tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312614082024-03-19T04:24:14.016+01:00Transmissions From WintermuteHow I learned... is 3/4 boys and 1/4 girl coming from Madison, Taipei, Tokyo and Stockholm. DJ writes about sci-fi, Mazur writes about movies, Laz writes about art and pop culture (TV), OhMyGodImMike writes about general culture (except for TV), and we all write about music. Yeah.DJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08514378051533022724noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31261408.post-75308362347242877352008-12-09T22:18:00.017+01:002008-12-11T19:43:34.575+01:002008-the year of not quite so many books and some travel, part 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2838U6hbxdLocx78dKB1Xg5ZLGwkagG5DBhMNDiMXX3MAIDRUC5NKYTnmvWxhy3Q1aLKoLejP7lQBDrY5w9r21PHM2IspS0EPPwNgGCslJ7KAYV7Hl1ztTYhYSVnMgdgfty8/s1600-h/IMG_1507.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2838U6hbxdLocx78dKB1Xg5ZLGwkagG5DBhMNDiMXX3MAIDRUC5NKYTnmvWxhy3Q1aLKoLejP7lQBDrY5w9r21PHM2IspS0EPPwNgGCslJ7KAYV7Hl1ztTYhYSVnMgdgfty8/s320/IMG_1507.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278588869570058978" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">W</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);">l</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">l</span>, I guess I've started my yearly summary a little late this time. But that's OK, because I haven't really read all that much this year. I guess that's Doris Lessing's fault. She cursed my reading-year. Maybe. Or maybe it's because this year didn't suck nearly as much as last year so I didn't need to take refuge in the wonderful world of books in the same way.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">L</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">t</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">'</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">s</span> see, I already wrote a post about the books I read in January and February, so I guess I'll jump right into March. Right... March. I was super sick with a fever and reading a Swedish book called Myggor och Tigrar (Mosquitos and Tigers) by Maja Lundgren. When it came out it caused quite the stir because she wrote about all these sexist male journalists and authors, exposing their affairs and strange maneuverings. Put their names in there and everything. It was really "inside" and I didn't get a lot of the references, just enough to enjoy the gossip. At first I thought she was making a really good point and sort of standing up for women authors, but sadly through the course of the book I started to doubt her truths about these people. And the second half of the book was just about her living in Naples, spying on some mafia guys on the street corner and it was super duper boring. I want to read Saviano's <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gomorrah-Italys-Other-Roberto-Saviano/dp/0230017762">Gomorrah</a> though, because apparently it's the shit right now. Every fifth book I sell these days is Gomorrah...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">I</span> think I tried reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0525949690">This is Your Brain on Music</a> by Daniel Levitin right about here. But I didn't even make it half way through. I guess I don't care enough. Or, wait, no that's not it. I think it was these long chapters about the basics of music, like pitch and timbre and stuff like that, which he excused all musicians from reading. And me not being a musician, dutifully read them, and it was interesting, but I still somehow got restless and stopped reading. Hmm..<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">S</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">o </span>after that, I went back to Vonnegut and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_of_Champions">Breakfast of Champions</a> which I really liked. I'm trying to remember stuff now, but it's really hard for some reason. I liked the short descriptions of sci-fi stories that Kilgore Trout was writing, or ideas for stories. Sometimes you don't need more. Just "well , it's like, in this future world, you can just put like a remote control, or any object, on your head, and then you appropriate it's um, skills. So, with the remote control you'd actually be able to change the channels by blinking!" (Yes, that was lame, but it's the best I can do. I'm not made of sci-fi you know!)<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">O</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">h</span>, and then there was<a href="http://www.geocities.com/andrew_dilling/"> The Great Gatsby</a> by F. Scott Fitzgerald. And it was wonderful. The language was so perfect, especially the descriptions. ( "Her voice is full of money" is something I underlined with a pink pen). And the love story. Jesus Christ.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 0);">A</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">n</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">d</span> then I started <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_the_Monkey_House">Welcome to the Monkeyhouse</a> when I went to Taiwan, and I didn't really get a chance to read much there. But I loved it and I think that except for Slaughterhouse Five it's my favorite Vonnegut book so far. I definitely liked the story about how the body is just a parasite on the mind. I tried to wow people with that a lot, with very little success. I'm guessing I probably told the story enthusiastically enough, but somehow... wrong. Everybody should just read the damn story.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicles,_Vol._1">Chronicles vol I</a>, by Bob Dylan came next. This was in China, on trains. There are several pages with praise for his Chronicles, "the book nobody thought he could write", " Dylan's voice is almost as good as his singing voice" etc. Someone even said it takes it's place next to Woody Guthries Bound for Glory, and On the Road. Yeah. But it's actually not that good, and I don't really think he can write books. Ok, ok, the first part was fine, it was interesting. But then, a huge chunk of it was all about some late 1980's recording of some album I have never heard. I couldn't believe it, I kept mumbling, god damn it Bob Dylan, not now. You see, I was really sick on the train right (stomach problems, but I wont get into the details, I'm sure you can imagine the horror), and we had folded ourselves into a very small area, right by the leaking train bathroom. We were sitting on cardboard and maps. There was pee everywhere and a man with 2 thumbs was chain smoking over our heads. And I was <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> sick. And it was a 7 hour train ride. And Bob would only give me stuff like " We listened to it later on the big speakers with the bass jacked up and Danny said we should leave it alone, that it's right the way it is.' Think so?' ' Yeah, it's got something.' And talk about it raining on and off. I don't care Bob, I don't care! Why did you have to be so boring?!!!<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 51);">T</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">h</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">a<span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">t<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">'<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">s</span></span></span></span> it for this week. There will be another installment shortly. Like on Monday maybe. Here, enjoy some songs.<br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/03Aeiioeea3.mp3"><br />A song that's quite possibly about aluminium</a><br /><br />I don't know the name of the song or the artist. Kristoffer (the Agent Side Grinder guy, who also wrote String Strikes) sent it to me from up north. This song is guaranteed to put a giant smile on your face.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/ImLovingNothing.mp3">Impressions- I'm loving Nothing</a><br /><br />It's pessimistic, but really pretty.Lazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12327865439681836105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31261408.post-30378428307685434272008-03-31T07:30:00.005+01:002008-04-01T15:41:59.558+01:00Kafka, Dust, SION, Japan<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPd3BdDLIAD4QwisV6h4kO785GPXkV-fVEqPk0OfSsR_0fYwW41rV-bHGcChuOZSCGUNUVfa5taTJ96DH_7hb7W4PU_vMxPgK6GLm51NmEYFV20JJ3dXH_CiYbsoWzhkwBWYfg/s1600-h/funny-pictures-shakespeare-ape.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPd3BdDLIAD4QwisV6h4kO785GPXkV-fVEqPk0OfSsR_0fYwW41rV-bHGcChuOZSCGUNUVfa5taTJ96DH_7hb7W4PU_vMxPgK6GLm51NmEYFV20JJ3dXH_CiYbsoWzhkwBWYfg/s320/funny-pictures-shakespeare-ape.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5183789550456734034" border="0" /></a><br />Okay, hello hello. I have been reading and teaching English in Tokyo now for ~4 months. I joined facebook and friended <a href="http://theofficialsiteofgrantmiller.blogspot.com/">Grant Miller</a> which I'm super duper proud of. I didn't really like the idea of facebook but I guess it's growing on me.<br /><br />I have not read any really mind-blowingly good books to be honest. I am mostly through my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Stories-Franz-Kafka/dp/0805210555/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206946155&sr=8-1">The Complete Short Stories of Kafka</a>, which I've been reading between books, and am even not so impressed. Some stories are good of course. For example, how can you not get chills after reading:<br /><br />"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."<br /><br />I feel that when he (Kafka) isn't on, he drags. Although, for example, the discussion of the relevance of tiny flying dogs to the rest of dog society should definitely not have been cut, the order and flow can be totally random.<br /><br />Elizabeth Bear's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dust-Elizabeth-Bear/dp/055359107X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206946120&sr=8-1">Dust</a> was good and also bad. I guess it sort of satisfied my curiosity about romance novels, which account for 30% of all book sales. I now know that I do not really care about pulp romance. The science fiction was perfectly done. No info-dumping. Just the great, gothic atmosphere of a defective <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship">generation ship</a> and the AI angels that have been trusted to take care of it. Nano-symbionts, yes. In depth explanations, no. Perfect. Even the fact that it's Book 1 of a trilogy didn't affect the pacing, plotting or epic finale.<br /><br />A little while ago I read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/God-Bless-You-Mr-Rosewater/dp/0385333471/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206947045&sr=8-1">God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater</a>. All I have to say is, "no, there are no bad Vonnegut books."<br /><br />Japanese Music? Here is SION. I found out about him when I asked a friend 'is there a Japanese Tom Waits? I think there should be.' She said, 'yes, his name is SION.' He even played recently but it was really expensive and I didn't go.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0Cbi27FdTZk&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0Cbi27FdTZk&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />The song name means: If I have sake...<br /><br />I saw Star Club a few weeks ago though. It was free because of a friend of a friend of the manager. It was cool, they played all new stuff and I didn't recognize any songs, but I was also moshing or being moshed most of the time so it's hard to say for sure. I also know now that for drink cheers Japanese punks say 'hey, ho, let's go!" A lot.DJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08514378051533022724noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31261408.post-57215462862781723082008-03-12T13:54:00.019+01:002008-04-01T15:41:35.514+01:00Reading again<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVZqVks95rI5it7QtaR9LRJZybcJfxn5smHPdzfzXzEvQI2O3U1jWubDo1l4kNInSbRRt_qoEiVAnN5c3dvAuDTSQNMlRrn3RDHKr57kCPw-ZBB9DVPTuWNEZy9zRWZba6gt4/s1600-h/800px-China_old_map.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVZqVks95rI5it7QtaR9LRJZybcJfxn5smHPdzfzXzEvQI2O3U1jWubDo1l4kNInSbRRt_qoEiVAnN5c3dvAuDTSQNMlRrn3RDHKr57kCPw-ZBB9DVPTuWNEZy9zRWZba6gt4/s400/800px-China_old_map.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176840524112029842" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">S</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">l</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51);">o</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">w</span> reading start this year. It was that <a href="http://www.dorislessing.org/thegolden.html">Golden Notebook</a>, it made me lose my incredible pace. That doesn’t matter though, no one thinks fast readers are cool. I sure as hell don’t. Actually I do, but a while ago this man bought some 20 fantasy books, and while he was paying for them he started bragging about what a fast reader he is. He said he’d read like, I don’t know, 400 books or some other ridiculous number, over the past year. He was really proud. And I said ”wow”, followed by thinking ” how sad”, because I’m a mean bookstore clerk. And then I realized that I totally would have thought he was cool if those books hadn’t all been, oh I don’t know...<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brethren-Trilogy-1-Robyn-Young/dp/0340839694">Brethren</a>. I guess I need to be nicer.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGYimN_aUfu8j3B4KjtIE3lzyxDzx-N0CTeWE4b0EGcskYC6FNWGz4ycGxQlY8R935jyYSrNq4dNtLI4kGsAEsyL3l87d2U1Qcsc5hRgxblpe7s7z8-J7vDgvDYXF7bYgjGA/s1600-h/11493003.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGYimN_aUfu8j3B4KjtIE3lzyxDzx-N0CTeWE4b0EGcskYC6FNWGz4ycGxQlY8R935jyYSrNq4dNtLI4kGsAEsyL3l87d2U1Qcsc5hRgxblpe7s7z8-J7vDgvDYXF7bYgjGA/s200/11493003.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176849930090408130" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">I</span> started out by reading this book called <a href="http://blackbookpoetry.com/book/discussions/mara-lee-the-sensual-poet/">Ladies</a> by Mara Lee. She taught/ teaches at a writing-school where some of my friends have gone the past few years and they’ve all spoken about her with enormous respect. The book was about the superficial pretentious Stockholm art-scene, worshiping beauty, and the complicated relationship between 4 women who’s fates are all entwined. It was very cleverly paced, jumping from girl to girl, back and forth through time. It’s been a while since I read a book with that kind of captivating rhythm that made me read it practically non-stop. It was a well-written, intelligent book, but I don’t know if I think absolute beauty is really that interesting. I guess it's always relevant, even though I have a hard time picturing it. (It did feel good to be able to make the connection with The Picture of Dorian Gray though.) A super funny part of Ladies was when one of the women (this otherworldly beautiful goddess) had an orgasm from looking at one of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein">Yves Klein</a>’s paintings. It was just. So. Perfectly. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">B</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">l</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">u</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">e</span>.<br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/BlueLikeNevermind.mp3"><br />Kimya Dawson- Blue Like Nevermind</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/SoBlue.mp3">Prince- So Blue</a><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">A</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">f</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);">t</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 0);">r</span> that I read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0802150594/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link">Heart of Dog</a> by Mikhail Bulgakov, which is this short little book that he wrote in 1925 but which remained unpublished in the Soviet Union until 1987. The story is about a stray dog who, after having been scalded by a mean chef, meets one of Moscow's most outstanding doctors. The doctor takes him home and after gaining his trust, transplants the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man into our poor canine hero. Now this might sound like a fantastic idea, but it doesn’t turn out so great. Instead of getting a talking, thinking cute little dog, the doctor and his assistant watch him change into this semi-hairy, alcoholic, swearing dog-man with communist sympathies, and it’s hilarious.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/111johnnycashdirtyoldeggsuckindog.mp3">Johnny Cash- Dirty Old Egg-Suckin' Dog</a><br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/MidnightinMoscow.MP3"><br />Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen- Midnight in Moscow</a><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">S</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);">o</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">m</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">t</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">i</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">m</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">s</span> I like to pretend I have a plan with the order in which I read the books, but I’m not a very strategic person so it never really works out. There’s no real connection between Heart of a Dog and <a href="http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780141020525,00.html">A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian</a> by Marina Lewycka. I read her second book, Two Caravans, last summer, (remember those chapters written from the dog’s perspective and how, awesomely, he talked only in caps. Heeeey...I guess there was a dog-connection between Bulgakow and Lewycka). Anyways, this book was also good. It’s about a middle-aged Ukrainian woman living in the UK who has to make peace with her bitchy older sister to save their old eccentric father from the young Ukrainian gold-digger with huge boobs that he marries after their mother dies. She talks like this ”This is what I want say you bitch vixen no-tits. You have no tits, you jealous”. Great stuff. I was thinking that being Romanian and all I should start busting out the dead-on, really mean, Eastern European insults. They’re just so too the point and crushing, but I don’t know if I’m not too swedefied to pull it off. Something to think about. Even though the book was really well-written (great accents), and I find the perspective of Ukrainians in England really interesting, it did drag on for too long and it sort of lost it’s momentum after about two thirds.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Nonrequired-Reading-2007/dp/0618902813">The Best American Non-Required Reading 2007</a> was next. There were a few things in there that made me laugh so hard I teared up while riding the buss. It was The Best American Article Titles from The Best American Trade Magazines. (Like <span style="font-style: italic;">Herb Quarterly</span>- Thyme Out! What the herb experts aren’t telling you). But, all in all, I'm not sure the selection really was as good as last year. I feel like that is a whiny thing to say though. Because I’m suspecting I didn’t feel that way before I read "Sore Eyes- The Reader Geek's" amazon-review of it. I didn’t want to listen to him or her. But his or her words just got stuck in my brain, and basically ruined it for me. So I have no opinion. Except that the whole first section was great and that the <span style="font-style: italic;">Middle American Gothic</span>- article was wonderful. (Brian Green’s <span style="font-style: italic;">dangerous idea</span>-presentation of the <a href="http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/images/multiverse.jpg">Multiverse</a>, blew my mind of course. And made me feel like finishing my essay was no longer important.)<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102);">N</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 204, 204);">x<span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">t</span></span> was <a href="http://www.vonnegutweb.com/catscradle/index.html">Cat’s Cradle</a> by Kurt Vonnegut. I’m really excited about him because he's really starting to grow on me. And there’s still a ton of Vonnegut-books that I haven’t read, so now I know I can just pick one up when I need something really good, right? (Are there ”bad” Vonnegut-books that aren’t worth reading?). One really cool thing about reading Cat’s Cradle after reading Feynman’s stories about the Manhattan-project was realizing how well Vonnegut portrayed the archetypical scientist in Hoenikker, the father of a dwarf, of a nerdy guy, an according to Vonnegut freakishly tall girl (6 feet), and the atomic bomb.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">T</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">h</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">a</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">t</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">’</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">s</span> it. I’m going to bike down town and pick up my copy of Daniel Levitin’s <a href="http://www.yourbrainonmusic.com/">This is Your Brain on Music</a>, which my incredibly talented cousin/piano-goddess Oli recommended to me. Also, I have to tell you that sadly, I'm failing Experimental Music and Sound Art. Maybe that book will help my brain somehow.Lazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12327865439681836105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31261408.post-11629088714762409142007-12-23T01:17:00.000+01:002007-12-27T12:32:07.858+01:002007-the year of books and travel, part five.<div style="text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='381' height='317' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwi2OHer9id4RkU2zQqdU-lLJ3-qjr0SlW47tWXhhWZyBJsUmWf-lIaQfOkuj6_iXlezyxpQsYlT6s' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">F</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">i</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">n</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">a</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">l</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">l</span>y, my last post about the books I've read this year. I read some really good ones towards the end there. So, I guess I'll just start then.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">W</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">h</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 0);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">n</span> I found Miranda July's <a href="http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/">No One Belongs Here More Than You</a>, among the free uncorrected proofs in the kitchen of the bookstore I actually said " Yessssssssss". I couldn't believe my luck, and ALL the other indie chicks were <span style="font-style: italic;">so </span>jealous. Anyways. I listened to the soundtrack for <a href="http://www.meandyoumovie.com/">Me You and Everyone We Know</a> while reading it and it really felt like I was in an American indie movie, and that I was the quirky girl who struck up conversations about polar bears and lipstick, and the human soul, with complete strangers. I think its actually these alternations between shallow random stuff and super profound musings about life that make me so confused when I read this kind of book. I know I really loved it, but at the same time I'm pretty sure I hated it a little too. Bottom line is, if you liked Me You and Everyone.. then chances are you're going to love the book. It definitely had it's hilarious moments.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 0);">S</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">o</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">.</span>.. Some people say that Khaled Hosseinis new book, <a href="http://www.khaledhosseini.com/">A Thousand Splendid Suns</a>, is even <span style="font-style: italic;">better</span> than the Kite Runner. Oh yeah, there this whole debate going on about that. This time he tells the story of two Afghani women, married to the same abusive husband, doing their best to survive at home while Kabul is burning. This book is pretty much recommended by everyone who's ever read it, so I'm not going to talk too much about it. It's just a really great book and there's no other ways of looking at it. Also, it made me cry several times. (OhmygodImmike, you need to read it if you haven't already).<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">N</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">x</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">t</span> I read what is probably my new favorite book, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita">The Master and Margarita</a> by Mikhail Bulgakov. Satan and his friends come to Moscow and just screw up everybody's lives in the most hilarious, violent, frustrating and beautiful ways. Bulgakov's comment on the absurdity of the Soviet Regime is impossible not to love. Unless you're an idiot. Then anything is possible. Or maybe it's the other way around. Aida was reading this when we were by the Black Sea this summer and one night she woke us up by laughing in her sleep and saying "tick-tock tick-tock heheheh tick-tock tick-tock hehehehehe". Fred and I got so scared we actually had to wake her up. I'm quite sure it was Satan's doing.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">A</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">f</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">t</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">r</span> that I got <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/books/review/Bell.t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name</a> by Vendela Vida, which was wonderful. It's about this girl who travels from the States to Lappland ( Northern Finland, Norway, Sweden) to find her biological father just days after burying the one who raised her. I love books about travel, people on a mission or people running away from something. I really like the language too, simple and beautiful. There's a pessimistic tone throughout the book but at the same time it's really funny and poetic. Of course Vendela Vida is co-editor of the Believer, so naturally her book will be good. It seems like the Believer-people are all pretty amazing. The last number was about art and I got a bunch of free fake tattoos that I'm not ever going to wear. But I appreciate the gesture. Those people are just so nice.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">I</span> have this list of books that my cousin and his girlfriend Audrey made for me when they were in Sweden. So whenever I don't know what to read I just pick something off it. So this time I picked <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray">The Picture of Dorian Gray</a> by Oscar Wilde. ( One of Audrey's top 5). I always feel a little retarded when I read classics this late, but I don't really have a choice now do I? I need to read them, because I love finally understanding why a classic is a classic. It doesn't always happen but when it does it's a great feeling. The Picture of Dorian has so many witty philosophical one-liners that it almost doesn't need a plot. The whole book could be all hearty intellectual banter, just because it's both great and super annoying at the same time. It does have a plot though, and a really good one at that. The picture of Dorian Gray, it's beauty and it's horrific changes are probably the kind that can only be imagined, because you can only create superlatives like that in your mind. That's why I have some doubts about the movie that I'm going to try renting pretty soon, I just don't see how they would ever be able to pull it off. I'm excited though.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">H</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">y</span>, the books finally caught up with me. After Dorian I read <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon_effect">Rashomon </a>( and other stories) by Ryonosuka Akutagawa, just like Ohmygodimmike told me to. Haven't watched the movie yet though. Rashomon was really short, so I'm starting to wonder if it's the right one, I hope it was because I liked it a lot. Oh and I read Migraines for Dummies, ( thanks!) finally, after experiencing the craziest pre-migraine hallucinations ever, sometime last week. Literally everyone on the subway had completely deformed faces. Yeah, monsters everywhere. And all I could think was 'I can't believe how many deformed people are on the subway today'.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 0);">T</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">h</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">a</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">t</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">'</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">s</span> it. <a href="http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0764554859.html">Migraines for Dummies</a> was the last book of the year. It's almost over now. I'm convinced that great things await us in 2008. Hopefully.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/HappyNewYear.mp3">ABBA- Happy New Year</a><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">"May we all have our hopes, our will to try, if we don't we might as well lay down and die"<br /> ABBA<br /></span></div>Lazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12327865439681836105noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31261408.post-82703788583434973552007-12-16T22:50:00.000+01:002007-12-17T01:06:58.601+01:002007- the year of books and travel, part four.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1165/1250396654_265b7d5993_b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1165/1250396654_265b7d5993_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">I</span> just got back from watching my dear friend Victor's amazing performance in the play <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woyzeck">Woyzeck</a> by Büchner. I knew it was going to be good but it really caught me off guard with its overwhelming greatness and hilarity, all I could do after was mumble incoherently something about being speechless. Teater Rolf have a blog for those who read Swedish, so check it out <a href="http://teaterrolf.blogg.se/">HERE</a>. ( If you don't speak this language for some reason, you can look at the few but pretty pictures.)<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">B</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">a</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 204);">c</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);">k</span> to books. I realized that I actually missed one book in my last post, probably because I was busy bitching about The Boy Who Cried Freebird. That book was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs">Microserfs</a>, by Douglas Coupland. I read that one because my cousin got it for me and because it's about computer-people working in Silicone Valley. It just so happens that he is a computer-guy who works in Silicone Valley, and he actually frequents the same coffee shops as the people in that book. So I thought it was a good way to learn something about my mysterious cousin's life, sort of at least. I really enjoyed the book, but I have to admit that I didn't get a lot of the computer-lingo jokes. The sweet nerd-love made up for that though, because if there's one thing I can relate to it's nerdy love.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">M</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 255);">y</span> cousin also got me into reading <a href="http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9034161/Richard-P-Feynman">Richard P. Feynman</a>'s books, and I started with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041">Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!</a> , which is a collection ( of some) of his many stories as told to a friend. That's exactly the sort of feel you get when you read it too, like Feynman sat down on your couch and started talking about stuff. Working on the Manhattan Project, traveling and learning how to draw ( top-less waitresses). It was <span style="font-style: italic;">terrific</span>! What I liked the most though, was just the was he seems to think so clearly and curiously. While you read his books, it's like you automatically gain some perspective in life. You'll find yourself thinking a shitty situation is fascinating. The only bad thing is that when you finish the book you go back to being and thinking like yourself again...but maybe not entirely.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">I</span> didn't know with what to fill the void after this book so I picked up a copy of <a href="http://www.sff.net/people/Richard.Horton/gunwith.htm">Gun, with Occasional Music </a>by Jonathan Lethem. A book I've been trying to push on people ( DJ) for years. Never recommend a book you haven't read, because it's a really silly thing to do. I didn't think the plot was all that good, but some of the characters were brilliant. They sort of had to be when dealing with a future world where you have evolved animals living with people, like hit man-kangaroos and...I don't know, kittens. Doing human things (!). And gross Baby Heads, who are basically evolved babies. Drinking in their Baby Head-bars. Those guys saved the entire book, because I honestly could not have cared less about what happened to the protagonist- detective.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">W</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);">l</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">l</span>, after this I got <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Crow-novel-Ngugi-WaThiongO/dp/037542248X">Wizard of the Crow</a> by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, only because Perry at work convinced me the cover was really funny and pretty. I'm usually not intimidated by a 760 page book, and this one didn't scare me either. But I couldn't finish it. Even though it's a really funny satire about dictatorship in a fictive African country. It was just too long. Or maybe I just wasn't patient enough with all the parallel stories. It just didn't work out. So the next book I read was sort of a safe bet, <a href="http://www.paulauster.co.uk/thenewyorktrilogy.htm">The New York Trilogy</a> by Paul Auster. It was a great autumn book, and Paul Auster is sort of my guilty pleasure. Because he is pretty pretentious, but being a hipster bookstore clerk I can't help liking it. It's my job to like his books. And I really really liked this one.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">I</span> finished it when I got to Bucharest for the second time this year. Again a big crazy Romanian storm was raging outside my window, and I listened to Bulgarian love-songs on the radio when I started my second Feynman book, called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Do_You_Care_What_Other_People_Think%3F">What do <span style="font-style: italic;">you </span>care what other people think?</a> I had gotten it in the Amsterdam airport bookshop during my 4-hour layover, right after a little girl with pigtails asked me if I was a boy or a girl in the women's bathroom. I had a splitting headache and already felt like ripping my brain out, when she fixed her doubtful eyes on me. I asked her if she was a boy or a girl (aha!), which she promptly ignored, probably because it was too absurd for her. <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(</span>She </span>had <span style="font-style: italic;">pigtails</span>, so who was I to doubt her?) I told her I'm a girl, and asked her what made her think I was a boy. After thinking about it for a while she said " The shoes". So yeah. What do I care what other people think? Probably more than I should, but it is quite interesting that kids being completely perplexed when trying to figure out if I'm a boy or a girl, is now an <span style="font-style: italic;">international </span>phenomenon. The book was great of course, and now I know more about the Challenger disaster than I ever expected to.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">W</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">h</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">n</span> I got back from Romania the new Michael Chabon book was waiting for me at work. Beautifully illustrated, Arabian Nights-inspired <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gentlemen-Road-Adventure-Michael-Chabon/dp/0345501748">Gentlemen of the Road</a>. It wasn't quite what I had expected, but I still enjoyed it. Especially when I read that it was originally going to be called " <a href="http://www.sugarbombs.com/kavalier/news2006aug.html">Jews with Swords</a>". But he couldn't name it that because people thought it was a big joke, even though Jews definitely wielded swords in the olden days. Everybody did. It is a damn catchy title though, so even though I understand why he didn't use it, I still think it would have been worth it.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 153, 51);">R</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 255);">i</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">g</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 153);">h</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">t</span> now I'm listening to WHAM's " Last Christmas" on the radio, and I wish I could post a song or two. But I can't because my hard drive crashed last week, and the computer I'm using now is completely empty. Awwww... If anyone of my cobloggers feel like posting an incredible song with this post, go for it.Lazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12327865439681836105noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31261408.post-82037643783733559152007-12-11T20:16:00.000+01:002007-12-19T19:59:07.159+01:002007-the year of books and travel, part three.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrDyrOKzVYBKRc2MRWzuI3Bo4CUm6GDIPW_FZyaWhqlQfG0kbsZkfcn0YQql4o0_lGqEAYqoA6Dipn8hb6iwqOgOkf4AJOKjhnskGZiiY2affqbB6cQLEF-0kSHs03cvjyUD4/s1600-h/DSC04469.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrDyrOKzVYBKRc2MRWzuI3Bo4CUm6GDIPW_FZyaWhqlQfG0kbsZkfcn0YQql4o0_lGqEAYqoA6Dipn8hb6iwqOgOkf4AJOKjhnskGZiiY2affqbB6cQLEF-0kSHs03cvjyUD4/s400/DSC04469.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142797214745391634" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">W</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);">o</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">w</span>, I can't believe it's Monday or Tuesday again already. It's time for another book post. Now last week I left off with telling you about how I failed at reading The Tale of Genji. I met my very cool smart cousin for the first time ever right about that time last summer. He's the only one I know who's ever tried reading it, and he stopped because it was "boring". I'm going to ignore that, and carry on with my plans no matter what.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">A</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);">n</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">y</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">w</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">ay</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">s</span>, before leaving for Romania, I found a free copy of Marina Lewynca's <a href="http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670916375,00.html">Two Caravans</a>, among the uncorrected proofs we have in the kitchen at work. Usually there's never anything good, but I took a chance with this one because her other book A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was kind of popular. I think the thought was also to get into the eastern European mood, if there is such a thing. Two Caravans is told from three points of view. One is the young Ukrainian orange revolution girl, then there's the young Ukrainian miner-guy, and lastly, my favorite; Dog. He only talks in caps, and all his chapters start with I AM DOG I RUN. It's great. The story begins in a strawberry field in England, where a bunch of random eastern Europeans and two Chinese girls work for the shady Vulk. The characters, including their various accents are amazing, and the story gets pretty damn exciting towards the end. Such a great book.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">B</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">y</span> the time I finished it I was already in Romania I think, and that's where I started <a href="http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/nickhornby/books/ps_synopsis.html">The Complete Polysyllabic Spree </a>by Nick Hornby that my cousin wanted me to read. This whole series of book posts is very much inspired by the Spree ( as I like to call it ), which is a compilation of 2 years worth of the " <a href="http://www.believermag.com/issues/200602/?read=column_hornby">Stuff I've been Reading</a>" column(?) he writes for <a href="http://www.believermag.com/">the Believer</a>. Even though I'm not a huge fan of Nick Hornby's novels, I really enjoyed reading about reading like this. It's definitely a book-nerd-book. You'll read it when there's no turning back and you will like it. Next I read <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A1934291">True Tales of American Life</a>, edited by Paul Auster. It's some 40 of the best stories from the radio show he did for the NPR, where he asked Americans to send in their true stories, an idea that he credits his wife for. The tales where so amazing, and sad and hilarious. While waiting out a storm by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea">the Black Sea</a>, I read them out loud to my friends, in our dingy little room, by cellphone light when the power went out. Or while slowly passing scorched sunflower fields on the slow train ride back to Bucharest, which took 7 hours because the tracks were dilated from the heat.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">A</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 255);">n</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">d</span> what do you know, speaking of post apocalyptic burnt landscapes, I started reading <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/">The Road</a> by Cormac McCarthy right after that one. ( Hey they are making into a movie..) It had been recommended to me by DJ and Oprah, and I couldn't resist buying it. Because the cover was so black and glossy. The story about this father and son who stubbornly refuse to die, in a world where that would by far be the easiest thing to do, really pulled me in. It was like jumping down a black hole every time I opened it. Leaving the noisy, sweaty Bucharest nights for a quiet, evil America where ashes fill the air. Pretty intense huh? It was. That's why it won the Pulitzer Prize.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">S</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);">o</span> I thought I should read something fun and cheery after that, something about music. When I got back to Stockholm I picked out a new free book from the kitchen, called <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061139017/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Freebird/index.aspx">The Boy Who Cried Freebird</a> by Mitch Myers. The first story was really funny, about this guy who always yells Freebird at every show he goes to, because it's his thing. And I thought the other stories would be good too because most of them were about bands I like. But guess what? They were just cool " rock n' roll fables" that Mitch Myers made up! Oh, I forget, <span style="font-style: italic;">some </span>them were true but he won't tell us which ones! This is too crazy for me. Slowly I began to understand why the introduction was sort of defensive...he ends it with saying that his book asks the musical question " <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaqRwFyoGgQ">Do You Believe in Magic?</a>", and if you do, his stories will speak to you. I guess Magic didn't free this young girl's heart, but maybe that's because I'm a child of the 80's and not of the 70's, I want the facts. ( I do like that song though. I'm not made of stone, jeez....)<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">E</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">n</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">r</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">a</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">g</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);">d</span> by this complete nonsense ( I might be exaggerating, but if you believe in magic you'll enjoy it), I got the most reliable, down to earth book I could find, Woody Guthrie's autobiography <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bound-Glory-Plume-Woody-Guthrie/dp/0452264456">Bound for Glory</a>. And after I got into the colloquial southern way they talk in that book, which took a few pages, I really loved it. Woody Guthrie led an incredible life, and reading about it made me realize that autobiographies are something else entirely. It's just a completely different kind of reading, because you learn so much from them if they are as good like this one.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/05FurtherOnUptheRoad.mp3">Johnny Cash- Further On Up The Road</a>Lazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12327865439681836105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31261408.post-66275355974616137312007-12-03T22:52:00.000+01:002007-12-04T00:58:43.388+01:002007-the year of books and travel, part two.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhinA6ZJRkCwPGlj9kVWj3YoHbZrl_4LWfq7iL5CET7C1XECS62Y3qft9R7ccPOHlpalkMkFt_XT5o19t3WpN0RUpnKihfEbL9UhP0_3vbyIjhIlHgKmLbqatEm690CWYcMk/s1600-r/tinycrane.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ5oou-HDeZdzueBGO6gzBzvSq58SYUZnV30mXv03QUCY23PJwHgw1liN9b1R_uTYpMLUGCCeQyX6OxeP0mUbHhjFCdkduWsqtpXoTh_U2nxO5PgtHVC6DuDypDHDCfwH5sB8/s320/tinycrane.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139868377762001362" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">W</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">ll</span>, a week has almost passed so it's time for another book post. Last time I left off by rambling about Michael Chabon and how great he is. There's more of that coming up.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">S</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">u</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">m</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">m</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);">r</span> started. And my friend Hedvig brought some of us along to her family's cabin on the most tick-infested island in the Stockholm archipelago. There the ticks attacked us, they crawled all over our bodies and sucked our blood, both in reality and in our minds. We all read a lot there ( all my friends are nerds Mazur). My book was <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Nonrequired-Reading-2006/dp/0618570519">The Best American Non-Required Reading 2006</a>. It made me feel hip and with it. There was a lot of random stuff in there, like 'The best American New Band Names', (and I'm glad to inform you all that yes, God Damn Doo Wop Band was among them.) It really was a great mix, it was quite a luxury to be able to read The Iraqi Constitution, part of the script for Me You and Everyone We Know, Naguib Mahfouz, Haruki Murakami and ' Here is a lesson in Creative Writing' by Kurt Vonnegut all in the same book. Good job Americans! But hey...wait a second. Maybe I'm just a crazy racist, but aren't Mr. Mahfouz and Mr. Murakami...not American....per se? Actually Murakami probably lives in California, but Mahfouz doesn't. I saw his house in Cairo. People told me he lives there and that he's really really old.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 0);">S</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">o</span>, whilst reading this, I left the Swedish island, with the cold water and the ticks for another island with palm trees and beaches. And really strange pornographic souvenirs. Banana-figurines making sweet love in the shade of colorful inflatable sharks and reindeer. I read <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse_Five">Slaughterhouse Five </a>by Kurt Vonnegut ( for the first time) by the perfect pool or at the beach. Every time I glanced up I saw hundreds of bodies all different shades of brown and red and pink. I loved the book more than I had expected, and I appreciated the strangeness of reading about the bombings in Dresden and Billy Pilgrim's time-travel in a place like the Canary Islands. It gave me a good perspective on life or something.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">O</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">n</span> my way back to Sweden I was reading <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366165/">The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,</a> the book Michael Chabon won the Pulitzer prize for back in 2001( I think). Even though the language wasn't, in my opinion, quite as good as in the Yiddish... it was a wonderful book about two cousins who create a comic book superhero called the Escapist ( originally it was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem">Golem</a>) that fights Hitler during WWII. And I think that those three days I spent only reading this book when I got back were the best reading-days of my life. I mean it. I only read and ate sandwiches. And listened to some strange radio program that only plays very old blues all through the bright Swedish summer night. Good times.(I wish I could go back, because now it's the other way around. Imagine constant darkness, illuminated by pathetic Christmas lights here and there.) After that book, I really should have taken a break, but no, I started reading<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Adrift-Nile-Naguib-Mahfouz/dp/0385423330"> Adrift on the Nile</a> by Naguib Mahfouz. I really liked his short story that I read earlier, so I was pretty pumped. But this book was pretty much only about some Cairo-intellectuals who smoke pot on a houseboat. I liked it at first, but just like with real pot, it can become boring or annoying after a while. So I stopped reading it, and I hate giving up like that but I just wasn't getting anywhere. I'm definitely going to try reading something else by him, he is, after all, a Noble Prize Winner, and I have seen his house. So after that disaster, I went straight back to Michael Chabon and read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wonder-Boys-Novel-Michael-Chabon/dp/0312140940">Wonderboys</a>. I liked it OK. Everybody except me has seen the movie with Michael Douglas so I won't bother telling you the plot. (Should I see the movie? Or is it stupid?)<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">N</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">x</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">t</span> up, wow, the biggest failure of the year. I'm almost ashamed to talk about this, but I started <a href="http://www.roomofonesown.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp">A Room of One's Own</a> by Virginia Woolf...and didn't finish it. Because I'm a bad woman. It's not even that I didn't like it, I just sort of put it on hold until I had time to read it in one sitting. For some reason that seemed important. And I still haven't read it. Somewhere around this time I also found <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Tale of Genji </span></a>staring back at me from one of the shelves at the bookstore where I work. 1100 something pages, coincidently also written back in 1100 something something. They say it's the first real novel, but there is a big debate going on so we can't be sure. It was a challenge, probably the biggest challenge I would ever have to face. So you know, I bought it. I started it. I bragged about reading it. But then I stopped because it was really heavy and it hurt to read it in bed. I swear that I will read it before I die though. I swear on the Tale of Genji itself.<br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/BadLuckDice.mp3"><br />Bad Luck Dice- Clifford Gibson</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/LoseBig.mp3">Lose Big- Eef Barzelay</a>Lazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12327865439681836105noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31261408.post-80719067264098447532007-11-27T16:38:00.001+01:002007-11-28T19:54:11.267+01:002007-the year of books and travel, part one.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1gtt53WClG5wfQyQKoGz-beZlmeMAGPerIThH3-CAO_EYydL6TnVEhWFNbAZabVj4vQyHG6ZdQo1N9w__AEKnPbx-tU3DJ6tXF67VwGCAnFirn8PnYuZYyFl-p2iGLylHko/s1600-h/cranestyle.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1gtt53WClG5wfQyQKoGz-beZlmeMAGPerIThH3-CAO_EYydL6TnVEhWFNbAZabVj4vQyHG6ZdQo1N9w__AEKnPbx-tU3DJ6tXF67VwGCAnFirn8PnYuZYyFl-p2iGLylHko/s320/cranestyle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5137966379676267922" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">I</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">d</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">c</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">i</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">d</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">d</span> to write a series of posts about the books I’ve read this year because many of them have been truly wonderful, some not so much, and also occasionally there’s no one to blame but me. Because I’m lazy and don’t always have patience with even the greatest of books.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">S</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">o</span> I started out by reading <a href="http://store.mcsweeneys.net/index.cfm/fuseaction/catalog.detail/object_id/B769DBC1-5B6F-4EBC-83FF-777C21AF0F0B/WhatIstheWhat.cfm">What is the What</a> by my long time favorite Dave Eggers. I even reviewed it <a href="http://howilearnedtostopworryingandbethebomb.blogspot.com/2007/02/sad-books.html">here</a>, so I’m not going to say much about it now, except that it gave me a good start. The tears on my cheeks had barely dried before I bravely jumped right into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kite_Runner">the Kite Runner</a> by Khaled Hosseini, a book Ohmygodimmike had given me the previous summer. I had gone back to Sweden with almost no intention of ever reading it, knowing full well that books like that ( sad ones) are not for me, the one who cried for 2 days after seeing the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340855/">Monster</a>. I’m glad I read it though, because it was as great as my dear angry friend said, and it might sound stupid, but it also really made me want to fly kites. I read that book in February and I made great kite-flying plans. I even consulted several kite construction books, but sadly, I have not yet gotten around to it, and it’s November already.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mostlyfiction.com/contemp/krauss.htm">The History of Love</a> came next, which was a beautiful epic story of a couple torn apart in Europe during WWII, a long lost book and many other things. I decided to try and read something more cheery after that one though. So before I left for Cairo I started reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Down-Magic-Kingdom-Cory-Doctorow/dp/0765304368">Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom</a> by Cory Doctorow, which DJ had given to me for <a href="http://www.chrismukkah.com/">Chrismukkah</a>. Now that's a book that I would never think to buy for myself, even though the title is pretty catchy. And the book was catchy too, ”catchy sci-fi” I’ll call it. I guess I never actually cared how the big future war among the various attractions and rides at <a href="http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/tdl/english/7land/tomorrow/index.html">Disney World</a> went, but I did love a lot of the ideas and future gadgets. Not having read much science fiction I’m still very easily impressed by people’s abilities to call each other up with their brain...chips and talking by subvocalizing and stuff like that. I know that that particular example isn’t very extravagant, but I just really wish I could do that so that’s why I remembered it. I even told my friends about it, and they... were not very excited. In Cairo, my friends and I all got a book called <a href="http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/tdl/english/7land/tomorrow/index.html">Cairo- City of Sand</a> by Maria Gulia, published by the American University in Egypt. If you ever go there, and you want to learn something about the city’s history, politics, peoples, customs, swears, sayings and jokes you need to read this book. Because it’s a real ( well written) book and not some obnoxious guide.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">W</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">h</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">n</span> I got back I was really excited to see that Jonathan Lethem had come out with a new book, and it was called <a href="http://www.jonathanlethem.com/loveme.html">You don’t Love Me Yet</a>, named after the 13th Floor Elevator song. I had very big expectations to say the least, especially since the Fortress of Solitude is one of my all-time favorite books. But, sadly, Jonathan Lethem let me down this time. And it hurts me to say it, but he must never write books from a female bassist’s perspective even again. Because things can go very very wrong, like for instance saying ” she made love like she played the bass”. That’s just silly. But I still have faith, and I believe that his next book is going to be excellent, with no more fooling around with LA and bands.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">N</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">e</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 0);">x</span>t I read a Swedish book called <a href="http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feberboken">Feberboken</a> ( The Fever Book) by Stina Aronson, mostly to prove my friends wrong about me never reading Swedish books. It was about a woman who writes love letters to this married man (that she’s having an affair with) who is enjoying life in Paris while she was doing nothing in Sweden. I think. Even though it had a good ending I was glad to get the hell out of her head and start <a href="http://www.murakami.ch/hm/bibliography/bibliography_elephant_vanishes.html">The Elephant Vanishes</a> by Haruki Murakami. After I read Kafka on the Shore a year before ( what a rhyme!) , I didn’t know what to make of him. Did I love it? Was Murakami annoying? I was very confused. But after reading The Elephant Vanishes which is a collection of short stories I realized that that’s exactly what he’s great at, the short stories.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">W</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">h</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);">a</span>t happend next was greatness. It was spring. And I started <a href="http://www.bookslut.com/fiction/2007_05_011082.php">The Yiddish Policemen's Union</a> by Michael Chabon. I can barely believe how much I loved that book. It seams childish almost. It’s like that book is Jason or Mark Owen from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_That">Take That</a>, and I’m 11. I rarely read noir-type detective murder mysteries, and it's a pity really, because they're a lot of fun. This was so much more though, because of the unique place he created for the world's Jewish population in Alaska, because of the brilliant characters and the wonderful language. Seriously, it was so great. And that’s how I got obsessed with reading everything by Michael Chabon...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/TheBookIRead.mp3">The Book I Read- Talking Heads</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ezarchive.com/original/hiltswabtb/BorschtRidersInTheSky.mp3">Borscht Riders in the Sky- Mickey Katz</a>Lazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12327865439681836105noreply@blogger.com5