Brick

This is a list, a record, an account­ing. Dull in some lights, if not pre­ten­tious, con­de­scend­ing and child­ish: Look at what I’ve been read­ing, Mommy! But in recent years, I’ve heard of more peo­ple keep­ing lists of books they’ve read. I’ve enjoyed look­ing at them. Nick Hornby’s is a fea­ture in The Believer mag­a­zine. Of course, that’s the spec­tac­u­lar writer Hornby.

After years of false starts, like New Year’s res­o­lu­tions that fiz­zle in six weeks, I started this list in Jan­u­ary. It really was a res­o­lu­tion, and I never keep those. So far, I am.

This blog entry is for the archives. No need to read it. Tomorrow’s Brick should be funny.

Book List through June 2010

Jan­u­ary

(Hon­estly? December’s) Air Gui­tar by Dave Hickey — mas­terly essays.

Prior Con­vic­tions by Dave Hickey — good short sto­ries, but I see why he didn’t stay in fiction.

The Choir­ing of the Trees by Don­ald Har­ing­ton — Didn’t fin­ish. I’ll get back to it.

The Com­plete Sto­ries of J.G. Bal­lard — rec­om­mended at Harington’s memo­r­ial ser­vice by a writer I admire, Kevin Brock­meier. Over 1,000 pages, I read just the ones rec­om­mended by major book reviews. The creepy kind of sci-fi.

After Sun­set by Stephen King (audio edi­tion) — short sto­ries. The more King I read the more I like him.

(Here’s Jan­u­ary) Eat­ing Ani­mals by Jonathan Safran Foer, audio edi­tion — There’s bet­ter books on the subject.

The Debt of Plea­sure by John Lan­ches­ter. The well-regarded debut novel that’s men­tioned in reviews of his lat­est, I.O.U. [see March]. Didn’t finish.

Food Rules by Michael Pol­lan, bought this one. Does exactly what Pol­lan intends — in just 112 pages, sum­ma­rized the journalist’s years research­ing and ana­lyz­ing the topic.

The South Beach Diet Super Charged by Arthur Agat­ston, M.D., bought this one. It should but does not say that it is a revised and expanded edi­tion of his orig­i­nal tome. Best diet advice? Read and heed Pollan.

Inher­ent Vice by Thomas Pyn­chon. A guy I’ve always meant to read. His lat­est, not dense at all but a fun detec­tive novel, hon­or­ing Chan­dler and Hammett.

White Noise by Tom DeLillo, audio edi­tion. Well-regarded 1985 novel. Moves along nicely, makes some points, but this is groundbreaking?

Feb­ru­ary 2010

36 Argu­ments for the Exis­tence of God by Rebecca New­berger Gold­stein — Ever won­der about aca­d­e­mic super­stars? A true comic novel. Laugh out loud and cry real tears. Highly  recommended.

Man­hood for Ama­teurs, by Michael Chabon — Can this guy write bril­liantly in any for­mat? So far, yes. These essays are great. Can’t wait to see him pum­mel poetry.

What Nar­cis­sism Means to Me and Don­key Gospel, two col­lec­tions by Tony Hoagland. Among the bet­ter poets, but I’ll take Billy Collins and Miller Williams any day.

March

The Ghost by Robert Har­ris (audio edi­tion) — The new movie The Ghost­writer is based on this. Movie fun, book bet­ter. A polit­i­cal thriller.

Bad Mother by Ayelet Wald­man, (audio edi­tion) — She’s clever, but this is a worn-out subject.

To the Light­house by Vir­ginia Woolfe (audio edi­tion) — didn’t finish.

Touch and Go: A Mem­oir, by Studs Terkel  (audio edi­tion) — didn’t finish.

Native Girl by Carl Hiaasen (audio edi­tion, abridged) — Bought this one. Fun, with a point.

I.O.U. by John Lan­ches­ter — explains the causes of the reces­sion. Easy to under­stand, as the book was pro­moted to be, but don’t ask me to explain what he said — too complicated.

April

A Heart­break­ing Work of Stag­ger­ing Genius by Dave Eggers (audio edi­tion). The title may be self-mocking, but this mem­oir for all its juve­nile bravado is touch­ing and the work of a gifted writer at the begin­ning of what’s turn­ing out to be a tremen­dous career.

Why Sh*t Hap­pens: The Sci­ence of a Really Bad Day by Peter J. Bent­ley, Ph.D. (and the * is cq) — a project, not a book. Didn’t finish.

Mem­oir: A His­tory by Ben Yagoda — Are you annoyed by exag­ger­a­tion and out-and-out lying,  and b-s even if true of recent auto­bi­ogra­phies? None of it’s new. A must-read for any writer, espe­cially would-be memoirists.

May

Break­fast of Cham­pi­ons by Kurt Von­negut (audio edi­ton) — I read all of Von­negut by 10th grade. First time to revisit this later novel. The writ­ing at times is clunky, or is that delib­er­ate? The Dwayne Hick­man comic tragedy is often inter­rupted with sum­maries of alter ego Kil­gore Trout’s sci­ence fic­tion sto­ries. Trout describes another planet and its peo­ple, then some­thing hap­pens. In most of his work, Von­negut explains Earth and its peo­ple as if he was from another planet. That was his appeal.  Von­negut throws in a post­mod­ern aspect — which I didn’t recall — putting him­self in a bar with his char­ac­ters. Flann O’Brien did that too, 20 years ear­lier, but I don’t think any­one called that postmodern.

On the Road by Jack Ker­ouac (audio edi­tion) — like revis­it­ing an old friend.

Rework by Jason Fried and David Hein­meier. A “rules” book for new busi­nesses. Sassy.

The Imper­fec­tion­ists by Tom Rach­man. A debut novel, a series of con­nected short sto­ries about an English-language news­pa­per in Rome. Mar­keted as comic, but it’s not funny at all.

June

Inter­views with Hideous Men by David Fos­ter Wal­lace (audio edi­tion) — My first Wal­lace. Use­less, irri­tat­ing. Didn’t fin­ish. It must be me.

Scat by Carl Hiaasen (audio edi­tion) — charm­ing with a point as always. Of all the con­tem­po­rary writ­ers, how does Hiassen get away with hav­ing manly men?

The Secret Mir­a­cle: The Novelist’s Hand­book, edited by Daniel Alar­con. tran­scrip­tions of panel dis­cus­sions of writ­ers. Valu­able. In short: Every­body does every­thing. It all works.

The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Lars­son (audio edi­tion) —  Pop­u­lar Swedish tril­ogy, easy to see why: Exotic, ellip­ti­cal, sen­sual. Nora Ephron slays the series in The New Yorker: “The Girl Who Fixed the Umlaut.”