I’ve been on a Daniel Woodrell tear. Currently reading The Maid’s Version, which revolves around an explosion that happened at a dance hall in the 1930’s. It’s my favorite Woodrell book, so far. I still haven’t read Winter’s Bone, which is supposed to be his best one.

Most of his books take place in the Ozarks, and often deal with tweakers and other riff raff. After reading all of William Gay’s output over the summer, I was told that Woodrell was a good place to go.

I had largely ignored Southern authors most of my reading life, so it’s been a rich vein of literary ore. Lots to catch up on.

Cormac McCarthy appears to have groomed a teenage runaway back in the 70's and everybody is freaking out about it because Vanity Fair spilled this tea in the form of a weird, factually iffy article replete with bad attempts at florid McCarthy fanboying that can't make it's mind up about anything, much less whether this was in fact wrong . Much hilarity ensues.

Ever since I started recording music a couple years ago I developed a deep appreciation for records by the Sound Techniques crew - specifically John Wood, who did Richard and Linda Thompson records, John Cale’s 70s stuff, Nick Drake, Fairport, etc. I’d been listening to all of that stuff for years, and in fact I’m pretty sure I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight was the first LP i ever bought - if the first LP i bought wasn’t Like Flies On Sherbert - but I started studying those records even harder. There’s something about the plain sound of them that reminds me of Neil Young’s best records from that time.

There’s a great interview with John Wood in a recent Tape Op and I’m happy to start the new Joe Boyd book today. I loved White Bicycles but Boyd’s new one is a different thing entirely. So far he’s able to make a Paul Simon record sound interesting, which is really saying something.

Forgot to mention - almost done with William Hogeland’s The Hamilton Scheme. It’s a history of the Revolutionary War-era but centered around Alexander Hamilton, high finance, and the class war surrounding America’s move to become an imperial power, of which public debt played an important part.

Hogeland is such a good writer that he delivers without ever losing the historical angle and is good about pointing out every self-flagellating slave owning rapist that graces its pages - spoiler, these are the founding fathers, so there are a lot.

Elephant in the room - I’m not sure if Hogeland was necessarily inspired to write his book as a correction to the popular musical, but I’m sure the association didn’t hurt getting a book deal.

Either way, I haven’t (and normally wouldn’t) read anything like this about that particular era of history before, but I give this one a high recommendation.

jimmy spako wrote: Tue Nov 19, 2024 8:31 am

horse_laminator wrote: Thu Nov 14, 2024 11:42 pm Almost at the halfway mark re-reading Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I last read it years ago and wish I hadn't waited as long to re-read it.

Cheers – I'd somehow never heard of this and picked it up after seeing your post, sounds brilliant.

It is and I hope you enjoy it. It's a puzzle, a cycle that shouldn't be rushed and most Wolfe fans agree it demands a reread. The Alzabo Soup podcast takes Wolfe's work chapter by chapter and is a useful companion but some find the two hosts annoying - I'm ok with them as they really know the text even if they usually waffle on in the first ten minutes of each podast before getting to the main discussion.

zircona1 wrote: Mon Jan 22, 2024 10:52 am Infinite Jest

It was $1 at the library. I've never read it, it's not too late to make a New Years' Resolution is it?

Hey, I finally finished this. It took a while, I'm a slow reader. Overall I'd say it was worth it. If I ever read it again, I'm keeping a third bookmark with names and chronology.

Currently about halfway done reading The Future by Naomi Aldermann for the December Books and Bars meetup in the Twin Cities. It's about tech billionaires hiding out and surviving the end of times, or something. I've got a feeling plot twists are coming. I'm also slowly, slowly, slowly slogging through Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.

On deck for a long holiday break are:

• All Fours by Miranda July (January's book club book)
• Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
• The Pale King by David Foster Wallace

germ war wrote: Mon Dec 02, 2024 5:01 pm [*]The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
[/list]

This one was tricky for me. In some ways easier than Infinite Jest because it's not a shuffled timeline strained by hundreds of footnotes, it's just vignettes which create a clear thematic focus but not an overall plot. I enjoyed the vibe and message but had to muscle through. Posthumous work is interesting because you always wonder what it would be.

zircona1 wrote: Mon Dec 02, 2024 1:29 pm

zircona1 wrote: Mon Jan 22, 2024 10:52 am Infinite Jest

It was $1 at the library. I've never read it, it's not too late to make a New Years' Resolution is it?

Hey, I finally finished this. It took a while, I'm a slow reader. Overall I'd say it was worth it. If I ever read it again, I'm keeping a third bookmark with names and chronology.

That’s cool! It’s great, even if it gets a bad rap lately. But so what, find anything else written in the last couple decades as prescient as that one

Bloodstone by Karl Edward Wagner. Supplies everything i want from heavy metal, but dont often get. It's like the book itself has B.O. I will read everything i can get my hands on by Karl Edward Wagner.