His conscience began automatically to work; it was like a slot machine into which any coin could be fitted, even a cheater’s blank disk.
— Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory

The Bronze Medal is glad you're here. Other places you can find Ryan are:
Flickr / Facebook / Twitter / Last.fm / Shelfari
He also likes mail - ryan [dot] gessner [at] gmail [dot] com
Read in 2009
Jose Saramago / Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
Thomas Mann / The Magic Mountain
Mikhail Bulgakov / The Master and Margarita
Cormac McCarthy / The Crossing
Graham Greene / The Power and the Glory
Virginia Woolf / Mrs. Dalloway
Bill Davis / Mass Appeal
Chris Adrian / A Better Angel
Nam Le / The Boat
William Gass / Tests of Time
Haruki Murakami / Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Colson Whitehead / Sag Harbor
Karen Russell / St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Virginia Woolf / Orlando
Walker Percy / The Moviegoer
Michael Ondaatje / In The Skin of A Lion
Nicole Krauss / Man Walks Into a Room
James Joyce / Ulysses
Steig Larsson / Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Nicholas Christopher / A Trip to the Stars
Randall Jarrell / No Other Book
William Gass / Habitations of the Word
Thomas Pynchon / Inherent Vice
Lorrie Moore / Self Help
Clarice Lispector / Near to the Wild Heart
Italo Calvino / If On A Winter's Night A Traveler
Aleksander Hemon / The Lazarus Project
Steig Larsson / The Girl Who Played With Fire
Sarah Hall / How to Paint a Dead Man
Dave Eggers / Zeitoun
Steig Larsson / The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
His conscience began automatically to work; it was like a slot machine into which any coin could be fitted, even a cheater’s blank disk.
— Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.
— Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
buttonI’ve only accomplished forty condensed minutes of productive work today.
(I must have spent the rest of my time, all week, making and revising a mega To Do List, over and over,...
Vermeer’s Masterpiece The Milkmaid is on display at the Met until November, 29th, next Sunday. I met my parents Friday night (the Met is open til 8:45 on Friday and Saturday, and might I add what...
taken from the...
ahhahahahahahahahhaahaha.
Dear Meaghan,
Looks like Bank of America bent you over a table and had its way with you for the better part of 2009!
Thanks, Mint. Thank you.
19 year olds:...
it is a rainy sunday in norcal. i woke up at 7 and read my book by the fireplace with a cup of coffee while my mom paged through the paper.
wondering how long my family will let me get...
When the writers said “Okay, we need someone to play Hu Jintao”, Will Forte drew the short straw.
Just realized this column exists (thanks, Laura) and will probably be spending the rest of my Sunday...
Band Of Horses - Plans (Grizzly Bear cover)
I like this more than any actual Grizzly Bear song.