Obligations/What I am Reading/White Whale

As will sometimes happen, life has caught up with me a little, and illness and obligations mean this week’s “long entry” is delayed a bit. I’m working on one about the novel “Blindsight”, which I recommend for sci-fi nerds in particular, and other folk in general— you can read it for free here. 

Kindle tells me I am about 15% done with Virginia Woolf’s “The Waves” and I am in love with it. It’s beautiful, sad, poetic, and strange. I’ve not come across anything like it. I also have no idea what I’d end up writing about it, but perhaps something will suggest itself. It’s one of those nerdy ‘craft of writing’ books— Woolf’s language is precise, concise, and thoughtful. But it’s also a strange story, strangely told, and that shit is my catnip. That, and crappy horror. Not entirely certain what that says about me, but there ya have it. 

I’m on chapter 20 or so of my “Moby Dick” re-read. I’m taking a few lines of notes per chapter; trying not to just write down quotes. Moby-Dick is, if nothing else, a quote factory. “It is not on any map. True places never are.” is one of my favorites, at present. My friend who’s co-reading with me has seen some of the humor and tenderness present in it, especially in the early chapters, which is neat. I’d love to be able to read it for the first time as a person with a little more experience; it would quite a different one than scratching my head when first forced to have a go at it. We get so much culturally from the book, even if you’ve never read it, you know it. 

I recently heard about a book called “You Can’t Win” which was apparently a favorite of William Burroughs, and have added it to the queue. One of my favorite horror writers, Paul Tremblay has a new one out and I am awaiting the kindle release for it; I should also take another run at “The Mystery.doc” soon. 

And there’s alway’s “Bottom’s Dream”, which is the white whale of this blog: