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posts from 2024 / 05

  1. 16th book of 2024: “You Like it Darker”, by Stephen King ( https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/201242757-you-like-it-darker)

    There are a few authors I simply pre-order without question—Jason Pargin, Kelly Link, Emily Wilson in the past year alone, but always King. I was going to save this for vacation in a few weeks but ended up with more time on my hands so it came off the pile.

    I particularly liked "The Answer Man”

    The hardback cover of “You Like it Darker” by Stephen King, as I read it. Author name over title in a pale yellow all-caps futura variant with a few pointed descenders and an interesting capital K specifically (more like a leaning V with a tail stollen from the letter Q?) over a photograph of an island with two palm trees in dark browns and blues.

  2. 15th book of 2024: "White Cat Black Dog”, by Kelly Link.

    I particularly enjoyed the last one, “Skinder’s Veil”

    I’ve never actually read any actual Brothers Grimm, nor have I read (or even heard of) Lang’s “The Blue Fairy Book” which I just learned about in a review of these Link stories, so I think they have to both go on the pile.

    the paperback cover of “White Cat, Black Dog”, by Kelly Link, as I read it.The cover is an illustration of a broken open acorn. The half that faces the reader says STORIES on the inside and the half resting on its back has a small black dog sitting in it. Title above, author name below. “White Cat,” in black, and “Black Dog” in a sepia.NATIONAL BESTSELLER WHITE CAT,BLACK DOG "The master of the modern fairy tale." —TodayA short story sorceress. -The Washington Post"An expert illusionist. —The-New YorkerSTORIESKELLY LINKFINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE

  3. junior’s TK teacher gave him a old craft mobile in a book from 1983 (when I was his age)

    a photograph of the book’s staple binding removed and the eight color printed card stock pages spread as four landscapes two by two over the fifth containing instructions, set on our our dining table in rows of two, two and one. I forgot to take a picture of the cover. Oops.the color pages contain shapes in primary colors, perforated so as to be punched out, and a map of how to assemble them into a mobile also visible are a few eames shell chairs in green, walnut, pink, and red,, a red cup of coffee, and a rubber plant in the corner

    a photograph of the book’s staple binding removed and the eight color printed card stock pages spread as four landscapes two by two over the fifth containing instructions, set on our our dining table in rows of two, two and onethe color pages contain shapes in primary colors, perforated so as to be punched out, and a map of how to assemble them into a mobile.My kid, bottom right, is cutting out the strips that will make the hoop-top of the mobile, using safety sissorsalso visible are a few eames shell chairs in green, walnut, pink, and red,, a red cup of coffee, and a rubber plant in the corner

    a photograph of the book’s staple binding removed and the eight color printed card stock pages spread as four landscapes two by two over the fifth containing instructions, set on our our dining table in rows of two, two and one, now jumbled with supplies including clear tape, two staplers, a box of staples, a measuring tape, and a spool of butcher’s twina sonic the hedgehog toy now supervises from the center of the tablethe color pages contain shapes in primary colors, perforated so as to be punched out, and a map of how to assemble them into a mobilethe hoop is assembled, and my kid is pointing at the map of next steps also visible are a few eames shell chairs in green, walnut, pink, and red,, a red cup of coffee, and a rubber plant in the corner

    a photograph of the assembled mobile hanging over my kid’s bed. the wall behind the bed is a light blue, the ceiling and window trim are white

  4. Homer still holds up because he repeats this same narrative echo in the form of advice over and over:

    “Hey, lesser God, go and give that mortal these instructions.”

    “Sure thing. Hey, you! Zeus says, ‘instructions’ (verbatim).

    “Gee thanks. Hey, wife or friend or whatever, Zeus says ‘instructions’ (verbatim), what do you think?”

    “Damn, you better follow ‘instructions’ (verbatim).”

    Reader: You fool!

    “I’m no fool!” [disregards instructions, dies]*

    • except for Priam.

  5. 14th book of 2024: “The Iliad", by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson.

    I really enjoyed Wilson’s “Odyssey” and “Oedipus Tyrannos” translations and had hoped to get to this last fall when I put it on the to-read pile. Alas.

    I’ve never read any The Iliad before, and it does kinda go on a bit (really? that’s your thoughts on the Iliad? sure why not, is “it was good” better?).

    Wilson manages to sneak in some slapstick amid all the brutality.

    (previously: https://mastodon.social/@gravely/103030875431089669)

    the hardback cover of The Iliad, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson, as I read it, after pre-ordering it and letting it sit on the shelf for six months. The cover is going for a torn effect with the text below in black, red, and white capital serif over a gold painted wall with a tile motif along the bottom over a red band occupying half the cover on the right and bottom side, while under the torn paper or behind the crumbled wall is an illustration of a winged shirtless god holding something I’m sure I’m supposed to recognize but do notTranslated byEMILYWILSONTHEILIADHOMER

  6. RIP Alice Munro

    I’m a few stories into “Family Furnishings, Selected Stories 1995-2014”, the companion to “A Wilderness Station”, which I read a year ago, and expect to finish it before summer is out.

  7. muni fare enforcement at the inbound 27 / 12 stop on Cesar Chavez at Valencia

  8. the cool sierpinski

    https://fedi.astrid.tech/objects/c59e6af6-bdf5-4d0c-907a-3d0bf3956e32

  9. ah, jeeze, this listener-supported streaming rock station doesn’t erase the rock music that came out between my junior year in high school when music “went to shit” and my junior year in college when I started listening to listener-support streaming stations and they weren’t playing “that new stuff”

  10. The New York Trilogy was on the reading list for a Detective Fiction course I took in college (lovely course!) and, because it’s so great, I’m sure I don’t have that copy on my shelf anymore because I foisted it on someone with "you have to read this” after one of the re-readings I’d given it since then.

    RIP Paul Auster.

    Previously: https://mastodon.social/@gravely/111047297740981549

    photograph of the Paul Auster books on my shelf, which are mostly heavily sun-faded Penguin paperbacks with a few hardbacks intermingled, including:Oracle NightMr. VertigoMan in the DarkThe Invention of SolitudeIn the Country of Last ThingsLeviathanThe Music of ChanceinvisibleThe Book of IllusionsHand to Mouth4 3 2 1