Old New Yorkers

I can't decide what to do with all of my old copies of the New Yorker now that I have the Complete New Yorker on DVD. I know I should get rid of them. I'm thinking it would be fun to save the covers and buy a hundred frames and make a wall of New Yorker covers. I know someone who did that a long time ago. It could work for me. Or I could keep them. But I know its silly to hoarde them when I have them on DVD now. I always keep crap like this so to be able to even consider throwing out 15 years of the magazine is a major breakthrough on my part. And if I tossed them, I would gain an entire closet.

More Ross Thomas books are coming in the mail each day. I got The Porkchoppers today. I read the back cover and thought it sounded stupid. When I read the first chapter at lunch, I was delighted to find that its a wonderful book. I think Thomas was cursed by bad book design. My copy of The Money Harvest has the world's worst cover. I can't find a picture of it anywhere (and there's no info on who did the art or the design - but this guy did a lot of bad stuff in the 60s and 70s). Its all red with tacky paitings (unintentional caricatures most likely) of what the artist considers dangerous/glamorous/seductive rich people lounging about. The book is so ugly that I'm a bit embarrassed to be seen reading it. If I saw someone read a book this ugly (without knowing what it was) I'd think the person was a complete loser. But its a wonderful book. There's no way to reconcile the awfulness of the cover and the nearly perfect writing inside the book. One other thing - it is set in Washington, DC - more or less in my neighborhood, too.

I ordered Michael Connelly's new book, The Lincoln Lawyer, today. And a paperback copy of Philip Roth's The Plot Against America. And I picked up Stephen King's new book, The Colorado Kid. I am not much of a King fan (of King the writer - I'm a huge fan of King the person/humanitarian) but the new book is a paperback original meant to look like a 1950s pulp novel. And its short (by his standards) so I figure its a low risk proposition.

The Complete New Yorker, Ross Thomas, and Brian Hennigan

I got my copy of the Complete New Yorker today and though I have not had much time to play with it, I can still tell that it is absolutely wonderful. The first thing I looked up was a 1971 profile of Leon Edel, the biographer. I think biographers are fascinating and am more interested in biographers than biographies. I can't remember how I heard about this profile of Edel but several years ago I started to read it in the Library of Congress. When I went back to make a photocopy of it, the volume had gone missing. And it took me a few years to track it down again. I even tried to buy a copy of the magazine but couldn't find an issue for sale. I finally got a photocopy of it but lost it before I finished reading it. I found it in 30 seconds in the Complete New Yorker and now have a permanent copy of it. The second thing I looked up was a piece by Francis Steegmuller about getting robbed in Naples. I read a reference to it in, I think, Gourmet magazine, but I could never find the article. I think I had the year wrong, but I spent a ton of time trying to find it. I was researching something at the Library of Congress at the time and everytime I went, I'd look for this Steegmuller article. And would come up empty handed. The only thing I got out of this fruitless search was pages of notes about fish (the menhaden in particular). I can't remember what these notes were for. I still have them. Anyway - I found the Steegmuller story in about 90 seconds. This Complete New Yorker is a wonderful thing.

I think I have all of Ross Thomas' novels now. The Mordida Man came in the mail today. And it looks very good. I can't believe it has taken me so long to read him. Its a shame he isn't better known - his thrillers are all really good books. Many of his books are out of print but someone is reissuing them in trade paperback form with new introductions. I've been buying used paperbacks via the internet because they're cheaper. Fifteen bucks is too much for a new book in trade paperback. But I'm happy he's back in print. I finished The Eighth Dwarf the other day and started The Money Harvest today.

I'm also reading somebody named Brian Hennigan. I don't know anything about him - except that TMFTML recommended his new book The Scheme of Things. I got that from Amazon UK and it looks good. And I just got his first novel, Partick Robertson, from a used book dealer in California. I've started Patrick Roberston and am enjoying it (though The Scheme of Things looks better).

New Books

On Beauty - Zadie Smith
The People's Act of Love - James Meek
Veronica - Mary Gaitskill
Seven Lies - James Lasdun
The Seige of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell
The Highbinders - Ross Thomas
The Eighth Dwarf - Ross Thomas
The Money Harvest - Ross Thomas
Voodoo, Ltd. - Ross Thomas
The Cold War Swap - Ross Thomas

These are all the books I picked up this weekend.

Briefly - the James Meek book looks fantastic. I wasn't crazy about the subject matter and did not buy a copy from Amazon UK when it made the Booker longlist in August - but once I read a bit of it, I knew I had to have it. Ross Thomas books are hard to find so I grab them when I can. I'll write more about him later. Lasdun seems promising, Gaitskill I bought because I always get her stuff. And the Farrell book as a nice NYRB Classics edition - much nicer than my old Penguin copy.

Coe & Ishiguro

I just re-read The Rotter's Club by Jonathan Coe. Its one of only a few books I can ever recall re-reading. I know I've read Donna Tartt's The Secret History a few times. And a few James Crumley novels (the earlier ones) I've read twice.

I got the follow up to The Rotter's Club, The Closed Circle, when it came out in August but only recently got around to starting it. And when I did, I couldn't figure out what was going on. The copy of The Rotter's Club I read I gave to someone to read - and as a result I can't find the notes I made on the book. There's a short summary of The Rotter's Club at the back of The Closed Circle but even when I reread it, I was still a bit lost. So I re-read The Rotter's Club.

And it was great fun to re-read it. I read it much faster this time around but got much more out of it. I took notes. And I saw a lot of hints at what's to come.

When I started The Closed Circle again, I realized that my confusion had more to do with Coe's style and structure at the start of the book than my not remembering enough of the first book (it turns out, I remember most all of it).

I'm also reading something called Underground by Russell James. English noir kind of thing. Its okay, sort of interesting.

I just got my copy of Ian McEwan's new novel Saturday from Amazon.co.uk. And having seen images of the American dust jacket and comparing them to the UK dust jacket, I think I like the American one better. And that almost never happens. I think I'll read it after The Closed Circle.

I'm waiting for my copy of the new Kazuo Ishiguro novel to arrive from Amazon.co.uk. I read several great reviews of it in a short period of time and got caught up in the moment and ordered it. I confess that I have never read The Remains of the Day - only saw the movie. And I skipped The Unconsoled. And I ended up not liking When We Were Orphans very much. And I haven't read his first two books. But still, I think I am a big fan of the Ishiguro brand. And that explains why I had to have this book.

First of 2005

I reading two books now. Book no. 1 is Human Capital by Stephen Amidon and book B is The Courage Consort by Michel Faber.

In his best of the year column in the Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley listed Human Capital as one of the better works of fiction he read in 2004. In his regular book reviews in the paper, he's somewhat cold and very demanding. But in his end of the year piece, he's warm and friendly and you get the feeling that he's a really nice guy after all and that he now wants to share a few things with you. Like you've won him over after reading him all year and so he let his guard down and be nice. The effect of this change in tone is that it makes one (or me at least) really want to read the fiction he recommends at the end of the year. This year he said kind things about Human Capital. I'd seen the name Stephen Amidon before (for some reason I thought he wrote non-fiction about architecture or urban planning) but never knew much about him. I found a cheap copy of the book on ebay and my copy was waiting for me in Washington when I returned from vacation (making it my first book purchase of the year). When I started reading it I had almost no idea what it was about and really enjoyed the first chapter. I'm now 100 pages into it and can report that I am enjoying it immensely. After reading 900 pages of crime and religious history in England, it is unbelievably refreshing to read something set in America.

I'm also reading The Courage Consort by Michel Faber. I think he's from the Netherlands but moved to Scotland 20 years ago and now writes in English. I bought his first novel (Under the Skin) because I thought it was Scottish. The first book of his I read was the massive (and massively fantastic) The Crimson Petal and the White (best title for a book review ever, "Whores, Porn, and Lunatics" in the Guardian, reviewing Crimson Petal), sort of a smutty Dickens, a story about a teenage prostitute who dreams of being a writer. [I was talking with ne of my customers about Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - which she read and which I got for xmas - and recommended to her the Crimson Petal book - but got funny looks from bystanders when I got to the pornographic Dickens part of the description. Oh well.] I bought The Courage Consort, which is three novellas, largely for the middle novella, which is about an archeological dig gone bad. But so far, the first novella, The Courage Consort, is really very good. It concerns an avant garde vocal ensemble whose rehersal session in a Belgian chateau goes horribley wrong. I'm glad I picked it up.

The Long and the Short of It

I'm having computer problems. With two computers. These problems are consuming an enormous amount of time. And then there was the election. And the new Grand Theft Auto San Andreas for PS2 - that's taking up way too much time. (And I bought the book for San Andreas - its like a glossy textbook on the game. In a way, its sad that I have to have the book and the game. But my video game skills are terrible and I need all the help I can get. Really, there's nothing sadder than having to study in order to play a video game.)

I've been reading short stories lately because I haven't had as much time to read. I started reading some V.S. Pritchett stories - but my Collected Pritchett weighs - I don't know - seven or eight pounds. Its much to big to take out of the apartment. So he was indoor reading. For reading outside the apartment, I dabbled in some JG Ballard and some Roald Dahl. Dahl has been on my mind because of the different biographies by Jeremy Treglown (Pritchett, Dahl, and Henry Green) I've been either skimming or reading reviews of lately. And over the summer (or was it last spring?) Jonathan Yardley wrote a piece in the Washington Post about Dahl's first collection of stories, Someone Like You. Yardley liked it a lot. I have a copy of it and a best of Roald Dahl (among others) in my collection so read some of his stories. And then in a blog from the UK I came across a reference to a JG Ballard story involving a boy who vacuums up sounds from old buildings or something like that (I think Dahl has a story about an inventor who makes a radio receiver which can hear plants) and I went looking through my Ballard books to see if I had it. Turns out, I didn't. But I wound up reading some stories in a Ballard colletion called The Terminal Beach. And then I discovered a complete collected stories of JG Ballard was recently published. And of course, I had to have it. And I will in about a week. It looks like a massive book. I hope to bring it to Chicago to read over Thanksgiving. And I am thinking of restarting Ballard's Empire of the Sun - I can't remember why I never finished it.

This dip into short stories is enjoyable. I've been thinking I could devote a year to short fiction. I have an arsenal of it. I could read some of my giant collected collections kind of books - Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro, William Trevor, the Ballard, the Pritchett, Frank O'Connor, John McGahern, and Peter Taylor. Recently I picked up (but did not buy) a new paperback copy of John Updike's The Early Stories. The book got great reviews. I've barely read any John Updike (and feel bad about it). I could include that. (Side Note: I was thinking I could devote a year to Joyce Carol Oates. Read all of her books in a year, nothing but Joyce Carol Oates. I could do a website about it, track my progress, write reviews, that sort of thing. Would need a catchy title. I know people make fun of her productivity - but she's a very good, very serious writer and critic. Why, in a DaVinci Code world, serious book people would make fun of her makes no sense. She's intrerested in all sorts of cool stuff, too. Of couse, I'd have to acquire all of her books. That could take a while as I only own one, Middle Age: A Romance, which I've not read. I bet I could snag some free media attention, too.)

I tried to go to two used bookstores this weekend. On Saturday, I went to one on Capital Hill. I love the place. The entire second floor of this row house is devoted to fiction and there are piles of books everywhere. Its a great place to spend an afternoon. The only book I bought was something called The Stories (So Far) of Deborah Eisenberg. It wasn't something I was looking for, and I barely know anything about her. But for some reason, I picked it up and started reading it and realized I needed to buy it. After a trip to the Apple store on Sunday I walked over to a used bookstore I hadn't been to for a few years and it was gone. As in the house that was once a used bookstore is now an empty lot. The place wasn't that good of a store but it still is sad to see yet another used bookstore disappear.

I did start a novel. Andrew Taylor wrote three novels about a female serial killer (a rare thing) and a few years ago the dancer recommended them to me. Even though I already own the three books, when I saw a nice fat three in one volume of them, I had to have it. And its what I'm reading now. Its called Requiem for an Angel. And it is very good.

Looking for V.S. Pritchett

I started reading Iain Bank's Dead Air this week after the Accidental Woman debacle and have put it down for a while. It didn't take. Its not awful or undreadable or anything like that. When I start a new book I need to get 50 pages into it before I can tell if it will take or not. And I just wasn't feeling it with Dead Air (though I very much like how the book looks, so its a shame).

I flittered over a few books to see what would take. A friend mentioned Carl Hiaasen and I thought it might be fun to start reading him again. I read all of his early books (and have signed first editions of most of them) but for some reason stopped reading him. I started Lucky You and read enough to know that I will soon read it, Sick Puppy, and Basket Case. (I didn't stop buying Hiaasen when I stopped reading him.) And I am on the lookout for a copy of his latest, Skinny Dip. My timing in returning to Hiaasen coincided with this nice piece about him in the Guardian.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1332707,00.html

I also picked off the shelf a biography of Henry Green, Romancing, written by Jeremy Treglown. I've skimmed through it before and felt like skimming through it again because it is very well written (the biography - I've never actually read anything by Henry Green) and because Treglown has just published a biography of V.S. Pritchett. The reviews of the Pritchett book have been very good, especially the one in the Guardian. http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1327417,00.html
I read some of the Green book and then looked up Graham Greene in the index and read all the related entries.

In the early to mid 1990s I bought a copy of the complete collected stories of V.S. Pritchett. Its a massive book - maybe the thickest thing I've ever owned. I read and enjoyed several stories in it and hatched this plan to read one a night until I finished it. Of course, this never happened. And now I can't find the book. I looked all over for it tonight. Its a big thing so it should be hard to miss. I think it may be in Chicago. I can't think where else it could be. And its driving me mad because now more than anything I want to read some V.S. Pritchett. (BREAKING NEWS: I JUST FOUND IT. OBSCURED BY A DUSTY, UNUSED TREADMILL.)

On Friday I lost out, at the last minute, on an eBay auction for a copy of William Trevor's latest book, A Bit on the Side. I'll keep looking but I'm kind of pissed about it. I was the sole bidder until shortly before the auction ended. And I wasn't home to up my bid. My longing for the book intensified tonight when I was checking next week's programming schedule for the BBC World Service. I noticed that the program Off The Shelf is to feature four stories from the book next week (at inconvenient times). Which means I'll have difficulty hearing some of the stories from the book I'm having difficulty obtaining. Not fair. I think I can listen online at my convenience but I'd much rather listen to them on the radio. (Side Note: The programming notes indicate four stories are to be read over several days. The stories are Solitude, Traditions, Sacred Statues, and something called Greyness's Legacy. I did some research and the BBC goofed on the last one. The story's title is Grallis's Legacy.)

I have almost all of Trevor's books but have yet to read all of the stories. I've got most of the later ones covered but his edition of collected stories is massive (the size of the Prichett) and is full of stuff he wrote before I started reading him. How will I ever catch up?

I finally settled on Achmat Dangor's Bitter Fruit. And I am pleased to report that it is very good. It concerns the traumas a coloured family endures in pre- and post-Apartheid South Africa. It starts with a lawyer working in Mandela's government runs into the security officer who raped his wife 20 years ago. I'm far enough into that I am certain to finish it.