Hi, everybody, cereal box nyt crossword police procedural harper's nyer sf chronicle north coast journal books books and books addict here, what do you mean, do my laundry? (Plus I work, hah.)
I just finished an easy somewhat dissatisfying police procedural by Michael Digden, Dead Lagoon, plus the apparent autobio The Cliff Walk, A Job Lost and a Life Found, by Don J. Snyder, which got my attention. Presently reading March issues of the NYer, too late the Phalarope again, my way of saying it is weird to read about three weeks ago in Baghdad.
Trouble is I really like my world of too much interesting to read, in fact treasure it. All of it is a way I tune my strings, and I am in a mess if I have no print of any sort at hand. Nothing more dismaying than a clean living room in someone's house with....nada to show anyone in the house has ever ever read a thing. Sorry, pet peeve here. Quiet, quiet now.
edited to improve spelling of weird.
Osso -- You can put me in the messy living room, too many books category. I'm at a complete loss when someone comes to my house, stares at the shelves and asks, "Have you READ all those books?" ("GET A LIFE!" ??)
I've just finished reading a great short story.
"The Way We Live Now" by Susan Sontag which she published in 1987 in the New Yorker.
This is an average length story written in a unique style and having almost no plot. There is a third person narrator telling us about a unnamed protagonist who has an unnamed dread disease. The protagonist has the disease, he goes to the hospital, he gets better and is sent home where he is more or less confined, and finally he returns to the hospital where he is in bad shape, and the story ends.
In addition to the protagonist there is a large group of about 25 friends, acquaintances, and well wishers. The protagonist is a prominent person in the general field of the arts, but we learn almost nothing about his actual work. All those around him would seem to be in some way associated with the arts.
The entire story consists of small to tiny snippets of conversation, phone calls, words spoken in passing, or during brief visits. Each of these snippets tells us something about the condition of the protagonist or something that he is reported to have said, or something that some one of the others has said or is reported to have said about the protagonist or about one of the others. Some of them are optimistic about the patients prognosis or are hopeful about the search for a cure for his unnamed disease. Some are not. Some snippets tell us about the fears, the various attitudes, the ways in which the group, each of whose members would seem to be at risk for contacting the disease, is struggling to conceptualize about the disease, how to live with the idea of it.
There are 15 long paragraphs, each about some aspect of dealing with the patient, dealing with the physical disease, dealing with feelings, or dealing with ideas.
This group of people (who seem to be struggling toward some cohesive accommodation or theory of co-existence with what obviously is Aids) could rival the patient as being the protagonist. Personally I decided on the patient.
I thought Sontag's story was absorbing and told in an interesting and, to me, fresh way. To be frank, I am frequently, and maybe too easily, astonished at the creativity of writers.
If anyone has read the story, I'd like to hear something of what you thought of it.
I keep meaning to read Sontag, Hazlitt, and somehow never do. A shameful omission in my reading!
I just bought a nice hard-cover remainder of Eudora Welty's "The Optimist's Daugher" and I plan to take it with my on a trip to Oklahoma next month to see family. I figure that's about as close as I'll get to Mississippi any time soon...
Consider popping down to Archer City, D'art, to get another book or two!
Would love to Tartarin, but it's gonna be kind of a whirlwind visit. Though, given yesterday's tornado in Oklahoma, I hope not TOO whirlwind...
I can't read Susan Sontag. Don't know why, but I find everytime I read a few pages by her, I start getting irritated.
Has anybody read The Iron Triangle - Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group, by Dan Briody? I've read excerpts, reviews, heard dsicussions, and have it on a wait list at the library.
I'm on my 80 th reading of Anna Sewell's Black Beauty. Not the cut down made - for - teens copy that you find in book stores in paperback. Its the true hardbound book that well.. Is beyond warn out. I just can't bear to get a new copy of it.
It was the first novel I ever read, the second was "the last unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle. I finished that one yesterday.
D'Art, I too have not read much Sontag, but I can usually enjoy at least a little of most things (probably an over statement).
The biggest thing I ever did with Sontag was to defend her New Yorker essay that was published just after 9/11. Someone, I forget who, on Abuzz wanted her tried for treason. There was a heated debate that went on for days.
Mama, I fear that if I looked into The Iron Triangle, I'd obsess about it for the next few weeks. I'm going to look for one really good review and let it go at that.
Defoe
Alright, I'm reading Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe... that is, if I can find it. Somehow, within the past two days it's gone missing.
I'm absolutely going mad without it. Anyway, happy reading to you all!
Welcome to A2K Izzy, I'm currently reading "Akins New Miracle Diet" or some such name!
Welcome to A2K, IzzyCrosswell!
I've finally broken down and bought a new book ~ so far, so good.....then again, I'm only 66 pages into it.
The author is Greg Iles; title 'Sleep No more'. Two reasons I picked it up.....1. Stephen King gave it a good recommendation. 2. There are six more books from Mr. Iles that I can pick up if I like this one.
I just finished the Piano Tuner, if you liked Cold Mountain you'll like this one. Vivid on-the-ground descriptions, swoony hints at romance.
J
I'm reading the neil young biography....slowly.
I am reading "BLOOD ORCHID" by Stuart Woods, one of my favorite writers!
My next venture will be "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN"!
White oleander
If you read the book White Oleander, you will be greatly disapointed with the movie, at least I was!
I am reading Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. I love this guy! Next, I will read the Hobbit!
Misti - the missus and I stumbled across our first Stuart Woods book (Orchid Beach) at a garage sale awhile back. We're both hooked on him now. He's always a good read.
Welcome, Devrie! Travels with Charley is a wonderful book. I read it too long ago. Will reread. Thanks for the reminder!
Wow--"Travels with Charley"! I read it a while ago, too, and loved it.
Just returned from a trip to Tulsa and got into Theroux's "Dark Star Safari" en route. Reading about what he went through travelling through Africa--bandits, dreadful roads, extreme heat, bad food--made flying in the US seem really luxurious, despite the cutbacks...
