Monday, November 16, 2009
Reading List
This post is inspired by the fact that I finished All-American Poem by Matthew Dickman yesterday, which is only a little bit embarrassing because I've been in the middle of reading it for months and it's only maybe 80 pages. But the thing about poetry is that it has a sound and it doesn't bear interruption, which rules out reading on the subway (unless you're making the long sojourn to Williamsburg on the G train, as I was on Saturday. I find poetry one of the few effective talismans against unmitigated hipsterism). As I was saying, this is a fantastic book. It's joyful and passionate and honest and funny. Love love love it. Did you read the profile of the Dickman brothers in the New Yorker a couple of months ago? This is that guy.
Other items:
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. I don't feel that I can discuss this book at all until I'm finished with it.
The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken. I picked this up at the Brooklyn Book Festival over the summer. Cute and doesn't require continuous reading. This will probably float around for a while. I'm halfway through but probably won't finish until Christmas.
Up next:
There's an obscene amount of stuff sitting around my apartment right now. I took the Omnivore's Dilemma off my dad's shelf several months ago and keep meaning to get around to that. He also shoved the Best American Short Stories 2006 into my hands the last time I was home for reasons that escape me, but I might pick through that on the train home for Thanksgiving and be done with it.
I walked out of Idlewild with a copy of Gastropolis on an impulse the last time I was in there, and that looks like fun. I also have a number of items related to the Belgium trip (which, incidentally, is rapidly evolving into the Belgium and France trip) that I'm looking forward to. A book on the Belgian surrealists and some offbeat gastro-guides to Paris.
Oh, and Drew? I can't keep my copy of And Then We Came to the End in my apartment because everyone wants to borrow it. Everyone. Susanna has it now and I keep forgetting to get it back from her, but even my mom wants to read it. You undersold that book, I think. It's really excellent.
Other items:
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. I don't feel that I can discuss this book at all until I'm finished with it.
The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken. I picked this up at the Brooklyn Book Festival over the summer. Cute and doesn't require continuous reading. This will probably float around for a while. I'm halfway through but probably won't finish until Christmas.
Up next:
There's an obscene amount of stuff sitting around my apartment right now. I took the Omnivore's Dilemma off my dad's shelf several months ago and keep meaning to get around to that. He also shoved the Best American Short Stories 2006 into my hands the last time I was home for reasons that escape me, but I might pick through that on the train home for Thanksgiving and be done with it.
I walked out of Idlewild with a copy of Gastropolis on an impulse the last time I was in there, and that looks like fun. I also have a number of items related to the Belgium trip (which, incidentally, is rapidly evolving into the Belgium and France trip) that I'm looking forward to. A book on the Belgian surrealists and some offbeat gastro-guides to Paris.
Oh, and Drew? I can't keep my copy of And Then We Came to the End in my apartment because everyone wants to borrow it. Everyone. Susanna has it now and I keep forgetting to get it back from her, but even my mom wants to read it. You undersold that book, I think. It's really excellent.
