at the rack
january books I read worth reading:
confessions of a memory eater by pagan kennedy. the premise of the book is a guy who gets to try a pill that allows him to relive his best moments in life. kennedy weaves in the thomas de quincey book confessions of an opium eater which was published in 1822. it's a quick read, less than 200 pages, but entertaining.
y: the last man volume 8, kimono dragons by brian k. vaughn. a graphic novel series that I read whenever a new volume comes out. it's basically a summer movie about the last man on earth after a weird disease wipes out every other male on the planet.
fables, volume 8, wolves by bill willingham. another graphic novel series with the premise that characters from fairy tales are living in the modern world. another summer movie, and lasting about as long in the brain.
madmen and specialists by wole soyinka, play by wole soyinka. my favorite thing I read this month, it has a few paragraphs that seem to exist like poems and yet they don't interupt the narrative or how you'd imagine it on stage. the themes in the play seem meant for today even though the play was written in 1971. from the book jacket: "madmen and specialists is wole soyinka's astonishing dramatization of the power of propaganda and political repression, written shortly after he was released from prison".
wizard of the crow by ngugi wa thiongo. a book about the fictional republic of aburira and the post-colonial experience in east africa. that would be one way to explain this book, but there's really no way to really explain it. it feels like thiongo set out to explain the post-colonial experience of a country like this, and he also subjects it to satire while somehow adding in touches of magic realism and the effects of a love story on the least powerful people in the story. a very, very good book and also a very big one in ideas and humor and pages coming in at 766 of them. thiongo was also imprisoned, in kenya in 1977, for his writing.
lastly, I'm halfway through hotel world by ali smith. smith reminds me a bit of jeanette winterson in that she seems to be able to make words bend the way she wants them to. I'm not in love with the whole book, it feels a bit contrived at times, but she does have moments where you just agree with it. the book is five woman partially connected to a hotel called the global hotel. here's a paragraph about a homeless woman who camps out outside the hotel: "she has shattered her insides, living the way she is. she knows she has. it isn't funny. it comes over her like misery. she has broken her insides, burnt them out, then heaped them over with ground as if to stop the burning. beautie, truth and raritie. grace in all simplicitie. here enclosde in cinders lie. enclosde, spelt backwards at the end. nclsd. shakespearian. shksprn. the library here in this town is good. she thinks of the library instead. it is better than the one in bristol. it stays open longer, generally, and the librarians rarely throw anybody out, even somebody getting some sleep. she has been reading metaphysical poets. truth and beautie be. or: I am rebegot. of absence, darknesse, death; things which are not. poetic darkness, Else thinks breathing carefully, has an extra e, as if a longer kind of darkness than the ordinary kind, and a capital D. Darknesse. essence of dark. she has read a poem about a boy who acted plays in front of queen elizabeth the first, was good at playing very old men and died aged just thirteen. Else also likes william butler yeats. I went into the hazel wood. because a fire was in my head. go your ways, o go your ways. I choose another mark. girls down on the seashore. who understand the dark. she can't be bothered with novels any more. she has read enough novels to last her a lifetime. they take too long. they say too much. not that much needs to be said. they trails stories after them, like if you tied old tin cans to your ankles and then tried to walk about."
confessions of a memory eater by pagan kennedy. the premise of the book is a guy who gets to try a pill that allows him to relive his best moments in life. kennedy weaves in the thomas de quincey book confessions of an opium eater which was published in 1822. it's a quick read, less than 200 pages, but entertaining.
y: the last man volume 8, kimono dragons by brian k. vaughn. a graphic novel series that I read whenever a new volume comes out. it's basically a summer movie about the last man on earth after a weird disease wipes out every other male on the planet.
fables, volume 8, wolves by bill willingham. another graphic novel series with the premise that characters from fairy tales are living in the modern world. another summer movie, and lasting about as long in the brain.
madmen and specialists by wole soyinka, play by wole soyinka. my favorite thing I read this month, it has a few paragraphs that seem to exist like poems and yet they don't interupt the narrative or how you'd imagine it on stage. the themes in the play seem meant for today even though the play was written in 1971. from the book jacket: "madmen and specialists is wole soyinka's astonishing dramatization of the power of propaganda and political repression, written shortly after he was released from prison".
wizard of the crow by ngugi wa thiongo. a book about the fictional republic of aburira and the post-colonial experience in east africa. that would be one way to explain this book, but there's really no way to really explain it. it feels like thiongo set out to explain the post-colonial experience of a country like this, and he also subjects it to satire while somehow adding in touches of magic realism and the effects of a love story on the least powerful people in the story. a very, very good book and also a very big one in ideas and humor and pages coming in at 766 of them. thiongo was also imprisoned, in kenya in 1977, for his writing.
lastly, I'm halfway through hotel world by ali smith. smith reminds me a bit of jeanette winterson in that she seems to be able to make words bend the way she wants them to. I'm not in love with the whole book, it feels a bit contrived at times, but she does have moments where you just agree with it. the book is five woman partially connected to a hotel called the global hotel. here's a paragraph about a homeless woman who camps out outside the hotel: "she has shattered her insides, living the way she is. she knows she has. it isn't funny. it comes over her like misery. she has broken her insides, burnt them out, then heaped them over with ground as if to stop the burning. beautie, truth and raritie. grace in all simplicitie. here enclosde in cinders lie. enclosde, spelt backwards at the end. nclsd. shakespearian. shksprn. the library here in this town is good. she thinks of the library instead. it is better than the one in bristol. it stays open longer, generally, and the librarians rarely throw anybody out, even somebody getting some sleep. she has been reading metaphysical poets. truth and beautie be. or: I am rebegot. of absence, darknesse, death; things which are not. poetic darkness, Else thinks breathing carefully, has an extra e, as if a longer kind of darkness than the ordinary kind, and a capital D. Darknesse. essence of dark. she has read a poem about a boy who acted plays in front of queen elizabeth the first, was good at playing very old men and died aged just thirteen. Else also likes william butler yeats. I went into the hazel wood. because a fire was in my head. go your ways, o go your ways. I choose another mark. girls down on the seashore. who understand the dark. she can't be bothered with novels any more. she has read enough novels to last her a lifetime. they take too long. they say too much. not that much needs to be said. they trails stories after them, like if you tied old tin cans to your ankles and then tried to walk about."
posted by gradylove at 9:55 PM
1 Comments:
you did not read that pagan kennedy book in january. liar! i read it on the plane in january and you had already finished it then.
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