Monday, December 31, 2007

Light reading

on the road:

Jess Walter's The Zero (good book, interesting mix of satire and noir, I enjoyed it, yet it is in the end not at all my kind of novel--shade of DeLillo looms too large, metaphysical strain unfortunately survives inoculation with satire...)

Simon R. Green's Something from the Nightside (hmmm, had a hasty emergency trip to Borders yesterday morning in Chicago, sudden vision of possible airport delays & memory of true fact about me which is that as long as I have a stack of the right kind of trashy novels, flights can be delayed for hours or even overnight and I hardly notice--I found this guy's books and was, like, how did I never hear of him?!? These sound exactly what I like! I bought three--but after reading this one, am not so sure I will give benefit of doubt, very derivative--however possibly he will find his stride in later books, will wait and see...)

Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man (did not examine this closely enough in the store, of course really I have read it before! But it's a good one, the ones with Death are all on the short list of most appealing ones and the wizards of Unseen University also feature in a big way, as I have often said before I do not think there really is a better depiction of academic life with the possible exception of Diana Wynne Jones's wizard universities...)

Good-quality light rereading trumps average light reading every time...

And on this note, I will sign off for 2007.

(Unless I see something interesting first thing in the morning before I leave for the airport, that is--I'll be offline in South Carolina through the morning of the 2nd--but this is not likely because one annoying thing about holidays is extreme scarcity of interesting literary stuff in the papers, it's all best-of reprises and other padding!)

Hmmm, other random notices, if you have any urge to come and see "This situation" (Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57th St.), and feel that it would augment your experience of the piece to catch the Light Reading-inflected iteration, my last two shifts are Thursday, Jan. 3 from 10-2 and Saturday, Jan. 5 also from 10-2. It really is an amazing thing, I will write more about it at some future date...

Best wishes for a happy and healthy year in 2008!

1 comment:

  1. I was excited by Jess Walter's idea for that warehouse with all the paper from the World Trade Center--I still remember this story from that week in 2001--but I got frustrated that so much of the novel depended on all those gaps. I understand that the gaps were integral to the structure and theme of the book, but it may be that it wasn't the book for me, either. I liked isolated sections of it quite a bit. I liked Walter's Citizen Vince better; it's a funny contrast because that one gets tied up neatly.

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