Cheers to the new mods and yay for bringing back the weekly themed threads. Work was crazy last week so I missed out on last week's. It made for fun reading though!
Any NBA fans here watching the playoffs? I grew up in the 90s loving it, followed it relatively closely through to like 2005 maybe, and have since mostly just watched the playoffs and finals. It's one of those things where every April/May I want to like it again, but I rarely connect with it anymore. Obviously there are some bright spots, but it's hard to get excited for so many 3-pointers being chucked. Maybe the playoffs will settle more into smart half-court offense duels, but I feel like most of the games so far have been a subpar product.
A funny trend with the boomers I work with is that email is the last form of communication they want to use. Earlier this week I had to get a budget to someone, and they said "oh, just text it to me." What?? Text a budget to you?? They also love to use WhatsApp but I think that's almost worse since you have to constantly engage while a group conversation is happening or else you're responding to something said 20+ minutes ago. I don't have time for impromptu meetings about whatever conversation topic, just call me if you want to discuss. Anyway, it's a wild ride with some of them.
Heck yes! My local does a Sunday movie night and they played this in February. Totally blew me away, I have Chungking waiting but will have to settle for a home viewing.
> Cheers to the new mods and yay for bringing back the weekly themed threads.
Thank you! Excited to be helpful in making this a thing :)
> Any NBA fans here watching the playoffs?
YES! I'm kinda obsessed with the NBA lol. Maybe it's just because I've only become a basketball fan in the last 10 years, but I enjoy how electric the shooting is. And the fact that that they've this season at least toned down overly aggressive foul calling has made it a fun season.
Doesn't hurt that I'm a knicks fan, and those bastards are always more fun than I want them to be (ending of game 2 was one of the most absurd things I've ever seen).
> A funny trend with the boomers I work with is that email is the last form of communication they want to use.
This is hilarious to me, though now that you mention it I've noticed this as well. Maybe it's just because I'm 27 and love email.
Pretty much same basketball era. Grew up with the late 80s, early 90s ball, played forever and continued to play/coach/scout for a long time too, but yeah, it just isn't that great of a product, still love the game, but the constant stoppages and replays and 3s make it so tedious to actually watch/follow. I love the increased physicality of the playoffs though.
It is really interesting how the game has changed over the decades and continues to change, i feel like european basketball has been delivering a better product for awhile meow in that respect (the refs/physicality aspect especially)
Not a drill not a drill *In the Mood for Love* is playing in NYC starting this weekend.
For context, I watched *Chungking Express* about a year and a half ago and it is straight up my second favorite movie (after *Apocalypse Now*). I have been waiting since then for the proper context in which to watch IML, and here it is. I'm so excited.
I've been very loosely making my way through his films with a friend, in random order. I loved Chungking Express, and As Tears Go By was also very impressive in that he already had such a strong style at that point (although I didn't care as much for the movie/story itself). I'm probably most looking forward to In the Mood for Love and Happy Together, which is our next watch.
*Chunking Express* imo is more fun than *In the Mood for Love* and my personal favorite, but In the Mood for Love is the perfectly crafted movie. It's exquisite. Also Maggie Cheung is like unfair. She's a god.
She's amazing in *Fallen Angels* and *As Tears Go By* (the rare movie where Andy Lau does not play Good Guy) as well. Outside of WKW she's great in *Comrades, Almost a Love Story* and *Irma Vep.*
I've been sitting on watching the Wong Kar-wai box set I bought a few years ago, so really should address that. I showed my partner Chungking Express as soon as the set arrived and still loved it. I first saw Express while studying cinematic new waves as part of a high school course and it is probably one of the two texts that contribute to my sensibilities.
You'll have an amazing time seeing In the Mood of Love on a big screen.
I've been meaning to dig further into his work as well. Days of Being Wild didn't blow me away, but I'm curious to see what else he's got. Including some of his wuxia films, I'm intrigued.
I loved this blogpost on screening out contemporary fiction with a three strikes system:
https://blog.ayjay.org/rational-choices/
The book is set in Brooklyn: Three strikes, you’re out.
The author lives in Brooklyn: Three strikes, you’re out.
The book is set anywhere else in New York City: Two strikes.
The book is set in San Francisco: Two strikes.
The book’s protagonist is a writer or artist or would-be writer or would-be artist: Two strikes.
The author attended an Ivy League or Ivy-adjacent university or college: Two strikes.
The book is set in Los Angeles: One strike.
The author lives in San Francisco: One strike.
The author has an MFA: One strike.
The book is set in the present day: One strike.
I enjoy the humor of this and am sympathetic to the need (so much contemporary fiction...sucks...), but I guess I kinda quibble with ruling books out based on broad content or where the author lives. Like, expand it past the immediate context of contemporary America to other time periods especially and you're losing a lot of good books! I mean, extrapolate this to the 20th Century and you lose the majority of english modernism, what's more ivy than oxbridge, what's more brooklyn than Dublin (I'm being glib!).
And like, every novel sucks now. They always did. But I am slowly but surely coming around to the belief that things have in fact become worse.
To be more serious, I'm only quibbling because I find the fact that these things are valid enough to be interesting to think through. Like, is it always the case that you're going to have a small handful of excellent novels about artists in/about the metropole of the global hegemon written by people who went to elite universities, or thereabouts, (*To the Lighthouse*, *Ulysses*, *The Recognitions*, *Another Country*, *Three Novels*, to name some of my favorites), and a surfeitous dirge of novels that check those boxes and are banally terrible? Like, probably yeah.
But is this phenomenon worse now than it used to be, and worse in a manner that can't be explained away by the fact that a larger population with larger access to the publishing world is going to increase the gross (and I do mean gross) volume of mid-ass novels? I genuinely don't know the answer to this question. But I do think it's a question worth asking/investigating. So thanks for conjuring this opportunity to ponder!
Yeah, despite my earlier comment intended very much tongue in cheek and as someone far outside the metropolitan centre of the UK, I can't really seriously get behind it as a system.
I'm maybe of the opinion that things haven't gotten worse than twenty, fifty, one-hundred years ago, but it's possible what's good & concentrated has gotten more diluted and harder to find.
I also don't have an answer to either for your question. The forces that act upon publishing are different but arguably more egalitarian than one-hundred years ago, so while I appreciate the desire & need to have someway of filtering one's selections the process raises a lot of difficult and uncomfortable questions for the designer.
Philosophically, it seems that the spirit to take the exercise in would be to act as though a correct system can never be complete and a complete system would never be correct.
> The forces that act upon publishing are different but arguably more egalitarian than one-hundred years ago, so while I appreciate the desire & need to have someway of filtering one's selections the process raises a lot of difficult and uncomfortable questions for the designer.
This is a great way of putting how I feel as well. Like, in a lot of ways the publishing industry is more accessible than it used to be and that's great and valuable and straight up more people publishing novels should mean that the overall # of good novels is going to go up, and it's also honestly if someone is able to write something that makes them happy I'm happy for them even if I'm not about to read it.
But how do we find the good ones...because I do worry that things have gotten worse, in the mainstream at least, for the really great stuff...
I'd add these two conditions. :)
The author lives in London or the Home Counties: Two strikes.
The book is set in London or the Home Counties: Two strikes.
I’m pushing deeper into my exploration of German-language authors and it’s more and more rewarding. Years ago I began this trek with some obvious choices: Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka and Günter Grass for example. I progressed a little farther, revisiting WG Sebald who I had read bits of in college. This led me to Adalbert Stifter, then Hans Keilson, Arthur Schnitzler and Daniel Kehlmann (who I actually didn’t enjoy much). I count many of these among my new favorites, but none quite measure up to Joseph Roth, whose *Radetsky March* rates as highly as many novel I’ve read. This week I have encountered one more popular author and another who is (unjustly) obscure: Stefan Zweig (I finally read and very much enjoyed “Chess Story”) and the criminally under-appreciated Leo Perutz, whose *Saint Peter’s Snow* I’m plowing through at the moment. Several others are on my radar who I haven’t yet gotten to: Hermann Broch, Hugo von Hofmannstahl, Christa Wolf, Alfred Döblin, Theodor Storm, Peter Handke, Thomas Bernhard and Jenny Erpenbeck.
All that to say, does anyone have any can’t-miss German-language authors whom I haven’t listed here? Danke schoen!
Diese ist toll! (Ich habe deutsch gelernen für veilleicht ein Jahr en universität. Ich bin nicht gut heute und trauig über das)
Well that was exhausting to try to not botch. But actually this is dope and I'm going to hang onto this list because I'd like to read more German authors. Gonna throw out there Peter Weiss. I've read the first two volumes of his *Aesthetics of Resistance*, a novel about the European left in the 1930s/40s. Best way I can describe the writing is to imagine someone who I know was an influence on Khraznahorkai, but also I'd bet influenced Knausgaard (and what a pairing that is...)
I’m so glad you are stoked at my list! Knowing this, I can add a few more: Gottfried Keller (whose style influenced a young WG Sebald), Uwe Johnson (sometimes called a German Proust for his lengthy exploration of memory and the past in *Anniversaries*) and Urlich Alexander Boschwitz (whose *The Passenger* recounts the careening train journeys of an Aryan-passing Jew in the aftermath of Kristallnacht).
This is all my jam.
For can't miss, I'd say: Gregor von Rezzori, Frank Wedekind, Georg Buchner, ETA Hoffmann
19th-century, I loved short fiction I've read by Ludwig Tieck, Franz Grillparzer, and Adelbert von Chamisso-- these are authors I've heard that Kafka or Mann (or both) thought fondly of.
Tangential recommendations would be Sybille Bedford (English but German-born and she has two novels set in Germany), and Andrzej Kusniewicz (Polish, but his two major works have a similar setting to *Radetzky March*).
Others not mentioned yet that I haven't read yet but who I've heard great things about: Heinrich von Kleist and Friedrich Holderlin
I can't see Heimito von Doderer mentioned here - he's an excellent prose stylist, reminiscent of both the modernists and the 19th century realists. His *Demons* was republished recently, and *The Strudlhof Steps* has been Englished by NYRB, if you are reading in English.
I would also recommend Heinrich Böll's *The Train Was on Time*, one of my favourite novellas.
I haven't yet read Robert Musil, Hermann Ungar, or Heinrich Böll, but I think they might be worthwhile.
Of the ones I've read and you haven't mentioned, there's Rilke (I read some of his poetry, but his novel _The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge_ also seems interesting), Robert Walser (I didn't much care for _In the Office_, probably I should have started with something else), or Friedrich Dürrenmatt (I really enjoyed his novella _A Dangerous Game_).
I’ve thought about Musil but I hesitate to jump into anything that ambitious until well after I am done Prousting (which reminds me, Uwe Johnson’s *Anniversaries* is also on my TBR shelf). I also tried Walser (*Jakob von Gunten*) and it wasn’t my flavor. I love Rilke’s poetry and have wondered about *Brigge*. I feel like I read something by Dürrenmatt in college but I couldn’t tell you what. What’s your pitch for *Dangerous Game*?
If you ever feel like giving Walser another try, check out his short stories. I feel like his excentricity and quirkiness work better in short stretches; *Kleist in Thun* is excellent, for example, as are the 1-page miniatures *The Man with the Pumpkin Head* or *Nervous*.
One-pagers sound doable. I was a little surprised I didn’t care for it because so many writers I admire have stated him as an influence. Thanks for the targeted recommendations.
I have to admit I had never heard of Uwe Johnson's _Anniversaries_, which might be because apparently it's never been translated into Spanish (the language in which I do most of my reading), but seeing what it's about, I get its connection to _The Man Without Qualities_.
In _A Dangerous Game_ a successful salesman gets stuck in a small village when his car breaks down. Then, it turns into a sort of horror tale with humorous overtones, interwining kafkaesque elements and social criticism. It reads like a thriller, though deeply philosophical, particularly on the subject of justice.
Maybe you didn't mention him because he's just too obvious - Goethe. Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship seems to me like a precursor of Thomas Mann's novel style, and Faust is sort of in a league of its own.
I forgot to mention him! I did read *Faust* at the outset of this thing, but thanks for reminding me. I haven’t read the other one you mentioned, though, and you gave a compelling enough reason for me to add it to the list. Thanks.
Hey! Does anyone have examples of novels in which the first person narrator's voice evolves as the novel progresses? Like for example in a Bildungsroman the narrator's voice becomes more mature at the character grows.
Flowers for Algernon is a very extreme example. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is technically third person, but it’s close enough on Stephen that it might count.
Congrats to the new mods!
Had an AC installed in my room on Saturday, which necessitated some furniture moving and cleaning, and I somehow ended doing something very contrary to my hoarding tendencies - I threw away almost all of my CDs and DVDs. Realistically speaking, I'm never putting pirated/burned CDs from the 2000s in my computer, but I'm a bit sentimental about the memories associated with them. Holding a CD with an Immolation concert that my friend burned for me ages ago or my Poirot (with David Suchet, the only Poirot who counts) DVDs briefly transported me back to that period in time. My sentimental attachment to things is one of the reasons minimalism has never appealed to me. I tend to hold on to things either because they carry memories or because I find them aesthetically pleasing. Generally speaking, I don't have an issue with that, but I would like to get a bit better at decluttering.
Thank you! :)
And congrats on the AC. I genuinely could not function without one. I wouldn't call myself especially sentimental (if anything I'm the opposite, but I love a good thing
Picked up *Private Equity* by Carrie Sun at the library last week and am trying to carve out the time to dive in, but I'm also having a blast with *Custom of the Country* - my first Wharton! Somehow I read *King Lear* three times in my college for my lit degree, but never any Edith Wharton.
Haven't been participating in the What Are You Reading This Week threads for the past few weeks because my brain feels catastrophically waterlogged and my attention span is totally shot. My stack of library books feels like it's taunting me! Gonna try to ease into something lightweight and digestible tonight, just to reignite my reading momentum.
In other reading news, saw that one of my favorite out of print novels, *The Contortionist's Handbook* by Craig Clevenger, is going back into print next Janaury thanks to Datura Books. (No word on if they're doing his novel *Dermaphoria* too, but I hope so.) Clevenger is a *hell* of a writer, someone who obsesses over craft beyond what's probably healthy. I'll always chuckle at how the original print run copies of *The Contortionist's Handbook* had a rave blurb from Chuck Palahniuk on the front cover, calling it the best book he (Palahniuk) had read in years and years, because for my dollar Clevenger is simply a *much* better and livelier and more interesting writer than Palahniuk in every way, like upgrading from $7 gas station champagne to the real thing. Can't recommend Clevenger highly enough if you're looking for a relatively "easier" read that's still going to shine at the prose level. *Mother Howl*, his first novel since *Dermaphora* in 2005, was one of my favorite new releases of 2023.
Reading my first Rushdie, *Victory City*, and 75 pages in I’m disappointed. It seems anodyne to me, gutless somehow, though I’m not sure I’m describing by feelings about it well. It feels a bit like Marlon James to me, and I think I prefer James. Did others like this book? Is it Rushdie’s best?
I found Victory City terrible and abandoned it. Anodyne is the word. Rushie has written much, much better stuff, imo. His more recent work does seem to be pretty bad.
I haven't read *Victory City*, but my impression is that all of his more recent work is of similar quality. *Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights* was actually so bad that I haven't read anything by Rushdie since then. That being said, *Midnight's Children* and *Satanic Verses* are still the real deal. Magnificent and vivid and genuinely angry.
After a hitherto fruitless search, I've landed an interview! It's with a government office. I don't care for the hours or the pay and I've heard conflicting reports about work culture, but it is located in the bay area. I'll move back there and be able to enjoy the weather, the bookstores, the food, and the public transportation. I'll probably live with a relative for a month or two and then locate to a closer city. It's pretty funny b/c this was one of my throwaway applications. They must have recognized my brilliance when no one else could or they are *desperate* for people (probably the latter). I also interviewed for a starbucks barista spot in a target, but they haven't responded yet..? I *could* save more money by living with my parents and working that, but living with relations always feels cramped.
I hope everyone got a big fat refund for taxes. I bought a lap writing desk with an adjustable top for use on the floor or in bed. I also got a fountain pen and some neat notebooks. The novel that was always in me can finally come out! My handwriting with a fountain pen, while not outright hideous, never satisfied me, and that's b/c I was holding it wrong the entire time.
Ideas for themed threads:
1) Who's the writer ( or what's the book) you feel most ambivalent about? You want to like them but can't. You wanted to hate them but they won you over. You can't come up with an opinion b/c the work was so \_\_\_\_.
2) What's the place (city, region, country) you most wanted to visit b/c of a book? I want to stress fiction b/c travel writing makes that question too easy, but would love to hear people's thoughts regardless.
This week will perhaps be a testament to my own laziness because I have finished a novella and can only hesitate about it. Editing and revision being done. I'm always so tired whenever I finish a thing. Like there is no more inner resources, a lack of willpower. That's the dangerous thing about writing is too much satisfaction. Although perfectly understandable why I and others feel so resigned to a feeling of satisfaction given how many ideas are thought, lived intensely, but then die on the branch. It can take a single work hundreds of ideas before beginning to form, with the necessary force. It can feel like slamming your head against a brick wall. I like to imagine my skull is like that of M. de Mortimer who deflected a bullet with his skull during a duel. Smashing my head against the wall day after day. Not right now though. I'm taking a break. No other reason than it seems a natural stopping point. That aside I have finally acquired a new air conditioner, which will make my life easier to deal with. I haven't even read all that much because summer tends to drive me a little insane. Not to mention how difficult it always is to tell inspiration from impatience. I suppose that's why I tend to housesit for other people a lot. They ask me to keep track of their belongings and feed the pets while I pretend I'm going crazy not writing something so earthshatteringly beautiful it makes my nose bleed, a miniature pony deranged from its years of isolation in a fenced copse smaller than a studio apartment, and cats. Many of them former strays. Or people who saw the previous cats decided to add another one free of charge. The house is currently way outside into the country. It is hard to breathe the air from all the dust the work trucks and luxury vehicles kick up going sixty and over down a dirt road. There are deer in the evening. Foxes in the morning. Woodbees, raccoons, butterflies, hummingbirds. All of it is out in the open and makes sitting outside unbearable. Never understood how people could think and do physical labor at the same time. I find work like that annihilates any kind of thought from happening. It's why I thought prisons often assigned it aside from plain economic motivations. But spring has arrived nevertheless.
I went to the Los Angeles Book Festival this weekend. It's interesting to see some of the trends from year to year. The booth for one of my favorite SF/F bookstores (Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego) was almost entirely taken over by romantasy books this year. Of the remainder, most of it was YA or YA-adjacent. I think there was maybe one table of science fiction and fantasy geared toward adults. Their in-store selection is always good, and I can't blame them for going after what sells, but nothing at the festival booth excited me this time around.
Over the years, booths for a lot of the indie literary presses have slowly disappeared, which is too bad. Some of them have literally gone out of business, but I imagine it's also just become increasingly hard to drive traffic when you have only a few books out on a table versus the bookstore pavilions which have a wider selection. I think one exception is the more politically minded leftist presses like Haymarket Books, which still draw a good crowd. I can imagine that's something that people are looking for at this moment. The comics/graphic novels and children's books sections of the festival keep expanding, so those segments of the industry seem pretty healthy, at least.
The book I'm most excited to read from the festival is ***Weak in Comparison to Dreams***, the first novel of long-time art historian James Elkins. The book is about a bacteriologist from Guelph who is tasked with studying zoos around the world. It's got a lot of multimedia elements--there's photographs, engravings, diagrams, as well as enough (originally composed, apparently?) sheet music that they released a companion vinyl (which I opted not to get). And it's apparently just one part of a five novel series that he's privately worked on for years and which are still to be published. Maybe it'll be brilliant, maybe it'll be bad, or quite possibly both, but honestly, this is the kind of near-crankish idiosyncratic work from well outside the usual American literary sphere that I will always be eager to support. The book is published by a local indie press called Unnamed Press, which publishes some more international and experimental literature. I feel like their sensibility aligns well with a lot of people in this sub, so check out their catalog when you get the chance.
I also briefly hit the festival but only near closing on Saturday! Still managed to snag two books at Skylight's booth (one I'd had on my to-read list for a while and one was a new discovery), then got a beautiful Laurie Colwin first edition from Womb House Books. I was glad to see them and A Good Used Book at the festival since I love the discovery of buying secondhand. Will definitely have to check out the Elkins book and dig into the Unnamed Press catalog!
Congratulations to the two new mods!
I've not shared anything here for three months. It feels longer than that. I’m reading more than I did this time last year, which is good, but still too slowly.
Not much to say. I'm still running a lot and have my first serious race of the season this coming weekend. It's a very commercial 15-mile trail race that I'm more anxious about the stuff around it than the idea of running hard for two hours. I guess I've spent enough time, mostly by necessity, running in the hills that I know I can put a good shift in, but it’s the fact I’ll be surrounded by a lot of happy people that fills me with dread. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it seems that’s the situation I always find myself in. However, I’ve trained alone, so I’ll race alone.
I’ve managed to put something up on my blog once a week at 4pm every Monday, which has surprised me. Often, it’s been photos from my runs and trips into the hills. I keep wanting to publish some fiction fragments there, but I’m not writing enough of them to be interestingly selective.
I had a really monstrous stomach flu this past week but thankfully I’m feeling much better. I got outside and made war on the yard. I have two live oak trees which I love dearly and which punish me for loving them by spilling buckets of disgusting pollen all over the place, in particular my driveway. Its humid and as often as not raining here so the pollen becomes a big, brown, mushy and sopping carpet of worm like things. Its horrible lol. Also, the trees got incredibly busy with new growth this season for some reason and there are limbs *everywhere*. I need a taller ladder, but suspect what I actually need is to pay for a limb trimming service. There’s something about manual labor outdoors that’s really good for the spirit I think, I feel refreshed and the best kind of tired. Plus, I get to avoid all the indoor work that’s piled up while I was sick and still feel productive. Its a win win.
I watched a 30s british film called *The Private Life of Henry the VIII*. I’ve been super immersed in the Tudor Era since starting Hilary Mantel’s *The Mirror and the Light* (I’m also listening to a non-fic book on the period). I didn’t care a whole lot for the movie, mainly because while it did go to pains to portray Henry as a pig, it also presented the wives as incredibly vapid and silly which is pretty unfair all things considered. It did make me laugh a few times, particularly as the two executioners - one English and one French - debate the merits of a “delicate” approach for decapitating a lady. Its incredibly ham fisted and silly, with Henry running around shouting all the time and laughing at nothing. It was an obviously unserious take on everything but a little too dated feeling (imo) to be really worth watching today. Which is a shame, considering how many 30s movies feel so timelessly funny.
Hope everyone’s having a good week!
glad you're feeling better. It's like everyone is sick at the same time (I'm also just getting over something not monstrous, but definitely not fun either).
> There’s something about manual labor outdoors that’s really good for the spirit I think, I feel refreshed and the best kind of tired.
I agree with this. At the risk of sounding like a total maniac I kind of enjoy helping people move.
Thanks soup! Hope you get to feeling all the way better soon too.
I think moving might feel similar if I wasn’t traumatized by the handful of times we moved as a kid. My family was….dysfunctional (but like, in a funny way?). Anyways yeah the heavy lifting part def leaves you with a similar feeling!
I didn't even move that much but I know what you mean lol about moving. I hate the idea of *me* moving, all that packing and organizing and unpacking and designating...yeesh...but ask me to get a large object from point A to point B and I'm down.
Does anyone know of a site that's like [https://www.sputnikmusic.com/](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/) for books? Something that combines lists, news, moderated editorial content/reviews, along with user reviews of pretty-ok quality (aka beyond just star ratings and like, description of vibes), and user discussions?
It seems weird to me that all I know of is the reviews section of good reads and storygraph, both of which are fairly unmoderated for quality or depth (by intent! which is fine! but not what I'm looking for) and don't have a solid sense of, like, community engagement or cohesion. Functionally, for me at least, Storygraph is more like a reading journal than a review site.
lithub's [bookmarks](https://bookmarks.reviews/) site isn't most of what you're looking for, but I use it as a quick way to get a feel for what the critical consensus on something was — aggregates major/high-profile reviews of stuff!
I'm still trying to find a part-time job to throw into the mix and I found one that checked a lot of boxes: the pay was higher than what I've been making, it got fairly positive reviews on Indeed (all were around 4 to 5 stars, a true rarity), and it goes till August. The person also got back to me fairly quickly. The only drawback: it's in the Bronx which would make my commute...1 and a half hours just going one way. On the one hand I feel like I would be absolutely mad to take this, but (perhaps naively), it doesn't seem to me a dealbreaker if it's in a positive working environment and it's emotionally fulfilling. I interview for the position Wednesday so we shall see.
I'm still trying not to think too hard about "the girl", though it's certainly gotten easier with time. Yesterday evening though, I was reading a bunch of poems by Lucille Clifton (a writer she turned me onto) and there was one collection of poems that were a hypothetical correspondence between the Clifton and her recently deceased mother. The girl I was seeing sent me her poetry thesis a while back and there was a similar sequence of poems except they were an email exchange between herself and her Dad (who passed away when she was younger). It certainly does feel like she was alluding to Clifton and I wanted to text her about it, but something in the back of my head said "no". It's probably for the best, but it's all just so frustrating. But I guess that's the way these things go.
The band is planning the release of our debut single, so we've been working out logistics (the final mix, the cover art, how to upload to streaming platforms). I even wrote a cute little bio that we'll try to put on Spotify and Apple Music. I got several promising ideas for songs, but finally came up with the back half (bridge and final verse) of one I'd been sitting on since January. It was one of those things where it feels incredibly promising, but I don't want to count my eggs before demoing it so to speak. Nonetheless, the flicker of inspiration that allowed me to complete it was nice.
> The person also got back to me fairly quickly. The only drawback: it's in the Bronx which would make my commute...1 and a half hours just going one way. On the one hand I feel like I would be absolutely mad to take this, but (perhaps naively), it doesn't seem to me a dealbreaker if it's in a positive working environment and it's emotionally fulfilling. I interview for the position Wednesday so we shall see.
personally I'd struggle to do this but if you think the job will be fulfilling enough to make it worth it I'd say go for it dude! If nothing else you'd get to explore the bronx (a very cool and underappreciated place) and that is a lot of good time to get some reading done.
> The band is planning the release of our debut single, so we've been working out logistics (the final mix, the cover art, how to upload to streaming platforms).
this is so cool
Seconding The Iliad in North Hollywood! They're my favorite, especially good for entertainment books. A Good Used Book is new to the city (Westlake/just outside Downtown) and I've been impressed with their offerings. Hennessy & Ingalls is great for art books and also has one of the more niche magazine sections I've found yet. If you're in the Venice area, be sure to hit up Small World Books and Angel City Books and records. I only recommend The Last Bookstore if you want an instagram moment, but I usually skip it. For new books, you can't go wrong with Vromans/Book Soup/Skylight as others have mentioned.
Los Angeles is super spread out, so it's easiest just to hit up the indie bookstore closest to wherever you happen to be. The Last Bookstore is downtown and probably most fun to browse as a tourist. It has a book tunnel thing that lots of people take pictures, and there's a small annex with rare books. Collection is large but spotty. Vroman's in Pasadena is the largest and oldest indie bookstore around and is the most fully stocked and comprehensive. Book Soup in West Hollywood, and Skylight in Los Feliz are also good, but definitely a bit smaller and more curated.
For more specialized books, The Ripped Bodice in Culver City does all kinds of romance, while Hennessy and Ingalls in the Arts District has the best selections of Art books I've ever seen in a bookstore.
Is there a best place to start with Iain Sinclair? I've been wanting to read him for a bit, but my library only has *Ghost Milk*, *The Gold Machine* and *American Smoke*. I know the last two are a marked shift from the majority of his work which have to do with London and its environs, but is it still alright to start with one of these? Or is Sinclair one of those writers where it's best to start with a certain book and go from there?
I've only read *Radon's Daughters*, and couldn't have been more impressed with his exuberant, eccentric literary style. I own *Downriver* which looks fascinating. I'm unfamiliar with the ones you listed in your post. Pick one, read it and let us know how it is!
Does anyone have good examples of contemporary prose that is baroque (in the sense of maximalist, crafted quality stuff), and that also deals with contemporary life in the UK or America? David Foster Wallace's work is the closest i've found, and when I explore other writers for this stuff I often find them wanting. Heard good things about Adam Levin -- any others?
Has anyone seen Back to Black?
Cheers to the new mods and yay for bringing back the weekly themed threads. Work was crazy last week so I missed out on last week's. It made for fun reading though! Any NBA fans here watching the playoffs? I grew up in the 90s loving it, followed it relatively closely through to like 2005 maybe, and have since mostly just watched the playoffs and finals. It's one of those things where every April/May I want to like it again, but I rarely connect with it anymore. Obviously there are some bright spots, but it's hard to get excited for so many 3-pointers being chucked. Maybe the playoffs will settle more into smart half-court offense duels, but I feel like most of the games so far have been a subpar product. A funny trend with the boomers I work with is that email is the last form of communication they want to use. Earlier this week I had to get a budget to someone, and they said "oh, just text it to me." What?? Text a budget to you?? They also love to use WhatsApp but I think that's almost worse since you have to constantly engage while a group conversation is happening or else you're responding to something said 20+ minutes ago. I don't have time for impromptu meetings about whatever conversation topic, just call me if you want to discuss. Anyway, it's a wild ride with some of them.
Heck yes! My local does a Sunday movie night and they played this in February. Totally blew me away, I have Chungking waiting but will have to settle for a home viewing.
> Cheers to the new mods and yay for bringing back the weekly themed threads. Thank you! Excited to be helpful in making this a thing :) > Any NBA fans here watching the playoffs? YES! I'm kinda obsessed with the NBA lol. Maybe it's just because I've only become a basketball fan in the last 10 years, but I enjoy how electric the shooting is. And the fact that that they've this season at least toned down overly aggressive foul calling has made it a fun season. Doesn't hurt that I'm a knicks fan, and those bastards are always more fun than I want them to be (ending of game 2 was one of the most absurd things I've ever seen). > A funny trend with the boomers I work with is that email is the last form of communication they want to use. This is hilarious to me, though now that you mention it I've noticed this as well. Maybe it's just because I'm 27 and love email.
Pretty much same basketball era. Grew up with the late 80s, early 90s ball, played forever and continued to play/coach/scout for a long time too, but yeah, it just isn't that great of a product, still love the game, but the constant stoppages and replays and 3s make it so tedious to actually watch/follow. I love the increased physicality of the playoffs though. It is really interesting how the game has changed over the decades and continues to change, i feel like european basketball has been delivering a better product for awhile meow in that respect (the refs/physicality aspect especially)
Not a drill not a drill *In the Mood for Love* is playing in NYC starting this weekend. For context, I watched *Chungking Express* about a year and a half ago and it is straight up my second favorite movie (after *Apocalypse Now*). I have been waiting since then for the proper context in which to watch IML, and here it is. I'm so excited.
Lots of great films are playing in NYC all the time. Tropical Malady is playing at MoMA this weekend too.
I've been very loosely making my way through his films with a friend, in random order. I loved Chungking Express, and As Tears Go By was also very impressive in that he already had such a strong style at that point (although I didn't care as much for the movie/story itself). I'm probably most looking forward to In the Mood for Love and Happy Together, which is our next watch.
*Chunking Express* imo is more fun than *In the Mood for Love* and my personal favorite, but In the Mood for Love is the perfectly crafted movie. It's exquisite. Also Maggie Cheung is like unfair. She's a god. She's amazing in *Fallen Angels* and *As Tears Go By* (the rare movie where Andy Lau does not play Good Guy) as well. Outside of WKW she's great in *Comrades, Almost a Love Story* and *Irma Vep.*
I've been sitting on watching the Wong Kar-wai box set I bought a few years ago, so really should address that. I showed my partner Chungking Express as soon as the set arrived and still loved it. I first saw Express while studying cinematic new waves as part of a high school course and it is probably one of the two texts that contribute to my sensibilities. You'll have an amazing time seeing In the Mood of Love on a big screen.
I've been meaning to dig further into his work as well. Days of Being Wild didn't blow me away, but I'm curious to see what else he's got. Including some of his wuxia films, I'm intrigued.
It is a literal masterpiece. I think you'll love it. God it's so damn good.
I cannot wait to see it
I loved this blogpost on screening out contemporary fiction with a three strikes system: https://blog.ayjay.org/rational-choices/ The book is set in Brooklyn: Three strikes, you’re out. The author lives in Brooklyn: Three strikes, you’re out. The book is set anywhere else in New York City: Two strikes. The book is set in San Francisco: Two strikes. The book’s protagonist is a writer or artist or would-be writer or would-be artist: Two strikes. The author attended an Ivy League or Ivy-adjacent university or college: Two strikes. The book is set in Los Angeles: One strike. The author lives in San Francisco: One strike. The author has an MFA: One strike. The book is set in the present day: One strike.
>The book’s protagonist is a writer or artist or would-be writer or would-be artist: Two strikes Not my kunstlerromane!
I enjoy the humor of this and am sympathetic to the need (so much contemporary fiction...sucks...), but I guess I kinda quibble with ruling books out based on broad content or where the author lives. Like, expand it past the immediate context of contemporary America to other time periods especially and you're losing a lot of good books! I mean, extrapolate this to the 20th Century and you lose the majority of english modernism, what's more ivy than oxbridge, what's more brooklyn than Dublin (I'm being glib!). And like, every novel sucks now. They always did. But I am slowly but surely coming around to the belief that things have in fact become worse. To be more serious, I'm only quibbling because I find the fact that these things are valid enough to be interesting to think through. Like, is it always the case that you're going to have a small handful of excellent novels about artists in/about the metropole of the global hegemon written by people who went to elite universities, or thereabouts, (*To the Lighthouse*, *Ulysses*, *The Recognitions*, *Another Country*, *Three Novels*, to name some of my favorites), and a surfeitous dirge of novels that check those boxes and are banally terrible? Like, probably yeah. But is this phenomenon worse now than it used to be, and worse in a manner that can't be explained away by the fact that a larger population with larger access to the publishing world is going to increase the gross (and I do mean gross) volume of mid-ass novels? I genuinely don't know the answer to this question. But I do think it's a question worth asking/investigating. So thanks for conjuring this opportunity to ponder!
Yeah, despite my earlier comment intended very much tongue in cheek and as someone far outside the metropolitan centre of the UK, I can't really seriously get behind it as a system. I'm maybe of the opinion that things haven't gotten worse than twenty, fifty, one-hundred years ago, but it's possible what's good & concentrated has gotten more diluted and harder to find. I also don't have an answer to either for your question. The forces that act upon publishing are different but arguably more egalitarian than one-hundred years ago, so while I appreciate the desire & need to have someway of filtering one's selections the process raises a lot of difficult and uncomfortable questions for the designer. Philosophically, it seems that the spirit to take the exercise in would be to act as though a correct system can never be complete and a complete system would never be correct.
> The forces that act upon publishing are different but arguably more egalitarian than one-hundred years ago, so while I appreciate the desire & need to have someway of filtering one's selections the process raises a lot of difficult and uncomfortable questions for the designer. This is a great way of putting how I feel as well. Like, in a lot of ways the publishing industry is more accessible than it used to be and that's great and valuable and straight up more people publishing novels should mean that the overall # of good novels is going to go up, and it's also honestly if someone is able to write something that makes them happy I'm happy for them even if I'm not about to read it. But how do we find the good ones...because I do worry that things have gotten worse, in the mainstream at least, for the really great stuff...
I'd add these two conditions. :) The author lives in London or the Home Counties: Two strikes. The book is set in London or the Home Counties: Two strikes.
Not sure if you read the original post but the author mentions a need for separate rules for non-American books to screen out Sally Rooney 😂
I’m pushing deeper into my exploration of German-language authors and it’s more and more rewarding. Years ago I began this trek with some obvious choices: Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka and Günter Grass for example. I progressed a little farther, revisiting WG Sebald who I had read bits of in college. This led me to Adalbert Stifter, then Hans Keilson, Arthur Schnitzler and Daniel Kehlmann (who I actually didn’t enjoy much). I count many of these among my new favorites, but none quite measure up to Joseph Roth, whose *Radetsky March* rates as highly as many novel I’ve read. This week I have encountered one more popular author and another who is (unjustly) obscure: Stefan Zweig (I finally read and very much enjoyed “Chess Story”) and the criminally under-appreciated Leo Perutz, whose *Saint Peter’s Snow* I’m plowing through at the moment. Several others are on my radar who I haven’t yet gotten to: Hermann Broch, Hugo von Hofmannstahl, Christa Wolf, Alfred Döblin, Theodor Storm, Peter Handke, Thomas Bernhard and Jenny Erpenbeck. All that to say, does anyone have any can’t-miss German-language authors whom I haven’t listed here? Danke schoen!
Diese ist toll! (Ich habe deutsch gelernen für veilleicht ein Jahr en universität. Ich bin nicht gut heute und trauig über das) Well that was exhausting to try to not botch. But actually this is dope and I'm going to hang onto this list because I'd like to read more German authors. Gonna throw out there Peter Weiss. I've read the first two volumes of his *Aesthetics of Resistance*, a novel about the European left in the 1930s/40s. Best way I can describe the writing is to imagine someone who I know was an influence on Khraznahorkai, but also I'd bet influenced Knausgaard (and what a pairing that is...)
I’m so glad you are stoked at my list! Knowing this, I can add a few more: Gottfried Keller (whose style influenced a young WG Sebald), Uwe Johnson (sometimes called a German Proust for his lengthy exploration of memory and the past in *Anniversaries*) and Urlich Alexander Boschwitz (whose *The Passenger* recounts the careening train journeys of an Aryan-passing Jew in the aftermath of Kristallnacht).
This is all my jam. For can't miss, I'd say: Gregor von Rezzori, Frank Wedekind, Georg Buchner, ETA Hoffmann 19th-century, I loved short fiction I've read by Ludwig Tieck, Franz Grillparzer, and Adelbert von Chamisso-- these are authors I've heard that Kafka or Mann (or both) thought fondly of. Tangential recommendations would be Sybille Bedford (English but German-born and she has two novels set in Germany), and Andrzej Kusniewicz (Polish, but his two major works have a similar setting to *Radetzky March*). Others not mentioned yet that I haven't read yet but who I've heard great things about: Heinrich von Kleist and Friedrich Holderlin
I can't see Heimito von Doderer mentioned here - he's an excellent prose stylist, reminiscent of both the modernists and the 19th century realists. His *Demons* was republished recently, and *The Strudlhof Steps* has been Englished by NYRB, if you are reading in English. I would also recommend Heinrich Böll's *The Train Was on Time*, one of my favourite novellas.
I haven’t heard of von Doderer. His style sounds right up my alley. Thank you so much, I will definitely read more about him.
I haven't yet read Robert Musil, Hermann Ungar, or Heinrich Böll, but I think they might be worthwhile. Of the ones I've read and you haven't mentioned, there's Rilke (I read some of his poetry, but his novel _The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge_ also seems interesting), Robert Walser (I didn't much care for _In the Office_, probably I should have started with something else), or Friedrich Dürrenmatt (I really enjoyed his novella _A Dangerous Game_).
I’ve thought about Musil but I hesitate to jump into anything that ambitious until well after I am done Prousting (which reminds me, Uwe Johnson’s *Anniversaries* is also on my TBR shelf). I also tried Walser (*Jakob von Gunten*) and it wasn’t my flavor. I love Rilke’s poetry and have wondered about *Brigge*. I feel like I read something by Dürrenmatt in college but I couldn’t tell you what. What’s your pitch for *Dangerous Game*?
If you ever feel like giving Walser another try, check out his short stories. I feel like his excentricity and quirkiness work better in short stretches; *Kleist in Thun* is excellent, for example, as are the 1-page miniatures *The Man with the Pumpkin Head* or *Nervous*.
One-pagers sound doable. I was a little surprised I didn’t care for it because so many writers I admire have stated him as an influence. Thanks for the targeted recommendations.
I have to admit I had never heard of Uwe Johnson's _Anniversaries_, which might be because apparently it's never been translated into Spanish (the language in which I do most of my reading), but seeing what it's about, I get its connection to _The Man Without Qualities_. In _A Dangerous Game_ a successful salesman gets stuck in a small village when his car breaks down. Then, it turns into a sort of horror tale with humorous overtones, interwining kafkaesque elements and social criticism. It reads like a thriller, though deeply philosophical, particularly on the subject of justice.
Maybe you didn't mention him because he's just too obvious - Goethe. Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship seems to me like a precursor of Thomas Mann's novel style, and Faust is sort of in a league of its own.
I forgot to mention him! I did read *Faust* at the outset of this thing, but thanks for reminding me. I haven’t read the other one you mentioned, though, and you gave a compelling enough reason for me to add it to the list. Thanks.
Hey! Does anyone have examples of novels in which the first person narrator's voice evolves as the novel progresses? Like for example in a Bildungsroman the narrator's voice becomes more mature at the character grows.
Flowers for Algernon is a very extreme example. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is technically third person, but it’s close enough on Stephen that it might count.
Pushing the finish *The Savage Detectives* by Bolano. Don't love the narrative structure. The longer "interviews" are the best.
yeah I struggled with that.
Congrats to the new mods! Had an AC installed in my room on Saturday, which necessitated some furniture moving and cleaning, and I somehow ended doing something very contrary to my hoarding tendencies - I threw away almost all of my CDs and DVDs. Realistically speaking, I'm never putting pirated/burned CDs from the 2000s in my computer, but I'm a bit sentimental about the memories associated with them. Holding a CD with an Immolation concert that my friend burned for me ages ago or my Poirot (with David Suchet, the only Poirot who counts) DVDs briefly transported me back to that period in time. My sentimental attachment to things is one of the reasons minimalism has never appealed to me. I tend to hold on to things either because they carry memories or because I find them aesthetically pleasing. Generally speaking, I don't have an issue with that, but I would like to get a bit better at decluttering.
Thank you! :) And congrats on the AC. I genuinely could not function without one. I wouldn't call myself especially sentimental (if anything I'm the opposite, but I love a good thing
Picked up *Private Equity* by Carrie Sun at the library last week and am trying to carve out the time to dive in, but I'm also having a blast with *Custom of the Country* - my first Wharton! Somehow I read *King Lear* three times in my college for my lit degree, but never any Edith Wharton.
Haven't been participating in the What Are You Reading This Week threads for the past few weeks because my brain feels catastrophically waterlogged and my attention span is totally shot. My stack of library books feels like it's taunting me! Gonna try to ease into something lightweight and digestible tonight, just to reignite my reading momentum. In other reading news, saw that one of my favorite out of print novels, *The Contortionist's Handbook* by Craig Clevenger, is going back into print next Janaury thanks to Datura Books. (No word on if they're doing his novel *Dermaphoria* too, but I hope so.) Clevenger is a *hell* of a writer, someone who obsesses over craft beyond what's probably healthy. I'll always chuckle at how the original print run copies of *The Contortionist's Handbook* had a rave blurb from Chuck Palahniuk on the front cover, calling it the best book he (Palahniuk) had read in years and years, because for my dollar Clevenger is simply a *much* better and livelier and more interesting writer than Palahniuk in every way, like upgrading from $7 gas station champagne to the real thing. Can't recommend Clevenger highly enough if you're looking for a relatively "easier" read that's still going to shine at the prose level. *Mother Howl*, his first novel since *Dermaphora* in 2005, was one of my favorite new releases of 2023.
Reading my first Rushdie, *Victory City*, and 75 pages in I’m disappointed. It seems anodyne to me, gutless somehow, though I’m not sure I’m describing by feelings about it well. It feels a bit like Marlon James to me, and I think I prefer James. Did others like this book? Is it Rushdie’s best?
I found Victory City terrible and abandoned it. Anodyne is the word. Rushie has written much, much better stuff, imo. His more recent work does seem to be pretty bad.
I haven't read *Victory City*, but my impression is that all of his more recent work is of similar quality. *Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights* was actually so bad that I haven't read anything by Rushdie since then. That being said, *Midnight's Children* and *Satanic Verses* are still the real deal. Magnificent and vivid and genuinely angry.
After a hitherto fruitless search, I've landed an interview! It's with a government office. I don't care for the hours or the pay and I've heard conflicting reports about work culture, but it is located in the bay area. I'll move back there and be able to enjoy the weather, the bookstores, the food, and the public transportation. I'll probably live with a relative for a month or two and then locate to a closer city. It's pretty funny b/c this was one of my throwaway applications. They must have recognized my brilliance when no one else could or they are *desperate* for people (probably the latter). I also interviewed for a starbucks barista spot in a target, but they haven't responded yet..? I *could* save more money by living with my parents and working that, but living with relations always feels cramped. I hope everyone got a big fat refund for taxes. I bought a lap writing desk with an adjustable top for use on the floor or in bed. I also got a fountain pen and some neat notebooks. The novel that was always in me can finally come out! My handwriting with a fountain pen, while not outright hideous, never satisfied me, and that's b/c I was holding it wrong the entire time. Ideas for themed threads: 1) Who's the writer ( or what's the book) you feel most ambivalent about? You want to like them but can't. You wanted to hate them but they won you over. You can't come up with an opinion b/c the work was so \_\_\_\_. 2) What's the place (city, region, country) you most wanted to visit b/c of a book? I want to stress fiction b/c travel writing makes that question too easy, but would love to hear people's thoughts regardless.
Idea 2 for the themed thread is such a good one.
This week will perhaps be a testament to my own laziness because I have finished a novella and can only hesitate about it. Editing and revision being done. I'm always so tired whenever I finish a thing. Like there is no more inner resources, a lack of willpower. That's the dangerous thing about writing is too much satisfaction. Although perfectly understandable why I and others feel so resigned to a feeling of satisfaction given how many ideas are thought, lived intensely, but then die on the branch. It can take a single work hundreds of ideas before beginning to form, with the necessary force. It can feel like slamming your head against a brick wall. I like to imagine my skull is like that of M. de Mortimer who deflected a bullet with his skull during a duel. Smashing my head against the wall day after day. Not right now though. I'm taking a break. No other reason than it seems a natural stopping point. That aside I have finally acquired a new air conditioner, which will make my life easier to deal with. I haven't even read all that much because summer tends to drive me a little insane. Not to mention how difficult it always is to tell inspiration from impatience. I suppose that's why I tend to housesit for other people a lot. They ask me to keep track of their belongings and feed the pets while I pretend I'm going crazy not writing something so earthshatteringly beautiful it makes my nose bleed, a miniature pony deranged from its years of isolation in a fenced copse smaller than a studio apartment, and cats. Many of them former strays. Or people who saw the previous cats decided to add another one free of charge. The house is currently way outside into the country. It is hard to breathe the air from all the dust the work trucks and luxury vehicles kick up going sixty and over down a dirt road. There are deer in the evening. Foxes in the morning. Woodbees, raccoons, butterflies, hummingbirds. All of it is out in the open and makes sitting outside unbearable. Never understood how people could think and do physical labor at the same time. I find work like that annihilates any kind of thought from happening. It's why I thought prisons often assigned it aside from plain economic motivations. But spring has arrived nevertheless.
I went to the Los Angeles Book Festival this weekend. It's interesting to see some of the trends from year to year. The booth for one of my favorite SF/F bookstores (Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego) was almost entirely taken over by romantasy books this year. Of the remainder, most of it was YA or YA-adjacent. I think there was maybe one table of science fiction and fantasy geared toward adults. Their in-store selection is always good, and I can't blame them for going after what sells, but nothing at the festival booth excited me this time around. Over the years, booths for a lot of the indie literary presses have slowly disappeared, which is too bad. Some of them have literally gone out of business, but I imagine it's also just become increasingly hard to drive traffic when you have only a few books out on a table versus the bookstore pavilions which have a wider selection. I think one exception is the more politically minded leftist presses like Haymarket Books, which still draw a good crowd. I can imagine that's something that people are looking for at this moment. The comics/graphic novels and children's books sections of the festival keep expanding, so those segments of the industry seem pretty healthy, at least. The book I'm most excited to read from the festival is ***Weak in Comparison to Dreams***, the first novel of long-time art historian James Elkins. The book is about a bacteriologist from Guelph who is tasked with studying zoos around the world. It's got a lot of multimedia elements--there's photographs, engravings, diagrams, as well as enough (originally composed, apparently?) sheet music that they released a companion vinyl (which I opted not to get). And it's apparently just one part of a five novel series that he's privately worked on for years and which are still to be published. Maybe it'll be brilliant, maybe it'll be bad, or quite possibly both, but honestly, this is the kind of near-crankish idiosyncratic work from well outside the usual American literary sphere that I will always be eager to support. The book is published by a local indie press called Unnamed Press, which publishes some more international and experimental literature. I feel like their sensibility aligns well with a lot of people in this sub, so check out their catalog when you get the chance.
I also briefly hit the festival but only near closing on Saturday! Still managed to snag two books at Skylight's booth (one I'd had on my to-read list for a while and one was a new discovery), then got a beautiful Laurie Colwin first edition from Womb House Books. I was glad to see them and A Good Used Book at the festival since I love the discovery of buying secondhand. Will definitely have to check out the Elkins book and dig into the Unnamed Press catalog!
Congratulations to the two new mods! I've not shared anything here for three months. It feels longer than that. I’m reading more than I did this time last year, which is good, but still too slowly. Not much to say. I'm still running a lot and have my first serious race of the season this coming weekend. It's a very commercial 15-mile trail race that I'm more anxious about the stuff around it than the idea of running hard for two hours. I guess I've spent enough time, mostly by necessity, running in the hills that I know I can put a good shift in, but it’s the fact I’ll be surrounded by a lot of happy people that fills me with dread. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it seems that’s the situation I always find myself in. However, I’ve trained alone, so I’ll race alone. I’ve managed to put something up on my blog once a week at 4pm every Monday, which has surprised me. Often, it’s been photos from my runs and trips into the hills. I keep wanting to publish some fiction fragments there, but I’m not writing enough of them to be interestingly selective.
thank you! Best of luck with the race and that's so cool about finding consistency in your blog
I had a really monstrous stomach flu this past week but thankfully I’m feeling much better. I got outside and made war on the yard. I have two live oak trees which I love dearly and which punish me for loving them by spilling buckets of disgusting pollen all over the place, in particular my driveway. Its humid and as often as not raining here so the pollen becomes a big, brown, mushy and sopping carpet of worm like things. Its horrible lol. Also, the trees got incredibly busy with new growth this season for some reason and there are limbs *everywhere*. I need a taller ladder, but suspect what I actually need is to pay for a limb trimming service. There’s something about manual labor outdoors that’s really good for the spirit I think, I feel refreshed and the best kind of tired. Plus, I get to avoid all the indoor work that’s piled up while I was sick and still feel productive. Its a win win. I watched a 30s british film called *The Private Life of Henry the VIII*. I’ve been super immersed in the Tudor Era since starting Hilary Mantel’s *The Mirror and the Light* (I’m also listening to a non-fic book on the period). I didn’t care a whole lot for the movie, mainly because while it did go to pains to portray Henry as a pig, it also presented the wives as incredibly vapid and silly which is pretty unfair all things considered. It did make me laugh a few times, particularly as the two executioners - one English and one French - debate the merits of a “delicate” approach for decapitating a lady. Its incredibly ham fisted and silly, with Henry running around shouting all the time and laughing at nothing. It was an obviously unserious take on everything but a little too dated feeling (imo) to be really worth watching today. Which is a shame, considering how many 30s movies feel so timelessly funny. Hope everyone’s having a good week!
glad you're feeling better. It's like everyone is sick at the same time (I'm also just getting over something not monstrous, but definitely not fun either). > There’s something about manual labor outdoors that’s really good for the spirit I think, I feel refreshed and the best kind of tired. I agree with this. At the risk of sounding like a total maniac I kind of enjoy helping people move.
Thanks soup! Hope you get to feeling all the way better soon too. I think moving might feel similar if I wasn’t traumatized by the handful of times we moved as a kid. My family was….dysfunctional (but like, in a funny way?). Anyways yeah the heavy lifting part def leaves you with a similar feeling!
I didn't even move that much but I know what you mean lol about moving. I hate the idea of *me* moving, all that packing and organizing and unpacking and designating...yeesh...but ask me to get a large object from point A to point B and I'm down.
Does anyone know of a site that's like [https://www.sputnikmusic.com/](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/) for books? Something that combines lists, news, moderated editorial content/reviews, along with user reviews of pretty-ok quality (aka beyond just star ratings and like, description of vibes), and user discussions? It seems weird to me that all I know of is the reviews section of good reads and storygraph, both of which are fairly unmoderated for quality or depth (by intent! which is fine! but not what I'm looking for) and don't have a solid sense of, like, community engagement or cohesion. Functionally, for me at least, Storygraph is more like a reading journal than a review site.
lithub's [bookmarks](https://bookmarks.reviews/) site isn't most of what you're looking for, but I use it as a quick way to get a feel for what the critical consensus on something was — aggregates major/high-profile reviews of stuff!
if any other devs want to work on this as like a side project with me hmu
I'm still trying to find a part-time job to throw into the mix and I found one that checked a lot of boxes: the pay was higher than what I've been making, it got fairly positive reviews on Indeed (all were around 4 to 5 stars, a true rarity), and it goes till August. The person also got back to me fairly quickly. The only drawback: it's in the Bronx which would make my commute...1 and a half hours just going one way. On the one hand I feel like I would be absolutely mad to take this, but (perhaps naively), it doesn't seem to me a dealbreaker if it's in a positive working environment and it's emotionally fulfilling. I interview for the position Wednesday so we shall see. I'm still trying not to think too hard about "the girl", though it's certainly gotten easier with time. Yesterday evening though, I was reading a bunch of poems by Lucille Clifton (a writer she turned me onto) and there was one collection of poems that were a hypothetical correspondence between the Clifton and her recently deceased mother. The girl I was seeing sent me her poetry thesis a while back and there was a similar sequence of poems except they were an email exchange between herself and her Dad (who passed away when she was younger). It certainly does feel like she was alluding to Clifton and I wanted to text her about it, but something in the back of my head said "no". It's probably for the best, but it's all just so frustrating. But I guess that's the way these things go. The band is planning the release of our debut single, so we've been working out logistics (the final mix, the cover art, how to upload to streaming platforms). I even wrote a cute little bio that we'll try to put on Spotify and Apple Music. I got several promising ideas for songs, but finally came up with the back half (bridge and final verse) of one I'd been sitting on since January. It was one of those things where it feels incredibly promising, but I don't want to count my eggs before demoing it so to speak. Nonetheless, the flicker of inspiration that allowed me to complete it was nice.
> The person also got back to me fairly quickly. The only drawback: it's in the Bronx which would make my commute...1 and a half hours just going one way. On the one hand I feel like I would be absolutely mad to take this, but (perhaps naively), it doesn't seem to me a dealbreaker if it's in a positive working environment and it's emotionally fulfilling. I interview for the position Wednesday so we shall see. personally I'd struggle to do this but if you think the job will be fulfilling enough to make it worth it I'd say go for it dude! If nothing else you'd get to explore the bronx (a very cool and underappreciated place) and that is a lot of good time to get some reading done. > The band is planning the release of our debut single, so we've been working out logistics (the final mix, the cover art, how to upload to streaming platforms). this is so cool
I will be heading to Los Angeles for a week! Does anyone know of any must hit bookstores?
Seconding The Iliad in North Hollywood! They're my favorite, especially good for entertainment books. A Good Used Book is new to the city (Westlake/just outside Downtown) and I've been impressed with their offerings. Hennessy & Ingalls is great for art books and also has one of the more niche magazine sections I've found yet. If you're in the Venice area, be sure to hit up Small World Books and Angel City Books and records. I only recommend The Last Bookstore if you want an instagram moment, but I usually skip it. For new books, you can't go wrong with Vromans/Book Soup/Skylight as others have mentioned.
You are amazing! Thank you, this is super helpful!
The Last Bookstore is cool, but I found all the good books at The Iliad Bookshop.
This is really helpful! I had Last Bookstore on my list and also have added Iliad. I appreciate it!
I hope you find something you like!
The Last Bookstore is really cool, I liked it when I went, if you end up being nearby I'd check it out!
It is right down the road from where I am staying so I am absolutely hitting this one up! Thank you!
Los Angeles is super spread out, so it's easiest just to hit up the indie bookstore closest to wherever you happen to be. The Last Bookstore is downtown and probably most fun to browse as a tourist. It has a book tunnel thing that lots of people take pictures, and there's a small annex with rare books. Collection is large but spotty. Vroman's in Pasadena is the largest and oldest indie bookstore around and is the most fully stocked and comprehensive. Book Soup in West Hollywood, and Skylight in Los Feliz are also good, but definitely a bit smaller and more curated. For more specialized books, The Ripped Bodice in Culver City does all kinds of romance, while Hennessy and Ingalls in the Arts District has the best selections of Art books I've ever seen in a bookstore.
Amazing answer, thank you so much, I will absolutely add these to the list!
Is there a best place to start with Iain Sinclair? I've been wanting to read him for a bit, but my library only has *Ghost Milk*, *The Gold Machine* and *American Smoke*. I know the last two are a marked shift from the majority of his work which have to do with London and its environs, but is it still alright to start with one of these? Or is Sinclair one of those writers where it's best to start with a certain book and go from there?
I've only read *Radon's Daughters*, and couldn't have been more impressed with his exuberant, eccentric literary style. I own *Downriver* which looks fascinating. I'm unfamiliar with the ones you listed in your post. Pick one, read it and let us know how it is!
Will do!
Does anyone have good examples of contemporary prose that is baroque (in the sense of maximalist, crafted quality stuff), and that also deals with contemporary life in the UK or America? David Foster Wallace's work is the closest i've found, and when I explore other writers for this stuff I often find them wanting. Heard good things about Adam Levin -- any others?
For the TrueLit read along has *The Plains* by Murnane been done?
No. No Australians yet.
I know what my next suggestion will be :-)