Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

Boots!

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good?

No, Zendberg.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we need without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

This is the show I'm most excited about.

I've been excited in anticipation of it for a long time. The author, Stephen Wright,

has been on bookworm twice before. I love his work, and it takes him the Lord's own time to

complete it. I've been waiting for his newest novel, which is called Processed Cheese,

and which is published by Little Brown, oh, for around seven years. And as I read it, I wanted it to

never be over. I wanted to be reading it forever. I think, like Stephen's other books, it's made out of

sentences and a feeling about the world that's completely his own. Now, I know the title

Process Cheese, Stephen, has been with you for a while.

I've been wanting to write a book with that title since I can remember.

So I finally did.

The title came before the book.

Way back when I was 16, one of the things my father did was to make cheese boards. These were pieces of

wood on which cheese was attached under plastic. At first, when it started out, like most American

things, they were real, genuine, supreme, vintage cheeses.

...