Category: Current Reads

  • What I Read

    I’ve spent Christmas and the New Years up at the acreage; my bees are happily buzzing around when it’s warm, and hiding when it isn’t. This is their nature. Mine is apparently to hide away in a cabin, emerging to walk my dogs, write occasionally, read a lot, and just kind of luxuriate in having…

  • Booktube Bitch/”253″/What I am Reading

    Let’s start by bitching a little. I heard about “253” from a booktube video. And it’s sort of a miracle I did. A lot of booktube videos now are listicles, with a picture of some dingus making a face while holding a stack of books *backwards* so you can’t read the spines and thus spoil…

  • I am Not a Writer/”Bottom’s Dream”

    I’ve been watching this video sort of obsessively. In it, Dan Olson, who’s a career YouTuber, draws comparisons between himself and another creator, James Rolfe, aka. “The Angry Video Game Nerd.” It’s a fascinating piece of work, even if you don’t care much about Rolfe’s work. Part callout, part artist statement, part commentary on avant…

  • Not Finishing “Clarissa”/Summer Blahs/What I am Reading

    I am, according to Kindle, roughly 65% of the way through Clarissa, which is about 1000 pages or so in. At my present rate of speed, (again, according to Kindle) it would take me a further 24 hours or so to finish it. I read the first 800 pages or so with an enthusiasm I…

  • One of Those Entries Where I Write About a Number of Things

    A Creative Endeavor In a day or two, I’m gonna publish a little story I wrote. It’s never been my intent to turn this into an outlet for my creative pursuits, but it’s been a long time since I have written a story. I’ve alluded to this before, but I used to write quite a…

  • The Death of ‘Sironia, Texas’ and notes about this year’s reading.

    So, “Sironia, Texas” didn’t happen. I got through 100 pages or so, and it wasn’t all that good. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, at least from a blogging perspective. We could deconstruct the text, see what’s working, what isn’t, and why; analyzing what’s bad can sometimes illuminate what’s good. But “Sironia, Texas” also indulges…

  • “Pick up and Strum”/Three Short Reviews/What I am Reading

    I often have ideas while walking the dog in the morning, and by the time I get home, shower (because New Orleans in the summertime is like living on the surface of a very moist sun), eat breakfast, and then settle in for work, they’re gone. I like turning them over in my head while…

  • “Between Two Fires”/What I am Reading/What I have Finished

    Regular readers of this blog will know of my fondness for the band Cannibal Corpse. And, to be honest, one of the things I like about them is a consistent product. When you buy the new Cannibal Corpse record, you’re going to hear Cannibal Corpse songs. The newer albums will have better production, and they…

  • On not Finishing a Book/”The Luminous Dead”/What I am Reading

    I want to talk a little bit about not finishing books. My last didn’t finish was “Angkor and the Khmer Empire: A History of Cambodia’s Legendary Temple Building Civilization” which wasn’t a history of anything, but rather a poorly written guidebook which looked like it had been translated via google translate. It was awful, and…

  • Series/”Otherland”/What I am Reading/Future Plans

    Let’s talk a little bit about series. I have a predilection for long works. I’m not sure what this says about me, but if you’ve written an 1,500 page novel, I kinda want to know it exists. If it’s some weird literary nonsense, I probably want to read it. But it doesn’t have to be…