drowning in bookish waters Friday, May 16 2008 

Ephemera and Reading and TBR (To be Read) and reviewed books , , , , , , jfre6204 6:05 pm

This picture is taken from a website of an artist that does a book sorting art project that is very cool. www.ninakatchadourian.com

is the link. Since my last posting I have finished Oh Pure and Radiant Heart. I can’t understand why the book exasperated me so much. Part of it was the presence of so many typographical errors, you’d think that the editor felt the same way as me and couldn’t even be bothered to fix what was wrong, much less cut it down. I think it would have worked great as a standard 230 page novel. The stuff about the rapture and the following of the scientists turned me off, the whole thing was absurd and just exasperating. That being said, I am recommending to myself to read the rest of what Lydia Millet wrote… I don’t know why. I really enjoyed How the Dead Dream, so I’ll keep going and give her another chance. I have also given up for the moment on Cynthia Ozick’s Art and Ardor. It is very difficult and about a lot of subjects that I can’t really relate to. Her other book was more mainstream and more enjoyable. I rarely give up in mid book…but I think in this situation it is the best idea.

I’m reading Werewolves in their Youth and the Miranda July. And re-reading Ignorance by Milan Kundera. I just feel like I’m not doing reading justice right now. I don’t know what could pick me up out of this slump. I’m enjoying what I am reading, but I’m not ultra inspired at the moment.

I think I’m going to go out on a limb and read Hunter S. Thompson or Ursula le Guin. Something radically different. I’m giving every book  I read a rating in my book journal. Lydia Millet got 2 and a half stars (yes, Star Search helped me come up with these qualifications) and Model World got 3 and a half stars.

I’ll keep you updated.

 

marginalia Wednesday, May 14 2008 

Reading and TBR (To be Read) and reviewed books , , , , , , jfre6204 5:55 pm

This is the author Milan Kundera, whom I love. I’m thinking about doing a Author Spotlight on him, but first I have to read everything… This would prove easier if I could remember what I have read of his oeuvre. (Fancy word alert!). I got a stack from the library yesterday… looked at it, flipped through it, and couldn’t remember if I had read Identity or Ignorance. I knew that I had read one or the other of them. Well, I decided to take home Ignorance… and it turns out that I had read Ignorance. Started it again. Decided to read it again because it is Fabulous.

Along with this, I have also started Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael Chabon, which Becky assures me is Not funny. I am still working on Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, which I’m sorry…will NOT end. Where in the heck was the editor of this book? 500 pages of absurdity and little development…half of this book needed to be on the chopping room floor. I’m trying to like it, I really am… and I’m going to finish it because I have already made the damn commitment, but sheesh.

I like the word marginalia.

I also started my graduation present from Becky…Miranda July’s No One Belongs Here More Than You…which so far is wonderful. Thank you Becky!!

All for now, more reading to come…———Your Friend——–Jessica.

 

A Room of One’s Own Friday, May 2 2008 

Reading and TBR (To be Read) and lists and personal updates and reviewed books , , , , , jfre6204 4:25 pm

Newsflash. I haven’t been posting because I’ve been reading too much! After the library asked for my books back because I am graduating, I had to go beg them to extend my borrowing privileges! I got a raise, Andrew is in NJ calling me from Geraldo’s home phone. My bowling pin burn is coming off. And: I am graduating!

On to the books: I really feel that I’m not doing this whole reviewing what I’ve read thing justice. Right now I am reading:

1) The Captive and the Fugitive by Marcel Proust–Almost done. This is the most disjointed book so far. There was a brief scene in Madame Vedurin’s house, where Monsieur de Charlus caused a stink over something and the rest of the book has been Marcel weeping, postulating, prostrating, and lamenting over Albertine. It’s very beautiful–don’t get me wrong. But it is not as graceful as Swann’s yearnings over Odette. I miss Swann. Let’s just say that I’ll be delighted when I am finished and will be able to take a look at the thing as a whole. Believe me, if it was too much or too awfully boring I would have quit by now. There’s something in it that keeps me going and it’s hard to explain. The language is enough to carry the sometimes nonexistent plot. I don’t even usually need a plot–books these days rarely have a plot. I just need something to keep me in the scene, something to make sure I don’t wander off. Elstir, Francoise, and Jupien and those kinds of characters are what keep me in the book. Marcel likes to lay around in bed and worry.

2) Art and Ardor by Cynthia Ozick–another book of essays. So far I have read a lot about Virginia Woolf and thus the portrait above. I am reading now about E.M. Forster’s secret homosexual novel. Bloomsbury is now interesting to me and I really want to read more Woolf before too long.

3) Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by: Lydia Millet–the three men who starred in the Manhattan Project have been brought back to life in the 21st century and are mooching off a married librarian in New Mexico. She believes in their plights and their hearts and her push over husband may not make it. I really like the way this is written and am savoring it slowly.

4) Master and Margarita by: Mikhail Bulgakov–Getting stranger and stranger. Margarita has shown up and she is horrible! I can only imagine that the way this novel ends can only be in the most unimaginable horror ever. It’s almost unbelievable. I love it.

5) The Virgin in the Flames by Chris Abani–just started it so I don’t have any idea how I’ll like this. So far, it’s interesting. Very contemporary.

6) Auto da Fe by Elias Canetti–yes, I’m still reading this because only one chapter at a time can be handled. This is not to say that I don’t like it, it’s just hard to swallow in large chunks.

I will try to finish one of these this weekend, so I can start something equally as wonderful and share it with you!