FollowIt’s Friday.
Time for my list of books I have been reading. My Goodreads/FridayReads post.
Books Checked out: (less this week)
Just 2 graphic novels.
1st is “The Professor’s Daughter” by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert — intrigued by the cover and generally go through graphic novels pretty fast. Feeling like I have too many books checked out right now.
2nd is “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” by Alison Bechdel — one I hadn’t noticed before, looked interesting.
Graphic novels have wonderful immediacy.
Books read this week:
“Slammed” by Colleen Hoover .. I loved this book, devoured it on two days on Friday and Saturday. And also really enjoying talking to @colleenhoover on Twitter, and introducing her to Twitter, and some of my favorite slam poets. Excellent story and highly recommended. Part of my blog post on Tuesday. (5 stars (loved) -Goodreads – Kindle). http://ed2dq.com/2012/01/17/slammed/
“A Coney Island of the Mind” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti – Read it for a 2nd time this week .. completely blown away by the main poem with 29 verses “Coney Island of the Mind.” Read 2 of my favorite excerpts to @lannalee and she was completely meh about it. Poetry is easily the most individual of mediums. But, I adored this poem, just like Carl Sandburg it feels immediate to me. http://ed2dq.com/2012/01/13/botw-dirty-minds-a-coney-island-of-the-mind/ (5-GR – library)
“Pyongyang” by Guy Delisle — I really want to say more about this work. One of my favorite graphic novels. Delisle works as an animation supervisor in Pyongyang, North Korea. He is French-Canadian and sarcastic, and really captures the bizarre world that is “Juche” (ironically meaning self-reliance) in North Korea. I am curious how Kim Jong-Un changes North Korea. To me the best result would be some openness and industry like China, I find it unlikely to see the Koreas merge anytime soon.
I am skeptical that there will be any change at all. I think it will still stay isolated. Still create a cold around Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung and now Kim Jong-Un. There will still be a huge museum with it’s own road for museums for the great leaders. Still huge construction projects with no need. Still starvation where elites sip cognac and the masses are hungry. Still will require people to have a button of one of the Kim’s at all times, and probably now 3 portraits of the leaders at all institutions.
Foreigners will not be trusted, and be in seperate hotels, walled away or an island away from the city. They will still work 6 days, and volunteer a 7th day. Basically if you wonder what North Korea is like read this book, it’s fantastic. (5-GR – own)
“Horns” by Joe Hill — this is a book I first started around Independence Day last year and got back into about a week ago. It is very dark but fascinating. Basically it starts with the main character, Ig Perrish growing horns. It is told non sequentially told, and a crazy headtrip of a book. One that @lannalee loved and I enjoyed, don’t want to say too much more, but it is worth a read. (4-GR (really liked) – Kindle)
“We are All Weird” by Seth Godin — I wanted to like this book more. His thesis that the average is getting smaller and the weird increasing is fascinating. Wanted this to be a richer book. Get a feeling that Seth Godin is someone who gets ideas out there for others to flesh out. (3-GR (liked) – Kindle)
Reading:
Mile 81 by Stephen King — Rest stops are creepy even when they are open, and even creepier when they are closed. I know this place the old, abandoned rest stop on mile 81 north of Lewiston and it is really, really creepy. Great topic for a book, got to the 3rd section and got to be too perilous. (4-GR) 30% through this Kindle short. Make that 36% read one more story.
Let Us Build Us a City: Eleven Lost Towns by Donald Harrington — one thing I like about the Kindle is being able to sample books. (Usually 5% of the book) and see what seems interesting enough to buy. This was an example of that, a story about 11 ghost towns in Arkansas. Fascinating stuff. (4-GR) 5%
“Cornhuskers” by Carl Sandburg — I love Carl Sandburg’s words. I wish they weren’t as badly formatted as this version. Terrible spacing (often missing returns) or even spaces between sentences. Wonderful words, ruined by formatting (4 – GR) .. Going to try other version on Kindle. (82%)
“Love is a Dog From Hell” by Charles Bukowski — As much as I love Bukowski, I usually like it in small doses. This has been a slow collection to read 3-4 poems at a time. 71% (4-GR – Kindle)
“City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology” — edited by Lawrence Ferlinghetti — Again finding this a slow read. But, enjoying the poems .. Nothing as much as “Coney Island of the Mind”(Auburn Library/Minerva) pg. 44 of 259
“The Seventh Octave: The early writings of Saul Williams” — Something I saw Lanna had in her office, enjoyable; not as rich as his later stuff. (4-GR) pg. 30 of 60
And 2 more library books I have been enjoying a few chapters at a time.
“I Was a Potato Oligarch” by John Mole — crazy stories about trying to work in a consultancy and run a British style baked potato/jacket restaurant in Russia in the Yelstin years. Good crazy, fun. *** (4-GR) pg 92 of 298 (from Scarborough Public Library/Minerva)
“Sex on the Moon” by Ben Mezrich — One that @jchristie really liked in his “Books and Brews” website. This a tale of hubris. A very promising and intelligent young man who was part of the co-op program at NASA/Johnson Space Center throws his potential career away to sell of moon rocks already used in experiments. Fascinating stuff, now curious to read Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires” about the dawning of Facebook that was made into “The Social Network” movie ***1/2 (4-GR) pg. 161 of 308. Josh Christie’s review on his website: http://brewsandbooks.com/index.php/2011/12/december-is-for-recommendations-127/
So quite a week or reading, centered on poetry. Curious what the next week in reading will be.
Would love to hear your comments on this post, I really enjoy making it.