What I’m Reading
Here’s a little segment called “What I’m Reading” where I like to discuss -well, you get the idea. It’s a little self-centred, but then you’re reading this so you might be interested. If not, there are plenty of other sites on the internet you can read. I’m told. I’m always interested to know what my favourite bands’ favourite bands are, so maybe it’s a bit like that, although at some considerable stretch.
I like McSweeney’s, which is a quarterly compendium of both ramshackle and misfit writing, edited by Dave Eggers, who himself wrote “A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius”, which brings us to Book 1.
Book 1: The Better Of McSweeney’s - Volume One - Issues 1-10
This is an anthology of the first ten issues of McSweeney’s, as mentioned above. The first line of the first short story, “The Ceiling”, starts beautifully: “There was a sky that day, sun-rich and open and blue.”
There was a sky? Fuck me.
The story was by Kevin Brockmeier, who deserved inquiries. So…
Book 2: The Brief History Of The Dead - Kevin Brockmeier
Stark, inventive writing about a city inhabited by the gone but not forgotten. I’ve barely started it, but it looks good. Plus, he’s associated with McSweeney’s, which as I said, is edited by Dave Eggers, so…
Book 3: You Shall Know Our Velocity! - Dave Eggers
I’m looking forward to reading this so much that I’m setting myself the task of reading all other books on this list before I start this one.
Book 4: Never Have Your Dog Stuffed - Alan Alda
There’s an irony in this. I wanted this when it came out, but it was only available in hardback in the UK. I asked my dad for the paperback last year when he was in New York, but I only got twenty pages into it. Not to worry, thunk I, I’ll take my one on holiday. But I didn’t read a page because I bought the books listed above. And the paperback is now available in the UK.
I’m a terribly slow reader and I should invest as much time in books as I do in watching TV, and to be honest I read maybe two books a year.
I mean, I read, but it’s mostly fleeting stuff: stories, anecdotes, myths, stuff I want to learn about. I’ll look up tales and accounts, poems, lyrics, read about people and the things they have done, blogs, radio programmes, podcasts, scour encycopedias, but books? Like the thirty pages a day thing? From the same story? Picking up where I left off? Rarely.
My aim for this year is to spend more time reading.
Have a good weekend - I’ll be posting on Saturday and Sunday like normal, but I don’t presume to tell you what to do.
So if you’re away then enjoy yourself - and I’ll meet you back here, OK?
Tomorrow: You maybe better had
April 27th, 2007 at 10:37 am
I have a similar ADD issue when it comes to books. Either they get waylaid, or I finish them in 24 hours and suffer from sleep deprivation.
The best book I ever got was a 30th birthday present*, and it’s called “Passing Time in The Loo”. It has two page summaries of every great book ever written (sort of). It gives me the opportunity to have that feeling of accomplishment when finishing a book, but only by committing five minutes of my time to get there.
* The dedication read, “May all your bowel movements be approximately two pages long” - lovely eh?
April 27th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
I read a lot — mainly newspaper articles and stuff I see on the net, but very few books. I do read books when I go abroad on holiday as the TV and radio is often of poor quality, and there’s a limit to the number of times I can watch the same CNN News.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
I want a copy of the book mr angry has.