August 23, 2002: Books 54-60
As I've written before, I decided to read twelve books a year, every year, when I graduated from Columbia in May 1998. Twelve books is not a lot- but I have a bad habit with the NY Times and the New Yorker, and a bunch of other magazines, and I often find myself trying to catch up as May deadline rolls around each year. This year is hardly underway, however, and I've already reached my goal of 12 books (how, you may ask? see below). So I've decided to raise the goal each year to fifteen, applied retroactively. This will require reading 15 more books this year- a high hurdle. So I need to know if anyone can think of any classic literature that is shorter than 300 pages and seems to fall into my general area of interest. The latest additions to the list:
54. The Club Dumas, Perez-Reverte
55. A Cook's Tour, Bourdain
56. Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain
57. Stamboul Train, Greene
58. Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris
59. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling
60. The High Window, Chandler
Comments
Now sure, anyone can read Chandler and Rowling and Graham Greene and get to 60 books in like three months. So I need some authors with a little more gravity- if you know what I mean.
Hmm...
My goal is to read all the things that people say they've read but actually haven't.
Melville, Svevo, Proust, Gaddis, Pynchon, Musil, Canetti, Walser, Joyce, etc etc.
So I am averaging 3 books a year. I am an incredibly slow reader, and I have been guilty of being sidetracked by lesser books, which I read fast, but not that much faster.
Oh well...
Pale Fire, Nabokov
Post Office, Bukowski
How many fucking Sedaris books are there? I am boycotting this writer entirely, on the basis of popularity. That is my personal, irrelevant statement for today.
Also, I am with James' particular high-concept approach.
man shut up about your reading lists.
JK is back again! What else is there to talk about besides books?
magnets?
Back in 4th grade I had this tin ceiling in my room in Brooklyn. I got this idea that if I stuck enough magnets to it, the whole thing would become magnetized. I'm not sure why I was interested in this result. I spent like $200 worth of allowance on magnets, and the ceiling was almost completely covered in them. Still- not even a paper clip would stick on its own.
Hah! I like that. 4th grade magnet experimentations. On a ceiling none-the-less.
In 4th grade, my aspirations were entomology. I horrifeid many with the multiple mayo jars of live insects I had collected in my room...
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