Fifth, sixth, and seventh books are none of them page turners, so they are all in an indeterminate race, although this silly nonsense is a likely winner: The Museum of Eterna’s Novel (The First Good Novel)
The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel)The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel)is t…Goodreads (opens in a new tab)Figure 1. Link preview of https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6554891, "The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel)".Figure 2. the current paperback cover, a three color bullseye offset over a white field.Figure 3. parenthetical quote: The French demolish a deified painter every twenty years, a deified poet every fifteen, and a deified novelist every ten; at a hundred and fifty years it's high time Kant were thrown into doubt. This isn't daring, it would be more daring to call him a metaphysician. With these antecedents I anticipate future arguments for the demolition of my Art.
Figure 1. ECU two hotdogs side by side on a small white plate, vertical-orientation low-angle perspective, on buns. each have jalapeño-cilatro-mayo on one shoulder, dijon on the other, chopped onions on both.
Finally figured out no-handing on the cargo bike: simply allow the tires to run a little low, simple as.
I’d been maintaining it like my commuter bike at max recommended pressure (60PSI I think), but at 40, the ride is a lot smoother and no-handing is easy.
Yay!
Figure 1. my (rider) POV of no-handing a cargo bike, southbound on Shotwell, in the Mission, SF, U.S.A. Shotwell is a "slow street", through traffic is in theory prohibited but in actuality, only slightly discouraged. The cyclocomputer is registering about 15 miles per hour.Figure 2. same POV and speed as previous shot, on 17th st westbound, passing Jackson Park and Thee Parkside. Jackson Park is being completely redone next year and so they are topping all the trees that line the park to pre down to 10' stumps. It's a bummer, but the new park should be great... in 2026.
Fourth book, “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage”, Haruki Murakami
I’ve had this on the shelf for a while (years, even) after catching up on Murakami and taking a good long break (furthermore, I think this was a gift, or used rack sale find, even) because it’s all very samesy. I picked this off the to-read pile because it looked the shortest.
I think crit of his lesser stuff like this is totally on the mark and fair but also “it me” so, I enjoyed it.
Second book down, the new Jason Pargin (f. k. a. David Wong), “If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe.” It was fun! I lol’d a few times, didn’t want to put it down, etc.
Jason put a tiny house of leaves gimmick in it (it’s full of metafiction shit tbh) but I only noticed it was happening for the last word so if you read it, let me know what it says (I’m going to go cheat and google it right now).
Figure 1. The cover of John Dies at the End #4"If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe", file under Jason Pargin / David Wong. The cover is a an illustration of a black hardback of the book with the title in silver on the spine and cover, made of arby's sauce dripping, and one of the drips forms a skull below, all over a solid, flat light green.
ok, what the letters spells out is p easy to find on tvtropes[.]org which I’m told is a terrible website that’ll rot your brain and your ability to perceive art as anything but strings of gimmicks (they probably have a name for people like me who believe this), so I guess if you look for it the right way, like I did, the answer is in the google preview (remember when things were like that?) and you don’t have to click through.
but I’m also not gonna say what it is either, just read the book.
third book, “The Stories of your Life and others”, Ted Chiang.
Stories of Your Life and OthersWhat if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven-and brok…Goodreads (opens in a new tab)Figure 2. Link preview of https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223380.Stories_of_Your_Life_and_Others, "Stories of Your Life and Others".Figure 3. the current paperback cover of "Stories of your Life and others" by Ted Chiang. The title and author's name encircle the hands of a clock at about 11:10:30, over field of stars on the top half and cloudy sky on the bottom half. Inset in the top left is a cloud circle that proclaims that this book "Includes 'Story of Your Life," the Basis for the Major Motion Picture ARRIVAL.
First book of the year down, (I think via @leigh somewhere?): “Axiomatic,” a collection of Greg Egan’s short stories that appeared in various science fiction magazines (mostly Interzone and Asimov’s) between 1989 and 1992.
Great late 80s hard SF shorts
I don’t do star reviews, but, folks, they’re good stories
Figure 1. a credenza containing a record player, spectrum analyzer, and receiver, next to a shelf of records, Bowie's "The Next Day" playing, album propped uppropped up against the wall on the next to a prayer plant.
