Now Reading

I started The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kik Johnson, who can do some great short stories. This is a short novel/novella and so far the premise and writing are good but I'm wait to see what sort of book it's really gonna be...especially since it's set in Lovecraft's dream lands. Should be interesting at least.

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After months of neglect I've picked up Mason & Dixon again, I was about halfway.

Just got to the mention of the invention of the sandwich and the shaggy dog story about an exiled French Chef and a Mechanical Duck

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Those_Who_Trespass

About halfway through this so far, really informational, will be using it as a resource for a long I time I think..

Amarna letters. Egpyt's correspondence with Cannan found on Clay tablets.

tale of sinuhe

ancient Egyptian tale

A cheap bookshop sold a hardcover copy of Adam Sisman's John le Carré biography, which I am tucking into while at home. Sure is nice reading a huge book again, kinda missed doing that after Moore's Jerusalem and Pynchon (keep going Spiral! It's worth it!)

  On 4/20/2017 at 2:07 AM, keanu reeves said:

i'm trying to read j r by gaddis but holy fuck is it tedious. 

Yeah? I enjoyed A Frolic of His Own. Been meaning to get around to JR or Recognitions.

Right now it’s Graham Greene’s End of the Affair & random poetry to decompress from a couple endless editorial slogs.

I discovered Zbigniew Herbert recently via this collection & some of it makes me very happy. I definitely prefer watching an artist fail in hopeless, naïve earnesty & being able to relate over the alternative of being successfully razzle-dazzled but coming away feeling more or less empty.

 free .pdf /10

gave up on gaddis. reading satantango by krasznahorkai, which is very good so far.

Just started rereading Roadside Picnic, don't think I finished it last time and I farkin love Stalker

The next William Gibson joint is called Agency, comes out in early 2018 and Hilldog won the election -

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/books/sci-fi-writer-william-gibson-reimagines-the-world-after-the-2016-election.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

description sounds convoluted as hell

  Quote

The story unfolds in two timelines: San Francisco in 2017, in an alternate time track where Hillary Clinton won the election and Mr. Trump’s political ambitions were thwarted, and London in the 22nd century, after decades of cataclysmic events have killed 80 percent of humanity.

subtle

i'm actually halfway through Pattern Recognition atm and enjoying it

Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: David Foster Wallace Biography by DT Max. Surprised to find it's not so much a glowing tribute but a page by page destruction of DFW and the 'nice guy' image. DFW sounded naive as hell (and mostly crazy). Still a fan though.

  On 4/28/2017 at 11:15 PM, Bechuga said:

Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: David Foster Wallace Biography by DT Max. Surprised to find it's not so much a glowing tribute but a page by page destruction of DFW and the 'nice guy' image. DFW sounded naive as hell (and mostly crazy). Still a fan though.

sounds interesting. half a year after finishing IJ i keep finding myself thinking man that was a damn good book

  On 4/29/2017 at 1:35 AM, span said:

 

  On 4/28/2017 at 11:15 PM, Bechuga said:

Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: David Foster Wallace Biography by DT Max. Surprised to find it's not so much a glowing tribute but a page by page destruction of DFW and the 'nice guy' image. DFW sounded naive as hell (and mostly crazy). Still a fan though.

sounds interesting. half a year after finishing IJ i keep finding myself thinking man that was a damn good book

 

Yeah. Not many books stick in my mind after reading them but that one does.

Into The Woods by John Yorke. If I keep reading books about writing I don't actually need to do it right?

Rereading stories in The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman

  On 4/29/2017 at 1:18 PM, Bechuga said:

 

  On 4/29/2017 at 1:35 AM, span said:

 

  On 4/28/2017 at 11:15 PM, Bechuga said:

Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: David Foster Wallace Biography by DT Max. Surprised to find it's not so much a glowing tribute but a page by page destruction of DFW and the 'nice guy' image. DFW sounded naive as hell (and mostly crazy). Still a fan though.

sounds interesting. half a year after finishing IJ i keep finding myself thinking man that was a damn good book

 

Yeah. Not many books stick in my mind after reading them but that one does.

 

the long interview book is a good bio of DFW since it's all his own words/conversations.. the movie was actually pretty good too.  i thought it was pretty endearing and the book is a good 'getting to know you for a minute' type experience whereas the biography i read is like a portrait or something.. very flat.. but it was so long ago.. i think if you want to know DFW just read his books in order they were published.  you can see by "Oblibvion" what's going on in there.. and then after he died.. "The PAle King" and things i've read about it.. how he was "writing to escape boredom" because his meds didn't work and he was depressed as fuck.  anyway.. title of the road trip interview book is below. 

  On 5/1/2017 at 1:50 AM, ignatius said:

 

  On 4/29/2017 at 1:18 PM, Bechuga said:

 

  On 4/29/2017 at 1:35 AM, span said:

 

  On 4/28/2017 at 11:15 PM, Bechuga said:

Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: David Foster Wallace Biography by DT Max. Surprised to find it's not so much a glowing tribute but a page by page destruction of DFW and the 'nice guy' image. DFW sounded naive as hell (and mostly crazy). Still a fan though.

sounds interesting. half a year after finishing IJ i keep finding myself thinking man that was a damn good book

 

Yeah. Not many books stick in my mind after reading them but that one does.

 

 

 

the long interview book is a good bio of DFW since it's all his own words/conversations.. the movie was actually pretty good too.  i thought it was pretty endearing and the book is a good 'getting to know you for a minute' type experience whereas the biography i read is like a portrait or something.. very flat.. but it was so long ago.. i think if you want to know DFW just read his books in order they were published.  you can see by "Oblibvion" what's going on in there.. and then after he died.. "The PAle King" and things i've read about it.. how he was "writing to escape boredom" because his meds didn't work and he was depressed as fuck.  anyway.. title of the road trip interview book is below. 

 

 

"Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace"

 

I've read that, one of my favourite books and one of the few I've reread. The problem is that he seemed to have a resistance towards telling the truth--ironic for someone obsessed with 'sincere and direct involvement'--so how much of his own words you can believe is tricky (Lipsky repeatedly catches DFW out in that book, who asks him to stop the tape several times out of anger / annoyance). Even his non-fiction has been confirmed to be largely made up. A strange mix of desire to show off and insane guilt at having shown off.

Then again, how much of anything any of us say can be truly believed? And the non-fiction is entertaining so perhaps it was better it was falsified.

Thomas Pynchon is 80 today. Happy Birthday, you nearly impossible to read but magnificent bastard!

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/may/08/thomas-pynchon-at-80-eight-reasons-to-celebrate-his-birthday

Also, it's nearing on four years since his last book. Hopefully another is coming out, but considering he's covered all the major time periods of the last few centuries, what is left for him to write?

Ugh no more just yet pls

I have 3 to read still

You're still on those? Pff.

going by what I read about Pattern Recognition I thought it was going to be a DeLillo-esque kind of novel, what with a lot of analysis of its themes and people calling it 'postmodern'... but it turned out to be a fairly standard mystery novel with some interesting themes working as a setup/background. still an entertaining book but not nearly as interesting as I thought

  On 5/17/2017 at 7:32 PM, span said:

going by what I read about Pattern Recognition I thought it was going to be a DeLillo-esque kind of novel, what with a lot of analysis of its themes and people calling it 'postmodern'... but it turned out to be a fairly standard mystery novel with some interesting themes working as a setup/background. still an entertaining book but not nearly as interesting as I thought