I've started to unwrap and read the book pressies on my bookshelf. I turn the paper into a dustcover for each book. This wrapping paper classification system could revolutionise libraries everywhere
Don Quixote has been the bane of my reading life for some time now. It's half a million words and it's marvellous but PLEASE GOD MAKE IT STOP. Don Quixote is someone telling you the same joke 500 000 times. I have about 80 000 words to go. The first book I unwrapped was an illustrated and abridged version of Don Quixote. It's like Cervantes' ghost is mocking me
On average, I have to unwrap six books to find one book I want to read. The poetry books are great but, call me an ungrateful sprog, I can do without fantasy, Brian Castro, and some book about a woman buying a farmhouse in Spain
So far I've read:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. 4 stars. Brilliant, sad, funny
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth. 5 stars. Very Austro-Hungarian. Just superb
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. 1 star. Unbelievably racist and sexist. Jane had rocks in her head. If you haven't read this, you might not know that Tarzan goes about hanging Africans from treetops for the greater part of it
Fantasy is about the only genre I read :) Except for some travel books.
ReplyDeleteI love sci fi. Not sure why I can't get into fantasy. I liked it as a kid
ReplyDelete"Johannes Cabal the Necromancer" by Jonathan L Howard is great.
ReplyDeleteI've been avoiding the sci-fi lately. I think the Honor Harrington series wore me out.
By fantasy I mean hobbits and elves
ReplyDeleteJohannes Cabal the Necromancer sounds cool. I might get around to it in about 180 books time
You have no right to be ungrateful squib! Your dad, remember, rocks!
ReplyDeleteThe book I want to stop is Umberto Eco's Island of the Day Before. The man has moments of genius and high comedy, however he is a terrible bore and a nerdy know-it-all. He went on about doves for around 25 pages! Give me Melville and his whale tangents any day.
Personally, I'd love to get my hands on New Zealand Poets in Performance.
Bob, I started reading that book in my early teens & only finished it a couple of years ago.
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ReplyDeletePersonally Squib,
ReplyDeleteI had regarded your fathers gift as a piece of high Art.I never would have sullied the piece by unwrapping a single book and reading it. I would have left it intact for the future. As a sort of latter day Joanna Southcott's Box. I mean no disrespect, but post only to reitterate the fact that I think your Dad is totally fucking awesome.
You should try the Yiddish Policeman's Union as well Squib.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do love The Radetzky March.
I read the Yiddish Policeman's Union after you mentioned it before and it is all kinds of awesome.
ReplyDeleteI tend to classify fantasy as any kind of other worldly. Not exclusive to dragons and elves.
ReplyDeleteSome of the bookstores here have a "paranomal romance" section for all the vampire/werewolve books now.
Lewd, meant to say am really enjoying the CDs. Have been playing them in the car. Favourite line from NZ poets:
ReplyDeleteI would knit a light refrain
into the woolly clouds
something like, 'Welcome to
the world, are you having a good time?'
Mr E, yeah it's very Christo but they still look wrapped in their dustcovers
Ramon, I talked about the Yiddish Policeman's Union a long time ago on my blog, remember? You recommended K & C, you called Chabon a mensch, and you told a Jewish joke about a lightbulb
MCL remembers
Oh, yeah.
ReplyDeleteI can tell the joke about the lightbulb again, if you like.
You can do Ramon. At least it will up the comment count so I don't feel quite so uninteresting
ReplyDelete"Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. 1 star. Unbelievably racist and sexist. Jane had rocks in her head. If you haven't read this, you might not know that Tarzan goes about hanging Africans from treetops for the greater part of it..."
ReplyDeleteSounds awesome!
Right-so.
ReplyDelete"Q:How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a lightbulb.
A: None. I'll just sit here in the dark.
Alone."
And I think you're interesting, Squib.
Thanks. I think I'm fascinating, also
ReplyDeleteEspecially after a few beers
I found Kavalier & Clay tedious, dull and predictable, it was hurled across the room a number of times before I finished it.
ReplyDeleteIt is the only Chabon I've read.
Predictable?! So from the start, you just knew that Kavalier was gonna rescue Salvador Dalí from a diving bell, that he was gonna fly around Antartica in a plane made of dog, and that he was gonna jump off the Empire State Building with the aid of lackey bands?
ReplyDeleteGerman kid escapes Nazis to join distant relatives in the Americas, kid doesnt fit in but makes friends with his cousin, kid tries to bring family to America to join them but tragedy struck and they all die before they can arrive, kid grows up and meets a girl, they get it on, then fall out, kid runs off to war and leaves girl preggers, she marries cousin, kid returns years later after harrowing war experience, reunites with child via magic cause child is odd (just like its dad), girls husband (aka the cousin) falls on sword so kid can get the girl back, everybody lives happy every after - the end.
ReplyDeleteThe Dali bit was a blink and miss it couple of pages in a very long long story.
The war bit in the snow was probably the best bit.
Well, if you put it like that...
ReplyDeleteI just unwrapped another book called 'Man-Shy' and the blurb reads: is the story of a red heifer who is abandoned by his mother but escapes the plodding routine of the herd to join up with the scrubbers
oh man
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ReplyDeleteis the story of a red heifer who is abandoned by his mother but escapes the plodding routine of the herd to join up with the scrubbers
ReplyDeleteWhat?! A book about a cow who somehow manages to generate gender confusion. Is the main character named Alex?
German kid escapes Nazis
ReplyDeleteSaid kid was Czech, Pepsi.
Alex, I want to check that blurb again but I can't remember which wrapping paper it was
ReplyDeleteJust thought how weird is this?! We were discussing the Yiddish Policeman's Union and next thing you know I pick up a book about a red heifer. Freaky!
I want to check that blurb again but I can't remember which wrapping paper it was
ReplyDeleteSquib, if your system does revolutionise libraries, I predict that libraries will suddenly become awesome. More so.