We were finally able to announce that the company I work for is being acquired. Thanks to regulatory rules, the long nights and weekends I worked pre-acquisition are only a warm-up for the fresh hell of the next two months. Instead of a recap for the year I want to look at my recent discoveries […]
I finally finished the audiobook of William Gaddis’ J R and thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend it, especially for anyone that has wanted or tried to read it and felt overwhelmed at keeping so many unattributed conversations straight. Narrator Nick Sullivan provides distinctive voices for each character. Think of it as the color-coding Faulkner wanted […]
Posted for no other reason than I watched “Seven Chances” with the family last night and the boys wanted me to replay this scene (when they could speak between laughs, that is). TCM had Buster Keaton as their feature star a couple of months ago and the boys became huge fans. As zrsio, the uploader […]
In his own words: The Paris Review interview with Terry Southern in 1958. INTERVIEWER: I’d like to ask you some questions now about the work itself. You’ve described your novels as “nonrepresentational.” I wonder if you’d mind defining that term? GREEN: “Nonrepresentational” was meant to represent a picture which was not a photograph, nor a […]
The Physics of NASCAR: How to Make Steel + Gas + Rubber = Speed by Diandra Leslie-Pelecky Foreword by Ray EvernhamA few Saturdays ago I was sitting in the library while my boys were deciding on which books to check out when I saw this book in a science display. After leafing through a few […]
Many thanks to Sheila O’Malley at The Sheila Variations for posting on the stage play An Iliad, playing at The Court Theatre in Chicago. There are more video excerpts on YouTube (see the links shown at the end of the clip) about the play, definitely worth checking out. Sheila links to a review by Chris […]
After seeing glowing reviews of the works of Bohumil Hrabal, I thought I would read one of his books. Expect to see several more posts on his works over the next few months—I thoroughly enjoyed Too Loud a Solitude. Welcome to the world of Haňtá, a trash compactor in Prague, turning out compressed bales of […]
Richard at Caravana de recuerdos had a post last week on Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann. I’ve mentioned I’m listening to the audio version of William Gaddis’ JR and as luck would have it I heard a brief mention of the story the same day I read the review. I love coincidences like that, with […]
Given how things are going right now I need to remind myself, per Steven Riddle, William Michaelian and other wonderful book bloggers…I need to remind myself to take time out to enjoy and appreciate the wonders around me. This includes the pleasures from books… Because when I read, I don’t really read; I pop a […]
There are so many wonderful things to say about John Williams’ Augustus and the few online reviews I’ve skimmed do a good job of going into detail about many of its strengths. In this post I want to highlight a few aspects of the book I found enjoyable. The novel is full of tensions and […]