Zadignose > Recent Status Updates

I'm continuing my trend of recent years to do more rereading. This time I'm going for the Relihan translation, which so far is very appealing. My previous read/reads was/were of the Graves translation.

I'm "currently reading" this, and just might actually read it to the end, but then I might abandon ship 60% of the way in. Who knows. There are probably better ways to spend my time.

I am very annoyed. With all the positive reception this author has had, and with all the apparent promise of the first chapter, suddenly the second chapter turns into a kind of clunky, nonsensical, and largely unfunny bureaucracy farce, and now I don't know if I want to continue. I'm losing faith very quickly!

Having written a cranky "partially-read" review, and having followed this by reading some reviews by friends, I find that the whole book is not necessarily written with Benjy as the narrator, and that almost gives me hope for the rest of the book... I'm still going to give it some time and space before giving it another go, though.

Hi, old friends. I just popped in to lurk a bit. I kind of fell off a cliff when it comes to reading, writing reviews, etc. But I hope you're all well and reading happily. I get much of my literary entertainment by trying to get middle-school students to appreciate poems by Du Fu, Shakespeare, and Matthew Arnold. And sometimes it actually works. Hehe. Well, cheers for now.

Whew! It will probably take me a while to write something resembling a review, but for now I'll just say, "Wow."

Book talk is fun! If you've got the time, eavesdrop on me and MJ Nicholls talking books on the Optional Forum. Hope to see you there! https://youtu.be/NHqzkCPTU7c

Just a little note to myself to carry on reading the Acts of the Apostles in between other reading.

Some how I stuck with it anyway. And now, on the review...

I don't think I'm going to go far with this right now. Maybe another day. First impression: all the words seem wrong. Clumsy. The first dialog is implausible. I'm having trouble getting on board with this. I can sometimes enjoy some B-movies. But this feels like a B-book, and I'm not sure I can handle it. Next time I'll try to approach it as a Star Trek novelization and see if I can appreciate it that way.

I'm still virtually unable to read for fun. Wah, wah, wah. Why'd I get so busy!? Lots to catch up on when I can...

The late Phillip Duncan is back after sixteen years in the rediscovered, rereleased (to YouTube) surrealist moviella, THE OACHMAN. If you want to see a goofy and little project from my middle-youth, please enjoy: https://youtu.be/qrJoxnPl2PU

So, I'll appear in a thirty-minute interview video to talk about bookish things a couple of days from now. You might hear about it one more time, though I'll keep promotion to a minimum to avoid annoying the easily annoyed. Cheers.

VERY exciting. I just started, and it's immediately good. I was a bit afraid, considering how much I liked The Dying Grass, while I was a little less enamored of The Rifles, that turning back to the first Dream would be insta-disappointing, but nope, not yet. It's got Vollmann's unique voice and style while being informed by intimate contact with the sagas. I know he's going to have fun with it, and so am I.

Is this where I "dish"? Goddamn, I hate to gossip, but Goodreads just had to give me a notification to let me know of the book awards given to a *screenplay* and a *Hillary Clinton memoir"! Which just reminds me to share this: https://youtu.be/35a56AXRGLQ

After being away from this for a while, I've gone back to the beginning again. I really want to praise this, but I guess I ought to read it first. So far, so great, though!

NOTE TO FRIENDS, regarding To Fail With Flying Colors: Looks like I can send out about 12 Advance Review Copy paperbacks, so I'm throwing it open to whoever would like to request one. To avoid awkwardness I won't contact individuals unless you contact me. Then you don't have to say "no thank you." No-Strings means no-strings: finish it or not, review or not, or shelve it until ready, whatever. Message if interested.

I made one more comment to let you know I'm giving it away. Blame me later, heed me now: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The best is yet to come; new project in progress (still proofing): To Fail With Flying Colors.

Just got back from a week in U.S. of etcetera
Apparently not much has changed so long as you never turn on the TV or visit the Internet.

Thank You Goodreads Blog! You have proven my theory that authors generally have real integrity. For instance, mediocre authors generally love mediocre books.

Apparently Don Quixote doesn't even exist for these people. In fact, literature seems to have originated in America in the 20th century... but not with any of those icky authors of hard-to-read books.

Is it on? Ask Kane! You know it is. The S.M.F. is real today. And no reality is better than a fictional one. Get with it.

Hi friends! So, yeah, my first novel is getting published in July. I will try to refrain from excessive hype at the moment, but if you want to "want to read" it, you can check out Metarules of the S.M.F. Send me a message if you want to be notified when it's published, or check out malapha.com. Cheers.

Damn. Gass makes it virtually impossible NOT to read Gaddis's Recognitions!

Dude knows how to advocate.

OK, frankly, I do feel a little silly alternating between this and William Gass's Temple of Texts.

Though in some ways it may be a breeze to read, I may need to take a break half-way through. We'll see if I ever take an un-break.

Brief notes for later review:
Plus side: some good dialog, grit, and alternative perspective.
Minus: Genre. Novice continuity errors. No thanks on eroticism. False realism.

Hello. I don't have anything much to say at the moment, so I figured I'd say "hi." Only I made a typo.

I've lost/misplaced my blasted e-reader, in the midst of reading many things. Blast. Blast. Meanwhile my "currently reading" list is excessive, inaccurate, and I have virtually no time to actually read.
Looking on the bright side, I can always drink a Laphroaig godfather cocktail and dream of life as a gangster.

Poetry! https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Violent... notification! Violent... notification!

Really excellent, but again, something that I'll most likely read in stages with long pauses in between.