May 2006: What Da Heck You Reading, Huh?

Emily Dickinson collection.

'My Family and Other Animals' by G. Durrell

after that, i might read some Hamlin Garland. How thrilling is that?

Anyhow, I'm currently in the middle of Michel Houellebecq's lengthy (overlong?) La possibilité d'une île. I like this style of book, even though it sometimes seems to be rambling a bit much - as if Houellebecq wasn't exactly sure what the focus of the book should be so he kept writing more pages hoping it would add up to something. Perhaps the rambling will all be tied together into a nice little twist towards the conclusion?

This is on my to-read pile as well. I think I'm going to give When We Were Orphans (Kazuo Ishiguro) a go first though.

Still reading Deus Lo Volt! The Crusades were depraved.

that describes all of Houellebecq's books pretty well.

Very good, I think. Great, in fact.

Informative intro is by Murakami, Murakami freaks.

Finally fell into The World Is Flat-induced coma. I suppose I will go back to it eventually.

I bought - and read a chunk of - Orkneyinga Saga (the story of the Earls of Orkney) on Saturday because I forgot to bring my Pelecanos out with me. It's the only Norse saga which is based primarily in the UK, according to the introduction. It's good, and the similarities to crime fiction are glaring.

Although how you can spend five minutes looking at the view around Quenstown and then get bored of it is beyond me. Perhaps I am too romantic.

Also just bought Calcio: A History of Italian Football. 500 pages of goodness.

Not too keen on Dayspring Mishandled (apart from the title), but enjoyed The Woman In His Life very much indeed.

You have to use your BRANE though, and mine is very rusty.

I'm reading very slowly again because I keep having to go off and write up this pesky dissertation, tch. Have STILL got Loving in my bag for the train/lunch break but it's kind of not happening.

I am also reading Uncle Silas, which, like most Gothic/Sensational novels of the time, is turning out to be great fun.

Also finished Peter Earle's The Pirate Wars, which is a real history book about the (eventually successful) attempts to eradicate piracy from the 17th to the 19th centuries. It was a gift, so I felt I had to read it, but if you can suck all the joy and fun out of stories about pirates, well, good luck to you.

Now I'm reading Glyn Williams' The Pride of All the Oceans, which is about the British navy essentially, er, being pirates. Thing is though, the book itself is terrible. For some reason the print is half the size on the page that it should be, with massive blank spaces all around it, and the margins on the spine side are narrower than the ones on the outside, and so the whole reading experience is one of hand cramp (from having to hold the book so far open) and squinting. Cack. CACK!

In a rush to leave the flat this morning I grabbed "Brendan Behan's New York", which I've had for years (certainly since the 1980s) and never read. I like Brendan Behan (my living room is currently enlivened by a BB postcard as sent by the Dublinfox himself) but this is not good. Dictated AND phoned in, I think.

Also, can I just stand and briefly applaud "May has fallen upon us like a fat man on a lamb chop"? Not enough love.

Currently in my work bag: The Best Of Myles, a collection of Flann O'Brien's newspaper columns, because I want to write a blog post about it.

However, I am still reading it because of the pure gusto for destruction that Abbey infuses into the book. Whenever Hayduke sabotages another icon of development, it is clear that Abbey relished every detail and spent considerable time imagining the full scenario. So, while the book doesn't have much to offer, what it does do well is unusual and gripping in a strange way: a wierd hybrid of the superhero Justice League of America and a straight-up military manual.

I just finished Another Country by Baldwin, & liked that a lot, but was also slightly disappointed. I thought Go Tell It On the Mountain and Going to Meet the Man were much better, perhaps because I think his prose is so beautiful and Another Country was almost entirely dialogue...

Now I'm trying to get into Paradise by Toni Morrison--I heard her read an excerpt from it downtown a couple days ago, about love, and it was marvellous. So we'll see...

Mind you, haven't read it all yet.

I particularly like the later stuff.

Didn't read much this weekend due to a build up of football. Haven't even finished Saturday's Guardian, let alone the Sunday Times.

I'm still on The Once and Future King. Book 4: The Candle in the Wind. Which has the unfortunate effect of making me think about Elton John instead of doomed and ageing lovers.

Also Auguste Guinnard's Three Years Slavery among the Patagonians. Published by Non-Such who have now issued four travellers tales on Patagonia, mostly 19th century and long before Chatwin rewrote its history for his own amusement.

Someone (Chris?) had mentioned a bookstore in Las Vegas - any clues to the name? We'll have a little time there this trip.

Also I started Nick Montfort's Twisty Little Passages, which I can't believe I have waited this long to get a hold of. My excuse: I didn't realize it was out in paperback.

Otherwise, still reading Wittgenstein, PI and RFM.

I did mention that bookstore and a quick Citysearch and Booksense gander offer no evidence of anything like what I remember. So it might be gone! It was somewhere in the University district, I think. I was never the one driving and LV is a huge self-similar grid so I never had a sense of what road or even what part of town we were in.

Whoa! I take issue with that "educated" there.

(I'm reading Jack Vance's "The Palace of Love", book three of his "The Demon Princes" series. Yes, the name's atrocious, but it's quite entertaining)

just finished Rocketo by Frank Espinosa and Blood & Grits by Harry Crews.

I read the endearingly short "Here Is New York" by EB White, which is really an article about NYC, written in 1948 or thereabouts, but bound into an attractive slim volume, and no less beautifully written.

I then had another go at "Sweet Tooth" which I like on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis but can't really warm to.

I need more NYC books, or DC books, or Reykjavik books. I borrowed "Independent People" by Halldor Laxness off Ricky T ages ago, which seems to me probably a slightly better reflection of Icelandic life than the sagas I've been dipping into, but it's fat and large and I want to save it for my return from the States. Problems, problems.

Laurel I'm not working to hard or fast rules - well, some of them are fast but that need not be your concern - but I note that your Mr. Whitehead has a novel out called "The Colossus of New York" which sounds like it might fit the (not very specific) bill perfectly, especially since the online reviews I've seen are mixed, at best. Sounds tailor-made for me. thanks!

That whole incest thing just gets dumped on you in a hurry.

It's not John Grisham, but I can't remember his name.

Pilger, John Pilger, that's it.

Bit heavy before bedtime.

I'm reading Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. During one particularly creepy bit, I nearly jumped out of my skin when a truck ran over a manhole outside our apartment. I made my husband shut the closet door before I could even think about falling asleep. Now that's a damned good book.

Tomorrow it is by BONO out of U2!

There used to be a Victorian convent opposite my gran's house that I coveted for my own progressive school/personal domain, and I don't think I have ever grown out of the dream.

Yes, but not until late July. I am hoping to do a 130 mile section of the Pacific Crest Trail in WA. From below Indian Heaven up through the Wm. O. Douglas Wilderness, east of Mt. Rainier.

I had to note this if only because Markelby hadn't, yet.

I am reading Chris Ricks' 'Oxford Book of English Verse' in chronological order, from 'Summer is icumen in' onwards. Lots of good "a-Maying we will go" poems, which feels apt. I'm up to Ben Jonson right now.

An historical novel, oh yay mine children.

Just starting volume one (of two) of the complete novels and stories of Sherlock Holmes. Since I've never read a single one - I figure it's more than about time. A fat book to read on some travels...

An introduction to visual culture

(besides that intro to zizek, dave navarro bio, some trashy thriller and a history of knowledge as well as a book on babies)

I feel itchy, and my eyes are restless.

To maintain a balance, however, I've committed to only reading novels for pleasure on the bus/skytrain to school and back. It's good, because I am guaranteed to have at least 90 minutes per day through the week to read for pleasure. Right now I am reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and am part way through 'Foundation and Empire'.

Started Lucas Bridges Uttermost Part of the Earth, found via Abebooks. A nice 1951 first edition from the Readers Club with inky plates and thin pages. Also The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup. Sounds terrible, but reads OK. Henning Mankell writes about Angola!

reading pj o rourke ('give war a chance') now on someone's rec. he's loathsome really. he's quiet these days tho' isnt he?

Nevertheless, I've made ti to the end of "The Furies" which I found pretty harrowing, actually. It's a bit curate's eggy but it packs a surprising emt=otional punch from time to time.

Early in the book I thought it was high-end chick lit, and I suppose that's right in a way, but it's different to that also.

I was also going to say something about how it's brutal and forensic in its portrayal of a breaking relationship, but it's probably closer to the truth to say it's brutal and detailed.

A real New York book though, so it was good homework. It was an especially good NYC book during the bits where they were in London.

Going Home
The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup. Preface and intro were OK, but first two stories (Angola and Argentina) were nothing special.

A look at the future of independent bookshops from Monday's Guardian:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/shoptalk/story/0,,1780436,00.html

I reread The Bell Jar last week for book club and was the only person to have anything negative to say about it. I loved it first time round but this time despite the beautiful writing I ran out of patience with Esther.

I finished Aimless's book.

Does Jaq charge overdue fines?

Did you really need to learn how to be alone?

So far Jaq has been very good at giving me a book to read every time we've met, and one that was well worth reading. I have been very bad at returning the favor. This is because I am, essentially, a terrible human being. Ah well!

But to go back and answer your question: no. ;)

I've just started Kafka on the Shore, and wondering why I thought I'd gone off Murakami.

(Hopkins T: If you are reading, when do you roll into DC?)

What to read next...

Next up will be homework as set by Archel, i.e. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close".

Mary: looks like I'll be arriving on Tuesday 20th, but I haven't had the time or the energy to "firm up" any "Plans", yet. I am, however, extremely excited by the whole shebang. I'm going ot get a guidebook out of the library, soon.

His primary thesis is exceptionally interesting and not scientifically unsound, namely that conciousness is an inherent quality of all matter/energy and therefore implicit in the universe from the beginning. This idea was a sensation in the mid-1950s when it was published, but it seems to have devolved into the so-called 'Gaia hypothesis' since then, which is far less subtle and not as fundamental as Tielhard's ideas were.

Uh huh. Piltdown Man

Antonio Gramsci "Prison Notebooks"
Paul Foot "The vote: How it was Won and How it was Undermined"

Finishing:

Tony Cliff "A World to win: Life of a Revolutionary"

Started:

Gabriel Kolko "Century of War"

Taking up again:

Emmanuel Todd "After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order"

Good stuff.

Just started The Search by Geoff Dyer. His sort of detective novel from 1993, which opens with quotes from Kierkegard and Fernando Pessoa. Will be a quick read...

I apologize for jumping on you like that, just because you happened to enjoy the book. I can understand how the ideas could be interesting to read and think about, whether or not one is completely convinced of their truthfulness. I often like to read about theories that wouldn't necessarily pass rigorous scientific muster, and thinking "outside the box" in that way can be liberating.

Actually it's excellent.

My apologies, Aimless. As a reader of Wilhelm Reich and his orgone theories, I should not cast stones at Fr. Chardin.

Hope you're enjoying your Long Trip as much as we are enjoying ours!

I am now on to "Solos" by Kitty Burns Florey. I have a sense that it's going to be indie (like it (indie) will be to Brautigan (not indie) like The Pastels (indie) are to the Velvet Underground (not indie)).

I will also be reading The Rough Guide to New York, The Lonely Planet City Guide to Washington, DC and The Lonely Planet Guide to New Yourk, New Jersey and Pensylvania. Not indie.

Also finished Lost Rivers of London which was fascinating, if a little footnotey. The sort of book which leaves you tracing ancient streams in the A-Z.

Back to Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett. Interesting stuff on Spain's attitude to brothels. I'm there a week today.

Annoyed that a used copy I recently bought of Sigurd Hoel's "The Road to the World's End" turned out to be abridged.

Now I am reading Hesse's Siddartha, which my son sent me.