Category: Current Reads

  • 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 […]

  • Back at It/ “Angkor and the Khmer Empire”/ What I am Reading/ Next Entry

    I have returned from our soujourn to Thailand and Cambodia; it was a lovely trip, but this isn’t a travel blog. Unfortunately, on the way back, I had some sort of stomach issue, and so I didn’t really get much reading in. While I was there I attempted to read “Angkor and the Khmer Empire” […]

  • Bangkok/What I Read on the plane/What I am reading

    This isn’t a travel blog, but I am in Bangkok right now; it’s just after breakfast time. I had a big bowl of Jok with pork and eggs, and the aunties who run the stall apparently find my lumbering frame and desire to eat Thai food adorable. Bangkok is a unique place; things grow and […]

  • Thoughts on Interpretation via Bartheleme’s “The Balloon”/Cage/What I am Reading

    I finished Jon Fosse’s “The Other Name” earlier this week, and I have thoughts, but I’ll be writing those up later. In addition to my normal reading, I’ve added some short stories to my diet– both to have something to write about while I’m reading lengthier works, and also to take a break from time […]

  • “Dr. No”/What I am Reading.

    I’m about 65% of the way through “Dr. No”, which I started on a whim after someone on Reddit mentioned it and… it’s a thing. The first set of Bond books had some of that good-old fashioned 50s racism– outdated terms and descriptions, but I never saw them as ‘racist’, per se. Fleming used the […]

  • Finished “Bubblegum”/What I am Reading/Notes on Process

    I finally finished “Bubblegum” and while I am glad I read it, my feelings about it are a little complex. It’s the subject of this Thursday’s entry. I ended up focusing on it exclusively to get it ‘out of the way’ which now means I am back on my normal ‘two or three books at […]

  • More about Long Works/”Bubblegum”/”ducks, newburyport”

    According to Storygraph, the service I use to track my reading and occasionally provide recommendations, just over half of the books I have read this year are over 300 pages long. A quick google shows me that 300-350 pages are in the ‘safe zone’– the length that’s considered more or less ideal for a novel […]

  • Falling Behind/What I am Reading/Future Plans/Back on the Horse

    I have fallen behind in my reading, which happens from time to time. My band had a gig opening for surf-punks Daikaiju, which I enjoyed a great deal. The book I am reading “the most”, “Bubblegum” is kind of a weird slog– I’m enjoying it, and the story, but it seems overlong. I like long […]

  • What I am Reading

    So, I have more or less had a week off from reading– my COVID booster and then some life circumstances have kept my nose out of books. While I am typing this, it will be my first chunk of time in a bit to actually resume. Going to head back to “Bubblegum” and “Virginia Woolf” […]