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McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #6
McSweeney's Issue 6: Timothy McSweeney's Very Intense Heated Passionate Battle/Embrace with They Might Be Giants
The sixth edition of the American literary quarterly had two cover variants and includes contributions from Nathaniel Bellows, Barry Blitt, Arthur Bradford, Katherine Bradford, Breyten Breytenbach, Judy Budnitz, Jeri Coppola, Ann Cummins, Lydia Davis.
The front cover either embellished with WE NOW KNOW WHO or FIND THEM AND CONVINCE THEM.
Included is the CD They Might Be Giants vs. McSweeney's; a soundtrack to the perusing of the volume. One can listen to the songs separately or the text to itself, but never, never, read a section of the book while listening to a track for different segment.
The front cover either embellished with WE NOW KNOW WHO or FIND THEM AND CONVINCE THEM.
Included is the CD They Might Be Giants vs. McSweeney's; a soundtrack to the perusing of the volume. One can listen to the songs separately or the text to itself, but never, never, read a section of the book while listening to a track for different segment.
206 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
3 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Dave Eggers
338 books9,467 followersDave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 14, 2025
“You gave your heart, and you didn’t worry too much about the details.”
When I first saw that this one included a CD, I thought maybe the publisher had decided to throw an indie band into the mix. I wasn’t excited because I am here for the reading and the artistic expression. Music can be included under that umbrella, but I didn’t want it under mine.
The first few pages included directions for use. That is when I discovered that the CD is meant to be played along with the reading and that if done properly, it should amplify the experience. I quickly pulled the “can’t mix reading and music” stick out of my butt, bought myself a portable CD player, and dove right in.
My Favs:
I liked the backstory on where the name McSweeney’s came from.
I liked the photos from the guy who painted slogans on billboard like signs and strapped them to the sides of his minivan for people to comment on.
I liked “Sketch for Little Lit” and the track paired with it, “Frog and Banjo”.
I really liked “Eulogy for Saul Steinberg" and I am not sure why.
My Least Favs:
I did not like “R. Lowell’s Letters w/ Artwork” because it went on too long and I didn’t care to know the person it was about.
I really did not like “Art in Art is Art-as-Art” because it was kind of annoying and I wanted a better closer.
Four stars to a book that pushed me to step out of my reading comfort zone.
TWO BONUS QUOTES:
“Once again the night had shown its miserable lack of staying power.”
“There were simple ways some ladies had of telling a good guy from a bad, and her way was as stupid as any.”
When I first saw that this one included a CD, I thought maybe the publisher had decided to throw an indie band into the mix. I wasn’t excited because I am here for the reading and the artistic expression. Music can be included under that umbrella, but I didn’t want it under mine.
The first few pages included directions for use. That is when I discovered that the CD is meant to be played along with the reading and that if done properly, it should amplify the experience. I quickly pulled the “can’t mix reading and music” stick out of my butt, bought myself a portable CD player, and dove right in.
My Favs:
I liked the backstory on where the name McSweeney’s came from.
I liked the photos from the guy who painted slogans on billboard like signs and strapped them to the sides of his minivan for people to comment on.
I liked “Sketch for Little Lit” and the track paired with it, “Frog and Banjo”.
I really liked “Eulogy for Saul Steinberg" and I am not sure why.
My Least Favs:
I did not like “R. Lowell’s Letters w/ Artwork” because it went on too long and I didn’t care to know the person it was about.
I really did not like “Art in Art is Art-as-Art” because it was kind of annoying and I wanted a better closer.
Four stars to a book that pushed me to step out of my reading comfort zone.
TWO BONUS QUOTES:
“Once again the night had shown its miserable lack of staying power.”
“There were simple ways some ladies had of telling a good guy from a bad, and her way was as stupid as any.”
August 8, 2014
This was a great find that I discovered in one of those mythical and legendary used bookstores whose likes are sadly disappearing faster than I'd care to acknowledge. It was an enormous warehouse with rooms added on as seeming afterthoughts like some poor imitation of the Winchester Mystery House. It was a dusty labyrinth of rickety shelves fifteen feet high and poorly lit besides. The books were arranged loosely alphabetically by author and genre and more often than not were misfiled. A person could spend entire days and never be heard from again in such a place and if it ever caught fire you were certainly doomed for lack of proper exits. My mind exploded the day I discovered that there were actually books shelved behind the ones you could see. Roscoe & Wallace no longer exists but the things I bought there are the equivalent to priceless archaeological artifacts for me, not only for their individual merits but because they took entire afternoons to find.
This is were I came to find this book, which is actually a magazine put out by Dave Egger's as a quarterly release. Each issue being a complete reinvention as to its format and style and so is nearly as mystical as the place that I found it.
This issue was created in conjunction with the quirky rock band "They Might Be Giants" and has an accompanying CD attached to the inside back cover that is meant to be played as one reads it. The music is one of the best things about this issue. It is similar to what one would expect from this band as well as a complete departure from anything they ever done before or since. There are other artists here as well, notably a solo piano piece composed and performed by Philip Glass that is one of my all time favorite compositions of his ever!
This is actually more of an art book than anything else and it is filled with watercolors, paintings and illustrations of amazing diversity. It is something one can pick up and look at over and over again and still find things new and interesting. Found between all of this are stories and poems. There are over a dozen writers found here between the covers of this rectangular hardbound book. Among them are the notable talents of Ian Frazier, Zadie Smith and Arthur Bradford, all fine writers.
All in all, for reasons that should be abundantly clear at this point this is one of my favorite books of all time. Amazingly, I see this quite often in other used book stores and if you are lucky enough to come across a copy I highly recommend you pick it up without any hesitation in the slightest. I buy nearly ever one I've come across myself to give as gifts...and no one has ever complained!
This is were I came to find this book, which is actually a magazine put out by Dave Egger's as a quarterly release. Each issue being a complete reinvention as to its format and style and so is nearly as mystical as the place that I found it.
This issue was created in conjunction with the quirky rock band "They Might Be Giants" and has an accompanying CD attached to the inside back cover that is meant to be played as one reads it. The music is one of the best things about this issue. It is similar to what one would expect from this band as well as a complete departure from anything they ever done before or since. There are other artists here as well, notably a solo piano piece composed and performed by Philip Glass that is one of my all time favorite compositions of his ever!
This is actually more of an art book than anything else and it is filled with watercolors, paintings and illustrations of amazing diversity. It is something one can pick up and look at over and over again and still find things new and interesting. Found between all of this are stories and poems. There are over a dozen writers found here between the covers of this rectangular hardbound book. Among them are the notable talents of Ian Frazier, Zadie Smith and Arthur Bradford, all fine writers.
All in all, for reasons that should be abundantly clear at this point this is one of my favorite books of all time. Amazingly, I see this quite often in other used book stores and if you are lucky enough to come across a copy I highly recommend you pick it up without any hesitation in the slightest. I buy nearly ever one I've come across myself to give as gifts...and no one has ever complained!
January 11, 2021
The idea for this issue was slightly better than the execution. Some of the music went really well with the pieces and others really needed to be listened to separately. All in all, though, the CD is fantastic, in new small part due to the amazing They Might Be Giants and the eclectic mix pieces in the book were mostly strong. Definitely an ambitious entry. I particularly liked the intro about the real Timothy McSweeney. Also, this reminded me of when Stuart McLean had a theme song written for one of his books which turned into a whole album and cause me to do some googling followed by very fond reminiscing.
November 19, 2025
I was skeptical, because I usually need to read in silence, but this wasn't too distracting. And some of the music helped me read the pieces in a different tone than I normally would - brighter, happier. It was kinda eye opening. Also, thanks to my husband for ripping the CD for me since in 2025 when I'm reading this I don't have a CD player that I can carry around with me!
March 16, 2021
When I finished this collection I wasn't quite sure where to shelve it: with my books, my postcards, or my CDs. I eventually settled on CDs since it's equally miraculous that I got this used with the music still inside and that I still have a boom box to play it on.
March 7, 2017
So this volume of McSweeney's came with a CD by They Might Be Giants, meant to be listened to track by track as you read the pieces in the journal. I was very skeptical of this as I strongly prefer silence when reading and find any noise distracting and annoying. So, shockingly, I really did not enjoy this experience at all. I tried, but it really doesn't work for me. The pieces themselves weren't very interesting to me either, although surely that opinion is somewhat colored by the particular reading experience that was not for me.
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August 26, 2014Lost the accompanying CD after it got scratched to hell and back so I sold the book.
The size is a little funky (long like those old Garfield comic anthologies) and the CD does not come with a slip case (just a plastic doo-hickey for it to snap into; think it first got scratched one night when I fell asleep reading it with the CD inside the book). It is tricky trying to read each story with only its respective track playing in your player. But yeah, They Might Be Giants and M Doughty, good stuff, yeah.
Love the concept of this; would be wonderful if an intrepid publisher would do a similar non-digital book-object with an embedded mp3 player, like they do for kid's books.
The size is a little funky (long like those old Garfield comic anthologies) and the CD does not come with a slip case (just a plastic doo-hickey for it to snap into; think it first got scratched one night when I fell asleep reading it with the CD inside the book). It is tricky trying to read each story with only its respective track playing in your player. But yeah, They Might Be Giants and M Doughty, good stuff, yeah.
Love the concept of this; would be wonderful if an intrepid publisher would do a similar non-digital book-object with an embedded mp3 player, like they do for kid's books.
June 14, 2012
This was my first foray into the McSweeney's world. I knew nothing about it at the time. I bought it because it had a CD of accompanying music by They Might Be Giants included inside. And that happy marriage set off my enduring obsession with most things Timothy.
December 9, 2013
I recently wrote a short thing about Dave Eggers and then realized that I hadn't rated or reviewed the many issues of McSweeney's I've read. The early issues were especially influential and inspiring to me. This one had a They Might Be Giants CD. Neat-o.
January 17, 2011
brilliant as always. the cd is equally as brilliant.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews