Luxagraf

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10/15/07 // Book:: Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon I needed to take a break from Proust and I happened to be in a book store the day this came out so I went for it. You never know what to expect from a Pynchon novel but almost three …continue reading »
10/15/07 // Book:: Nicaraguan Sketches by Julio Cortazar Julio Cortazar is a giant. You know you’re good when Borges sings your praises. But this book was not up to par compared to Hopscotch or Blow Up. Without having seen a Spanish copy my guess is that its a …continue reading »
10/15/07 // Book:: Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace I’m a little disappointed in this collection, there are some standout pieces, notably the essay on grammar and usage, but the rest lack a certain earnestness that marks his better writing.continue reading »
10/15/07 // Book:: The Best American Science Writing 2005 by Alan Lightman Great collection of essays. I’m not sure why but I’ve been in a non-fiction mood lately.continue reading »
10/15/07 // Book:: Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust Okay, here we go… volume one of six and already the best work of fiction I’ve ever read. Proust’s language is alive in ways that very few writers ever achieve (make sure you get the penguin series that was recently …continue reading »
10/15/07 // Book:: The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey by Salman Rushdie In 1986 Rushdie traveled to Nicaragua as a guest of the Sandinista government, these essays (his only published non-fiction to date) were published shortly after his visit.continue reading »
09/09/07 // Book:: On the Natural History of Destruction by W.G. Sebald All of Sebald’s books read like non-fiction, though they’re all listed as fiction, but this one actually is non-fiction and compiled mainly from a series of lectures he gave over the years about post war Germany and the German psyche. …continue reading »
10/15/07 // Book:: The Fever Coast Log: At Sea in Central … by Gordon Chaplin A travelogue of a voyage from Miami to the Panama canal. Written in the spirit of Graham Greene and the like. It’s okay. Not one of my favorites.continue reading »
10/16/07 // Book:: Under the Jaguar Sun by Italo Calvino Calvino’s unfinished collection of short stories. The plan I guess was to have a story for each of the senses. It’s good, but clearly unfinished.continue reading »
10/15/07 // Book:: Distance from Loved Ones by James Tate This collection of poems is less whimsical than other Tate works I’ve read and consequently somewhat more compelling both in depth and in those moments of whimsy that do punctuate the more brooding tone.continue reading »
10/15/07 // Book:: Vertigo by W. G. Sebald "There is something marvelous and bracing about wandering through a maze of unanswerable questions with an eccentrically brilliant guide" - Salon Reviewcontinue reading »
09/09/07 // Book:: Vineland by Thomas Pynchon A novel of what, as Salman Rushdie wrote, “America has been doing to itself, and to its children, all these years.” I’m a huge Pynchon fan, but I have to say it wasn’t until the third try that I actually …continue reading »
10/15/07 // Book:: The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald From the Independent’s obituary for W. G. Sebald: "All of Max Sebald’s books were, in their own fastidious way, ghost stories. History, along with its makers and victims, signals its terrors and consolations to the living across an unbridgeable gulf …continue reading »
09/09/07 // Book:: Collected Stories: Diamond as Big as th… by F. Scott Fitzgerald The title story is truly bizarre, especially considering Fitzgerald’s other writings, which bear very few traces of surrealism, but in general these stories are, in many ways, the best works of his I have read.continue reading »
09/09/07 // Book:: First They Killed My Father: A Daughter… by Loung Ung A childhood survivor of Cambodia’s Pol Pot regime, Loung Ung’s memoir is rough and brutal but in the end hopeful about the world. As her site says, the book is about “the unnerving strength of a child.” Read it while …continue reading »

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a travelogue

Some books I've enjoyed

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