Suzanna Clarke, Piranesi. Actually, I just finished reading it.

It's really fucking good.

Just started The Autobiography of Malcolm X after meaning to get to it for ages.

The menu at Domino's.

Anonymous37 wrote: Fri Nov 12, 2021 2:54 pmSuzanna Clarke, Piranesi. Actually, I just finished reading it.

It's really fucking good.

I might check this out.

I'm trying to get into the habit as far as fiction goes. So on the one hand I have a list of things I want to read, and on the other I just pick random things from the library shelf that look interesting.

I the second category there is right now a book called Canada by Richard Ford. It's about a family where the dad is a retired army guy and the mom is an educated big city girl who doesn't at all feel at home in the small town environments they shack up in (they live in North Dakota iirc, they have been moving around a lot), and a kind of general dissatisfaction is implied. Dad is involved in some illegal cattle business on the side which gets them into trouble later on. It's an easy read and it has short chapters, this I like.
I also chose one called Underground Time by Delphine de Vigan. It has a rather generic middle-class-woman's-midlife-crisis feel about it, we'll see how it turns out.

In the first category I'm exploring East Bloc/Soviet dissident writers. I read The Axe by Ludvík Vaculík a while back. The story has different time perspectives weaving together unexpectedly - often not entirely certain where the scene described is actually taking place. This reminded me of the novel Wretchedness by czech-swedish writer Andrzej Tichý (a rather taxing read but very evocative). There's a tense feeling of forfeited opportunity which is suggested but never fully dealt with, kind of like how it would be from the perspective of the people involved.
I'm thinking of going Kundera next and then Zamyatin.

Other than that I always have Phillip K. Dick by my side. These I can always rely on. Soon finishing Time Out of Joint.

Stalled on Will Self's Umbrella (but will pick up soon) and started Tom McCarthy's new one The Making of Incarnation. Decided to read a couple of books at a time again.

The Big Midweek, Steve Hanley's book about being in The Mighty Fall for 20 years. I could see a non-Fall fan getting something out of this too. Brix comes off kinda bad, glad I passed her book up at the library. I still have The Fallen and Renegade on my coffee table to read later.

Milan Kundera, "The Joke".

It's fascinating to me that you can even in translation so clearly tell the quality and character of writing, how it flows and how it's balanced.

Funny thing: In the margin of one page someone has written: "Super-long sentence", and next to it someone else wrote "Shut up".

Neal Stephenson's "Termination Shock"

I'm a long sold and admitted Stephenson fan boy, have to read everything right when it comes out. 'bout 90 pages in. I'll provide opinions if anyone cares in a few weeks

I'm about 90 pages into Maria Golia's newish Ornette bio. It's good, well-written, illuminating, and very inspiring, of course.

Otherwise, have been getting into comics. Alan Moore, Moebius/Jodorowsky. About ready to dive into the second volume of Saga of the Swamp Thing.

Slowly returning to consistent reading after infant/baby/toddler life destroyed the last attempt to restart my reading life. Feels good!