I am on a speculation site right now for potential Nobel Prize winners this coming week. There’s some chatter about Latin America (especially South America) this time around. I don’t think that’s going to happen because I would expect a writer from sub-Saharan Africa or east Asia/south Asia this time, and most likely a woman to win. But so it goes. Among the names is Cesar Aira. He is from Argentina and has been writing and publishing for about 30 years or so and has […]
I just dunno, man.
When I was in college, maybe summer after sophomore year, Thomas Pynchon was gonna be the guy I decided to love and get into. It was initially because his name and the cover of “V” drew me in and I have a fascination for long books and I was just convinced he was my guy. Turns out he’s an incredibly rewarding writer, and an incredibly frustrating writer. So books like V and The Crying of Lot 49 are both pretty frustrating and pretty rewarding. Crying […]
In which I rewrite the movie a little
So I have read this book a number of times starting in 5th grade when I was the same age as the kids. I am almost the same age as the adults, so this is interesting to me. I also recently saw the movie, and it was fine. But it had the same problem any movie version of any book that greatly outdistances its adaptation has: it just can’t take the time it needs to do the job correctly. Things I liked about the movie: […]
So I am waiting for IT to come off Overdrive Holds, so here’s the books I’ve been tiding myself over with
The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown 3/5 Let’s get this out of the way. This is big dumb weird book that is far up its own ass and pompous and pretentious and also big and dumb. Also, I love it. There’s a version of me, you’ve probably met him….for me, he was a senior in college and he carved his entire existence out of resisting mass culture….except you know…the right kind of mass culture….and loved jokes that the Family Guy mad about Dan Brown. But […]
My favorite part of year
So screw the Pulitzer Prizes because they don’t release the nominees until the winner is announced, but August/September/October is my favorite part of the year because the Booker Prize and National Book Award release their longlists and we get a new Nobel Prize winner. So I haven’t liked the change toward American books on the Booker Prize because I like to expand what books I am watching, but so it goes. Of the ten books on the National Book Longlist, I have already reviewed two […]
Three books on a Saturday I guess.
Among the Thugs – 5/5 This book is so great. Bill Buford goes to write about soccer hooligans in England in the 1980s and gets accepted into their core. He doesn’t write in a sympathetic or like he’s “gone native” but he definitely clearly seeks to understand and explain. He also clearly has an affection for various individuals he meets along the way, lies in approval of white supremacy England National Fronters, and finds himself glad to see his “friends” when he gets separated in […]
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