1684 ratings | 93 reviews | avg rating:3.42

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Matt’s Year In Books

Matt’s 2025 Year in Books

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John Rachel

740 books | 2,818 friends

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170 books | 288 friends

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2026 Reading Challenge

2026

READING

CHALLENGE

Matt Briggs has read 7 of 30 books.

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Matt Briggs

Goodreads Author

Born

in Seattle, The United States

Website

https://www.mattbriggs.com

Twitter

LRB

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories, Memoir

Influences

Russell Edson, Jim Heynen, Janet Frame, Jorge Luis Borges, Georges Per ...more

Member Since

July 2008

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Matt Briggs grew up in the Snoqualmie Valley, raised by working-class, counter-culture parents who cultivated and sold cannabis. Briggs has written two books set in rural Washington chronicling this life, The Remains of River Names and Shoot the Buffalo. Critic Ann Powers wrote of Briggs first book in the New York Times Book Review, "Briggs has captured the America that neither progressives nor family-value advocates want to think about, where bohemianism has degenerated into dangerous dropping out." Briggs has published a number of collection of stories, including The Moss Gatherers and The End is the Beginning. Of his stories, Jim Feast wrote in the American Book Review, "All of Briggs’s zigzagging stories are told with great attention to ...more

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Combine Editions
Matt Briggs’s books

Average rating: 3.75 · 305 ratings · 38 reviews · 18 distinct works • Similar authors

	Keep a Journal: The Basics 3.43 avg rating — 141 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shoot the Buffalo 4.06 avg rating — 62 ratings — published 2005 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Remains of River Names 3.86 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 1999 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Virility Rituals of North American Teenage Boys 3.81 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Misplaced Alice 3.93 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2003 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Moss Gatherers 4.08 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2005	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Strong Man really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The End is the Beginning it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2008	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Double E 4.38 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Snoqualmie 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Matt Briggs's Blog

Review of Trisha Ready's Nobuko in The Stranger

I recently reviewed Trisha Ready’s novel Nobuko in The Stranger.

Matt Briggs reviews Nobuko by Trisha Ready

Ready has created a work that is accessible in its language and engaging in its vignette-driven storytelling, yet also richly layered for those who listen to its syntax. Nobuko is an invitation to consider the smallest units of writing: the choice of a period or a conjunction, the decision to repeat a word. In this way, Ready’s

Matt is Currently Reading

Matt Briggs is currently reading

Stoner

by John Williams

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Apr 19, 2026 05:45PM

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How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998

by Helen Garner

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Apr 19, 2026 04:34PM

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DITA for Print

by Leigh W. White

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Feb 22, 2026 04:13PM

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Matt’s Recent Updates

Matt Briggs wants to read Solito by Javier Zamora (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 19, 2026 05:48PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Solito by Javier Zamora. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Solito by Javier Zamora <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Matt Briggs is currently reading Stoner by John Williams	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 19, 2026 05:45PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Stoner by John Williams. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Stoner by John Williams <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Matt Briggs is currently reading How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998 by Helen Garner	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 19, 2026 04:34PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of How to End a Story by Helen Garner. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — How to End a Story by Helen Garner <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Matt Briggs rated a book really liked it How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A reassuring and candid take on Jeff Tweedy's writing process. The section on how he spends his days is insane, and I didn't believe his breakdown. Yet, for the most part, his advice will be familiar to creative writers who have had Natalie Goldberg ...more
Apr 19, 2026 10:13AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Matt Briggs rated a book really liked it Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them) by Marcia Riefer Johnston (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A collection of essays with a casual and personal quality that suits the book's flexibility of approach — it gives Marcia Johnston the room to shift her writing to illustrate the various subjects of the book: pronouns, run-on sentences, and end-of-se ...more
Apr 19, 2026 09:52AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs by Marcia Riefer Johnston. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs by Marcia Riefer Johnston <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Matt Briggs has read Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them) by Marcia Riefer Johnston (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 19, 2026 09:50AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs by Marcia Riefer Johnston. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs by Marcia Riefer Johnston <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Matt Briggs rated a book really liked it Stories: The Collected Short Fiction by Helen Garner	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A collection of stories in a lit minimalist style. Like Amy Hempel Garner occasionally has moments of clear and concrete observation in these stories that made me stop reading for a second. I like stories that are written rather than seek a quality w ...more
Apr 19, 2026 09:50AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Stories by Helen Garner. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Stories by Helen Garner <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Matt Briggs rated a book liked it The Bovadium Fragments: Together with The Origins of Bovadium by J.R.R. Tolkien	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A book about cars and highways in Oxford.
Apr 19, 2026 09:49AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Bovadium Fragments by J.R.R. Tolkien. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Bovadium Fragments by J.R.R. Tolkien <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Matt Briggs rated a book liked it The Bovadium Fragments: Together with The Origins of Bovadium by J.R.R. Tolkien	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A book about cars and highways in Oxford.
Apr 19, 2026 09:49AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Bovadium Fragments by J.R.R. Tolkien. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Bovadium Fragments by J.R.R. Tolkien <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Matt Briggs rated a book really liked it Stories: The Collected Short Fiction by Helen Garner	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A collection of stories in a lit minimalist style. Like Amy Hempel Garner occasionally has moments of clear and concrete observation in these stories that made me stop reading for a second. I like stories that are written rather than seek a quality w ...more
Apr 19, 2026 09:36AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Stories by Helen Garner. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Stories by Helen Garner <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Matt’s Quotes

“If your quest is for a truth that defies rhetoric, perhaps you ought to study political economy or systems analysis and abandon Shakespeare to the aesthetes and the groundlings, who combined to elevate him in the first place.”
― Harold Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages

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