A friend posted that they’d just read a book that they think might be the best book they’d ever read, and it was this one. 4, 3, 2, 1 was listed for a Booker and this one won the prize? OK, I’ll try it.
I really wanted to like it more than I did, and the second act really flows well, but I had a hard time finishing it, today, finally. It’s right up my alley in lots of ways. v0v
4 3 2 1 was full of writers learning the trade from other writers and hundreds of books are mentioned. I’m sure I’ll thumb through it for more suggestions but this one was the first I chose.
I think probably best to go in completely without any idea what it is beyond: german, written early 1800s, takes place in the 1500s, and Kafka, of all people liked it a lot.
Loved it, spent most of my spare time since I started it with it, will miss it, probably missed a lot in it.
18th book of the year: “SPQR”, by Mary Beard
Wanted to read some history after the last few things. Kept seeing Beard press over the years, saw she has a new book out and grabbed a used copy of her old stuff instead.
lotta “assassinated for tyranny after proposing social and/or land use reforms” Kermit-confused-face.bmp
lotta good stuff on how normal people lived
The story I enjoyed in Black Water 2 was an excerpt from “The Palm-Wine Drinkard” (which is subtitled “and his dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads’ Town)
I preferred the drinkard because more of the stories in it seem like little self-contained myths. And of course I’m glad to now have a connection back to the Byrne/Eno album that I love.
“Black Water 2, More Tales of the Fantastic” loved it, full of surprises and delights from authors I’ve never heard of and authors most have — Arthur Conan Doyle, F Scott Fitzgerald, E B White, Joseph Conrad, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Margret Atwood, George Bernard Shaw , Arthur C Lark) — and stories too , like Melville’s Bartleby.
"The Complete Gentleman” turned me onto Amos Tutuola, who I’m now reading in full.
And a story from Isabell Allende?! Nice.
Egan again. I knew I’d have a 10 hours of plane time, so I brought “Oceanic” and it delivered.
Egan’s political and hard science (the bulk of this set) stories are my favorites while the atheist ones like the title story “Oceanic” are probably more interesting to previously religious people, which I never was. I’ve always found faith to be entirely inscrutable, so exploring losing it is kinda just more of that to me?
It is out of print, but available self published by the author. The stories from just after those in Axiomatic.
Some fun stuff, although I would have liked it a lot more had I read it contemporaneously, when I was in my own more annoying atheist phase.
Wow! Loved it.
The “Selected Stories” title has had time to be rated and critiqued by much more careful readers. Lots of comparisons to Chekov, who I suppose I’ll check out next. I’ll also definitely be getting the companion collection, Family Furnishings, Selected Stories 1995-2014.
Also born on this day, go figure
https://mastodon.social/@workingclasshistory/113733763757962621