January 2012
30 posts
It looks like I will be on morning TV next month, talking about books.
Nobody is more surprised by this fact than me.
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““Congratulations. And if in the process of this important work you hurt...”
– Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet.
I have basically no patience for this book, but there is one evil-mastermind-revealing-his-plan scene that really lights up. Basically any time he says “uh,” the gloves are about to come off.
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torilancaster asked: Post the one you made for Inherent Vice! If you really did.
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Encyclopedia Hearsay →
A few of my friends just founded a new encyclopedia—one that’s based entirely on misinformation, rumours, half-remembered conversations, and outright lies.
I wrote the first entry. Now, I haven’t actually seen The Seven Samurai—but I have seen A Bug’s Life, and at Encyclopedia Hearsay, that counts.
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kratlee replied to your quote: all, animal, ashes, back, bark, belly, berry, big,…
love?
Just double-checked: no love.
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“all, animal, ashes, back, bark, belly, berry, big, bird, bite, black, blood,...”
– The 200 words chosen by linguist Morris Swadesh as the basic vocabulary template for all human languages (as reported in John D’Agata’s endlessly fascinating About a Mountain, which I devoured on a three-hour bus ride home from Calgary earlier today).
Notice that why isn’t...
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Colson Whitehead, Zone One
The problem, in a nutshell, is Whitehead’s vocabulary. Dear lord. It’s more unrelenting and out-of-control than any flesh eater it’s describing. As a result, the novel’s sentences are overinflated and arrhythmic. Now, there are obviously worse problems for an author to have—but when it results in writing like “Surely an accident unravelled its miserable inevitabilities ahead and now all was...
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Shelf Defense: Yellow Dog, House of Meetings
In late 2011 I decided, in the hopes of keeping my library down to a manageable size, to comb through the unread sections in alphabetical order. It was a naïve, Sisyphean project, and it will take forever—so I’d better get moving. Shelf Defense is my occasional notebook about what I dig up, from Alphabet Juice to Point Omega.
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MARTIN AMIS, YELLOW DOG (2003)
WHY DO I OWN...
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“The air smelt of cheap ghosts—those that had died cheaply: street...”
– Martin Amis, Yellow Dog.
In case you missed the launch so long ago! →
italicsmine:
There are a few copies of the LIMITED FIRST EDITION of my novella, If You’re Not Yet Like Me, for sale over at Nouvella. My editor Deena found them in the vaults at the abandoned Flatmancrooked compound. Or something.
Just bought a copy, because I am an adult with small amounts of pocket money and because people on the internet need to support other people on the internet. It is...
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Shelf Defense: Lucky Jim, Russian Hide-and-Seek
In late 2011 I decided to comb through the unread sections of my library in alphabetical order. It was a silly, semi-self-destructive idea, and it will take forever—so I’d better get moving. Shelf Defense is my occasional notebook about what I dig up, from Alphabet Juice to Point Omega.
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KINGSLEY AMIS, LUCKY JIM (1954)
THOUGHTS: Look at me, starting off the year with a...
52books asked: I picked up "We the Animals" due to (I think) a quick blurb from something you wrote a while back. It turned out to be a one day read that was equally wondrous and crushing. Now I've got to add a few more items to the library queue from your previous favorites. Thanks for the heads up on all the good stuff!
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Don DeLillo, The Angel Esmeralda
If you’re any kind of DeLillo fan, or even a curious neophyte, you’ll feel right at home here. Only the title story stands out as unnecessary, and that’s mostly because a re-tinkered version already appeared in Underworld. Then again, if you’ve never read a description of limbo as brilliant/lunatic (I go back and forth) as “a cosmic cloud of slushed fetuses floating in the rings of Saturn,”...
Anonymous asked: Given your clear love of a well-organized book shelf with a variety of Penguin editions, am I to take it that you are anti-Kindle?
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“This audition took the form of a breakfast meeting, a “chat about comedy” with...”
– Not sure how I didn’t read between the lines the first time I came across “Dead Man Laughing” (collected in Changing My Mind), but Zadie Smith was rejected by Mitchell & Webb!
(If you don’t know who they are, the sketch “Send Us Your Reckons” and basically...
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“Dixon was alive again. Consciousness was upon him before he could get out of the...”
– Lucky Jim. (This part I remember very well.)
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davidquigg replied to your photo: While re-reading Lucky Jim for Shelf…
From “Marginalia” by Billy Collins: “And if you have managed to graduate from college / without ever having written ‘Man vs. Nature’ / in a margin, perhaps now / is the time to take one step forward.”
Perfect! (I also came across a “the distance aesthetic” just now… does that count for anything re:...
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December 2011
29 posts
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Hindsight: What I Read In 2011
For the past three months, all of my books have been in boxes. The reason was simple enough: my partner and I bought a house, and we agreed that there were more pressing issues to attend to (eg. a yellow living room). I thought I’d hate not having my books visible and easily at hand, and at first I really did. But eventually it felt kind of freeing. The Great Unread wasn’t scowling...
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Shelf Defense: A Better Angel, The Seamstress and...
In late 2011 I decided to comb through the unread sections of my library in alphabetical order. It was a silly, semi-self-destructive idea, and it will take forever—so I’d better get moving. Shelf Defense is my occasional notebook about what I dig up, from Alphabet Juice to Point Omega.
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CHRIS ADRIAN, A BETTER ANGEL (2008)
WHY DO I OWN THIS?: Because I saw it remaindered...
bermudianabroad asked: happy birthday! hope you have a good one. I have to admit I haven't quite gotten around to reading most or... any of your reviews...but I plan to! As someone who has never read Moby Dick, could you perhaps elaborate on the intense, obsessive love? Though I understand if it simply defies clear explanation. Thinking of setting it as a reading challenge in the new year, so maybe in a few weeks...
I was about to start an online beer journal, just so that I could call it The Beer of Magical Drinking. But then I remembered that not everything needs to be a Tumblr. Some things can just be thoughts you think, and then giggle at, and then forget.
glassescase asked: What's your favorite (if you have one) MD adaptation? My money's on The Wrath of Khan and A.H.A.B
walkwhilereading asked: I was completely surprised by your review of 1Q84, for I believe the Georgia Straight, earlier this year. I respect your opinion on literature, but couldn't fathom, how you pinned a positive review, about a book that was so dense, and void of any feeling whatsoever. Although I haven't heard of 80 percent of the books you read, I enjoy the reviews the most, oh and your posts, about...
52books asked: Happy birthday (though I may be a bit late in that in that one) and Happy Holidays! Enjoy your day of bullshit!
winterpages asked: Quality Paperback Book Club, you say? Can't find these anywhere, not on the site either! I'm infatuated! Happy holidays, birthday and so forth :) Don't always comment, though always reading.
aldrin asked: Have a happy birthday, Michael, and a happy Christmas, too. One question: Would you ever read an edition of "Moby-Dick" titled "Moby Dick"?
distantheartbeats said: Your love for Melville is adorable.
From a distance, maybe. In person my collection looks more than a little like one of those occult shoebox shrines favoured by maniacs everywhere. Probably all the locks of hair.
jasonwdean said: Are those the ones with the Rockwell Kent illustrations?
Nah, that edition of MD is still out of my price range (they go for about $200 CDN on...
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davidquigg asked: I just finished "The Fates Will Find Their Way." I have your year-end list to thank for that. So thanks. Big thanks.
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Percival Everett, Assumption
At least Ogden is determined to see the cases through. His sheriff just wants it all to be over—not for fear of scandal, mind you, but because it’s too stressful. “I’m a fat old man who doesn’t like mysteries,” begins his attempt at rallying the troops. “You two can’t stop me from eating a cheesecake in the next hour, but you can go figure this out and help me sleep at night.”
Two years ago I...
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“Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by...”
– Now that’s a bio.
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Hindsight: My Favourite Books of 2011
Every time year-end list season rolls around, I get gun-shy when it comes to ranking my picks. I mean, I love all of these books—why do they have to compete with one another? So what usually happens is a kind of flip-floppy Everybody Gets A Trophy Day, where it’s impossible to tell what’s the best of the best, and what just barely made the cut.
Well, no more! This year, I’m...
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Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence
I’ve never invented a drinking game before, but The Ecstasy of Influence unwittingly gave me an idea for a great one.
Here’s what you do: google “Jonathan Lethem + [any cultural topic].” If you find an effusive, multi-thousand-word essay in the results, drink.
And don’t be afraid to get creative. Try out the Robert Altman film McCabe & Mrs. Miller, or the ‘70s Australian pop group the...
