|
|
At first, I thought I wouldn’t have a lust list this month. I believed, for some reason, that a lot of new stuff hadn’t really grabbed me lately but checking my library hold list and Amazon wish list proved me wrong — again. Here’s what I’m lusting after as the month kicks off:
Happy: A Memoir, Alex Lemon — Although not slated to be released until the end of the year, pre-release buzz about a young man seeking to recover from a stroke, addictions and depression prompted me to get on the hold list at the library a couple weeks ago.
Knut Hamsun: Dreamer & Dissenter, Ingar Sletten Kolloen — I’ve been intrigued with Norwegian author Knut Hamson since seeing a film biography a year or so ago. This biography, which won the 2004 Norwegian Readers’ Award, has now been translated into English.
Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann — As I noted about two weeks ago, I got on the library reserve list for this just before it won this year’s National Book Award for fiction.
A New Literary History of America, Greil Marcus (ed.) — Although opinions have been split, those who have praised this book absolutely love it. Containing some 200 essays on American cultural history over well more than 1,000 pages, I figure this would be a fun book to peruse off and on over the course of a few months or a year.
Playing With Fire, Theo Fleury — Fleury, who was suspended a couple times by the NHL for substance abuse and other problems, details his struggle with addiction — and his sexual abuse at the hands of a junior hockey coach.
Too Much Happiness: Stories, Alice Munro — I’ve only started to enjoy short story collections in the last year or so and have never read any of Munro’s work. So, when I heard this described as perhaps her best collection ever, I jumped on the reserve list at the library, where I’m currently sixth in line.
The best books for a man are not always those which the wise recommend, but often those which meet the peculiar wants, [and] the natural thirst of his mind[.]
William E. Channing, “Self-Culture”
How does your reading (or your blogging) fare in the holiday months? Do you read more or less? Do you have to actively make time to read?
I generally get quite a bit of reading done over the holidays. During the Thanksgiving break, I finished a book I started earlier in the week, read three others and started one more. While one of the three books I read completely during the break was relatively short, the other two came from the TBR stacks, an accomplishment in and of itself.
I don’t intentionally make more time to read but, in our household, it just tends to happen. During Thanksgiving this year, for example, the two kids who could come home (the first in family history, to my recollection, where not everyone was home) spent some of their time doing homework because their semesters are coming to an end. I take the opportunity to read. Over Christmas, we all usually get a new book or two so it is not uncommon to have a fire in the fireplace and sit in the family room and read.
Blogging follows no real pattern. There are the usual “best of the year” posts but I figure most people have better things to do during the holidays than be reading a blog so I certainly don’t feel any great obligation or desire.
Books – the best antidote against the marsh-gas of boredom and vacuity.
George Steiner
Blog Headline of the Week
Worthwhile Reading in the Interweb Tubes
Bookish Linkage
Nonbookish Linkage
I think I’m still me
But how would you know?
“Light,” Phish, Joy
A day late but here’s the top 10 reasons to be thankful there were no lawyers on The Mayflower.
Fondling breasts is outrageous conduct in prostitution investigations.
Earlier this month, Taiwan’s highest court ruled that a law penalizing prostitutes and not their clients is unconstitutional because it violates equal rights guaranteed under the Taiwainese Constitution. (Via).
I wouldn’t think you’d need a rule for this but… A bright-line rule in legal ethics: don’t order that witnesses be killed.
How could Canada, of all places, find that a Happy Gilmore golf swing “breached the standard of care owed to other players on the course”?
During high school, I played junior hockey and still hold two league records: most time spent in the penalty box; and I was the only guy to ever take off his skate and try to stab somebody.
Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler), Happy Gilmore
I’ve never understood Black Friday or our seemingly insatiable urge to be the United States of Buy. This year I’m formally joining a movement I’ve unknowingly participated in for years. It’s making sure to buy nothing on Black Friday.
 There’s a couple different campaigns. As Cory noted out in an excellent post, Reverend Billy and The Church of Life After Shopping has Buy Nothing Day!, “[w]herein we refute, rebuff, and rebuke the mad-dash junkie rush of holiday shopping sin.” In Minneapolis, it’s being celebrated with a screening of the documentary What Would Jesus Buy?
Another comes from Adbusters, a social activist network which has an International Buy Nothing Day. Although it’s main goal is a 24 hour moratorium on consumer spending, this year it is calling for what it calls a Wildcat General Strike. It’s asking people to not only stop buying for 24 hours, but to shut off their lights, televisions and other nonessential appliances; park their cars; and turn off their phones and computer for the day. That may be going to a bit of an extreme but so is our consumption, particularly in the U.S.
Cory has the right idea. Rather than participate in the shopping frenzy, spend your money where it can really count. It’s a perfect time for charitable donations to things that matter to you and your community. Cory’s blog has one such charity. My “spending” Friday is going to Community Food Banks of South Dakota, Children’s Home Society and Words Without Borders.
And if you are going through withdrawal, here’s a way you can satisfy your urge to shop and still buy nothing.
Mammon, n.: The god of the world’s leading religion.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
|
Disclaimer 
Additionally, some links on this blog go to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. There is no additional cost to you. Contact me You can e-mail me at prairieprogressive at gmaildotcom.
|
