Patrick’s Comments (group member since Mar 05, 2009)

Patrick’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2009/06...

http://therumpus.net/2009/06/the-rump...

i've got 2 copies now, but i need to start bidding a bit higher than ben. sorry gang but times are tough.

guilty here. i still enjoy the mashup love child game.
Mickey Spillane and Harriet Beecher Stowe... that's hilarious.

but if i'm looking for serious reviews of something i wouldn't look here or on amazon. for that, i go to the book reviews in people magazine.

this may sound ridiculous, but some murakami stories make me think of gumbo. a beautiful somewhat mysterious concoction with divergent ingredients that when tossed together & cooked up create a deliciously rich, aromatic, vibrant and curious sensory overload. some ingredients dominate, some disappear and reappear, and some things... y'know it's in there but where did it go? - it just disappears and doesn't return (in murakami there are probably many examples of this but i think of the missing cat in The Wind-Up-Bird Chronicle)

but then sometimes gumbo... just tastes like gumbo.

i'm generally a big sucker for murakami. his short stories especially. but this one i'm not sure about. i find everyones responses interesting... cause they all seem to be on point... there is a lot going on in the story...maybe it's my mood, right now... but it felt like too much for me right now.

partly self reflexive conceptual exercise, partly philosophical musing (i thought less death specifically, and more about fear surrounding suffering and loss)...
this time through i felt most connected to the more straightforward passages... the girl and boy and hat on the train and the conversation at the end. i agree with dan, that is a remarkable exchange ... the kind of thing i savor in murakami-land.

one book this story brought to mind was jonathan lethem's, As She Climbed Across the Table -where a guy fears he is losing his girlfriend, a physics grad student who has become obsessed with an artificial black hole created in the lab. he becomes jealous, afraid he's losing her to the lack.

http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/

http://www.splicetoday.com/writing/a-...

if i have a reading goal this year, it is simply to read more. i started off the year ok, but lost focus over the last few weeks. still trying to get back on track.

this may sound counterintuitive to my wanting to read more plan, but i hope/plan to get rid of at least half of the books i have sitting around. i'm an accumulater. books flow in at a rate that i can't keep up with, i'll try for a while, then just get sidetracked or frustrated or overwhelmed and quickly lose focus/momentum. so, i'm hoping a rigorous weeding of my shelves and stacks may help let some light and fresh air in.

one other, non-reading but related goal... in the last few months i've been finding more & more audio &/or video clips of author appearances, interviews, conferences, roundtable discussions etc., ... and i've been trying to take in a lot more of that. it's pretty remarkable what can be found on youtube alone. some of it can be pretty dry & academic, but not all. found clips of octavia butler. that made me happy. watched an old charlie rose/toni morrison interview. saw darin strauss singing "sweet caroline" somewhere. tons of other stuff. i don't always enjoy hearing or seeing an author talk specifically about a work of their own, but i love to hear them talk process and craft or to talk about works that they love & hate.

yes.

i have no business really adding suggestions considering i have yet to dive in on any of the group reads. but i am a faithful/passionate lurker. anyway. here are some i've had either lingering around in my possession or some i've been thinking about for a long time but haven't gotten to yet...

Independent People

(but just saw ben's review... so this is probably out)

Sentimental Education
Look at Me
Magnetic Field
Erasure
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever

i haven't read either of his novels... just heard of the guy, like 2 days ago... friend sent me the link i shared with y'all. i am enjoying his book tour travel diary on his blog but haven't gotten much farther than that yet...

Little Bee has anyone read this? a friend recently recommend this author.

cleave has been documenting his american book tour... i'm enjoying this so far.
http://www.chriscleave.com/main/?p=398

i just gave away another copy of underworld. i doubt i'll ever read it. the little delillo i've read has always left me a bit frustrated and underwhelmed... or frustratingly underwhelmed. except for, the names, maybe... that had me hooked for a while... but now i can't remember a thing about it.

where does one get a crazy ass picture of woogie? i'd like a fresh profile pic.