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The People Look Like Flowers at Last
The People Look Like Flowers at Last by Charles Bukowski Published: 2007 Length: 320 pages This is one of Bukowski’s posthumously published poetry collections, and I always feel odd reading something that an author wasn’t alive to see published. Where were these found? Why were they previously unpublished, and what if he didn’t want these released? He mentions in a couple of his poems that he wrote multiple a night and then tossed the ones that didn’t work. Are some of these those failures? Were any editorial changes made? I’d even hate the idea of someone publishing a silly blog post without my consent, and this is a book of…
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The Minute by Charles Bukowski
“I am always fighting for the next minute,” I tell my wife. then she begins to tell me how mistaken I am. wives have a way of not believing what their husbands tell them. the minute is a very sacred thing. I have fought for each one since my childhood. I continue to fight for each one. I have never been bored or at a loss what to do next. even when I do nothing, I am utilizing my time. why people must go to amusement parks or movies or sit in front of tv sets or work crossword puzzles or go to picnics or visit relatives or travel or…
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January in Review
Books Acquired: Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan Saga, Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughan Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund Books Read: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield Dracula by Bram Stoker Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin This was a quality reading month. I really enjoyed every book, and it was an interesting mix as well – Astronaut memoir, classic horror, contemporary mystery (ish), and a classic Russian novel in verse. The more I read about reading, the fewer disappointments…
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Aquaman, Vol. 1: The Trench
Aquaman, Vol. 1: The Trench by Geoff Johns Illustrated By: Ivan Reis Format: Trade Paperback Collects: Aquaman #1-6 Published: 2013 Publisher: DC Comics Length: 144 pages I bought this for my girlfriend quite a while back, and I have to admit it was strange picking this up at my local comic book store. The character has been a joke for years now, and it felt oddly shameful, as if I was buying a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey or a Bill O’Reilly book. I always assumed Aquaman comics were underwater harlequin romance with occasional stabbings. I couldn’t find it on the shelf, so I had to call over an…
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Eating Poetry by Mark Strand
I hadn’t heard that Mark Strand had died a couple of months ago. I came across him on a CBC podcast about a decade ago while driving home to visit my parents. He was really interesting, and the poems he read were fantastically absurd, so I picked up his latest collection at the time, Man and Camel. I wasn’t in love with that particular book, but I did find a few of his poems online that I quite liked. This one always stuck with me. Perfect for those whose bookish appetites have ever been met with looks of bewilderment. Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no…
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Holidays on Ice
Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris Published: 1998 Length: 176 pages I’ve had this book for a few years now, but I kept forgetting about it during the holidays. I can’t bring myself to read anything related to silver bells or reindeer outside of December, so it kept getting moved to the dark corner of the shelf. I finally remembered it this year and read it as the holidays ramped up (hint as to how far behind I am on my posts). I wasn’t looking forward to Christmas at all this year, so I thought Sedaris’ cynical (I assumed) take on the season would be perfect for me. This is…
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More Baths, Less Talking
More Baths, Less Talking by Nick Hornby Published: 2012 Length: 135 pages Yet another collection of the monthly Stuff I’ve Been Reading column that Nick Hornby writes for the Believer magazine. I like to think I read a wide variety of books, yet somehow my reading choices never seem to overlap with Hornby’s. This is the fourth collection I’ve read over the years, and this is the first time I’ve ever read a book listed in his column, which was Sum: 40 Tales From The Afterlives. He reads a lot of non-fiction, which I tend to have very specific taste in, contemporary literary fiction, which I’m not all that up…
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The Stranger
The Stranger by Albert Camus Published: 1942 Narrated by: Jonathan Davis Translated by: Matthew Ward (from French) Length: 03:27 So this is apparently not about sitting on your hand until it loses feeling, although funnily enough it is about a man who cannot bring himself to feel anything for what’s happening in his life. It begins with Meursault, a French Algerian, attending his mother’s funeral. He feels nothing for the loss, and the next day meets someone and begins a relationship with her as if nothing is out of the ordinary. He appears to be completely detached from the world, observing what’s happening to him as if he’s watching his…
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Lock In
Lock In by John Scalzi Published: 2014 Narrated by: Wil Wheaton Length: 10:00 This is John Scalzi’s latest novel, and it is once again narrated by Wil Wheaton. At this point I’m wondering if Scalzi has him chained to a radiator in the basement with just a microphone and a bowl of bread crusts, but thankfully the combination of these two really works for me, so I’m not going to ask any questions. There is also a version of the audiobook narrated by Amber Benson, most well known for her role as Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the near future, a virus spreads across the world. For a…
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2015 TBR Pile Challenge
My second and final book challenge this year will be the 2015 TBR Pile Challenge. The goal is to read 12 books that have been on your shelf for at least an entire year. A noble ambition, I think, so here’s my proposed list: A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde For Whom the Bell Tolls by Earnest Hemingway The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler The Captain and the Enemy by Graham Greene Atonement by Ian McEwan Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee Stephen Fry in America by Stephen Fry The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi A Hat Full of Sky by Terry…