Wow, haven't updated my book sidebar in forever, so will to the best of my ability tell y'all what I have read in like the past couple months. Because you were DYING TO KNOW. In no particular order:
Confessions by Augustine - Great premise for a confessional album! Specifically by "Tina Sugar," to be played and co-written (eventually, haven't worked out the logistics yet o'course) by Brie Larson portraying ST. AUGUSTINE'S PROMISED BRIDE, who was promised to him at like age ten (olden days are fucked up) and may or may not have actually married the guy a couple years later. Anyway, he goes off looking for his spiritual enlightenment and actually finds it, the faker, and meanwhile Tina Sugar stays back and goes on her OWN search for enlightenment and (duh) doesn't actually find it. Key track: "You Call It Ascetic, I Call It Pathetic."
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth - Very different animal from the Roth I'm familiar with, and engrossing in a different way -- I'm still reconciling myself to the deus ex machina ending (which I won't reveal) EXCEPT to say that there's something -- to my X-philic brain anyway -- kind of harmonious about the absolute need to get history back on its track no matter the cost or stretch of plausibility. The fact that we can even talk about "plausibility" at the point of said derailment is kind of a testament to the power of most of the narrative.
The Throwback by Tom Sharpe - Y'know, I haven't been able to parse Tom Sharpe's politics in his fiction outside of a South African setting, where the critique is a little more obvious -- but when he keeps killing off armies of taxmen I can't help but think some dirty libertarian is trying to put his arm around me for a good yuk. Except all of the characters are so despicable I might just be able to chalk it up to basic misanthropy, which I feel more comfortable yukking with.
Grown Up All Wrong by Robert Christgau - Still haven't even put a dent in it, except reading it I get the sense that Xgau puts about the same amount of thought into his essays as he does into his blurbs, and that the main difference is breathing room (which I appreciate in the bathroom).
Philosophical Occasions by Wittgenstein - a pretty random assortment of essays, many of which are brilliant and just as many of which are totally impenetrable -- interesting to track his thoughts between major works. I still haven't been able to read Tractatus without my eyes crossing almost immediately, meanwhile Philosophical Investigations is a (comparative) breeze except I never sit down and actually READ the stupid thing, so I've re-read the first couple dozen pages over and over. I think my favorite book of Wittgensteinian thought is also the "lightest" (oh, hey, I'm kind of lazy whaddaya know), Conversations with Wittgenstein by O.K. Bouwsma. It's kind of like My Dinner with Andre except Wallace Shawn propositions get PWNED more (Wittgenstein likes to throw out really devastating -- and probably a little dangerous for philosophy-lite-types like myself -- sound bites) (and anyway I like my electric blanket too -- SO WHAT).
Rapture Ready by Daniel Radosh - It's as great as expected (better, actually), but I'll endorse it in its own post.
Cheating Destiny by James Hirsch - A great diabetes book with an unfortunately hokey title, really more of a medical, social, and historical overview of (primarily Type 1) diabetes that's an easy read full of surprising information for people who know nothing about it and people who know a lot about it, an intense personal history from Hirsch (a Type 1 diabetic himself whose son was recently diagnosed at age 3) and at least a dozen bizarre little essays on eccentrics and institutions in the field.
The Collective Unconscience of Odd Bodkins by Dan O'Neill - Almost as hard to believe this was published (popularly) in major newspapers as it is to look at old Little Nemo comics and realize that people drank their coffee over 'em. Presages the early caffeine-addled "Bloom County" (and probably "Doonsebury," the back-issues of which I've never really spent any time with) style but very little between or since, except maybe "Zippy the Pinhead" or something. Found this through a book on O'Neill's battles with Disney over copyright, which I haven't finished yet (The Pirates and the Mouse...fun fact: Disney actively sues anyone who tries to use the word "Disney" in a book title without their permission! Neat!).
That's all I can remember -- oh yeah, Umberto Eco's How to Travel with Salmon collection was really disappointing lightweight column chaff with vaguely Euro/chauvinist undertones that I don't care as much about in his fiction. But seriously, like, mother-in-law jokes.
On the shelf but basically unread or half-read: a Cahiers du Cinema collection that is just MEGABORE from what I've read so far, but that's probably unfair, The American Cinema by Andrew Sarris, which I flip through occasionally (great opening essay on "tree criticism," scattered bright spots in the filmography itself), Canyon Cinema by Scott MacDonald, which is dauntingly thick but probably worth the energy someday, and lots of reading on children's media production/distribution/reception that I'm hoping to synthesize into real actual content at some point.
If you can remember anything else I have read lately, please let me know.
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