ravitz, who normally covers religion for The Salt Lake Tribune, attended author David Sedaris' appearance Monday night at Abravanel Hall. Here's her report:

His hand blocking his eyes from the brightness, or more likely the view, David Sedaris began his Salt Lake City appearance last night with a call for darkness. He wanted someone to cut the lights on the crowd assembled at Abravanel Hall, explaining later, "This is fine, as long as I can't see you."

In a way only this humorist, author and radio contributor can do, Sedaris regaled the audience with stories of the absurd, most of it autobiographical. From buying condoms in bulk for teens, a perfect "light and individually wrapped" gift when pills aren't available, to his adventures with a "slave monkey" and a riff about the house guest with an annoying French accent, he had the crowd roaring. He shared tales from the road, including insights into how he might prioritize people in line at book signings — selecting first, for example, smokers, grown women with braces or men under 5-foot-6-inches.

But some of the loudest cheers came when he turned to the presidential election, wondering out loud if undecided voters might be professional actors. He painted a picture of a flight attendant offering up meal options to make his point.

"Can I interest you in the chicken, or would you prefer the human s--- with bits of broken glass in it?," he said, as the hall exploded. "To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and ask how the chicken is cooked."

Sedaris, who tours often, said he likes coming back to Salt Lake City in part because of The Little America Hotel.

"It's like a four-star motel... It should be depressing, but it's not," he said. "I've stayed at The Big America Hotel, but I really prefer The Little America."

Labels: Books, politics