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I always like to have a book with me at all times – call it a nerdy grown-up security blanket – and rarely do I leave the house without slipping one into my bag (even if I KNOW I’m not going to have a chance to read it). Do you take a book with you? Do you take whatever book you’re currently reading, or do you have a special on-the-go book? And do you have a preference for a these types of book (paperback, hardback; short stories; poetry etc)?
That’s one of the things I miss about the fact that many pocket-sized paperbacks seem to have been replaced with trade editions. It seems most of the books I read are released in paperback in the trade editions. I always, though, loved the ability to shove a pocket-sized paperback in my back pocket for handy access.
That’s a roundabout way of saying I rarely take books with me except when I travel. When my kids were involved in softball, volleyball and swimming, I would always take a backpack with a book (or two) in it. I don’t routinely carry a messenger bag or backpack so with those days gone it’s unusual for me to have a book with me. If I am going somewhere that isn’t work-related and I know I’ll have some waiting time, I might grab the book I’m currently reading.
I used to take a book with me to hockey games to read during intermissions but the size has led me to simply put a magazine in my back pocket.
At present, however, I don’t think the Net is a very good medium for books, books should really be inexpensive lightweight paperbacks you can bang around.
Rudy Rucker, All the Interviews
As I was reviewing my reading list for the year in preparation for making my nominations (due today) for the National Book Critics Circle book awards, I noted clear evidence of the fixations I’ve commented on in the last year or so.
First, there was the foreign fiction fixation. That, in turn, led to joining a Russian Reading Challenge. Between that challenge and our three days in St. Petersburg this summer, there arose a fixation on Russian history. So, did I get my fixes?
According to my count, I read 24 foreign lit books this year if you include only works originally written in a language other than English. Of those, six were by Russian authors. I also read four novels by English-speaking authors set in the Soviet Union. I also read three books on Russian/Soviet history and biographies of Stalin and Catherine the Great.
I’m speculating the foreign lit binge will continue, although the to be read stacks are getting large enough I may need to scale back. And you may see a couple of them on my “best of the year” post later this month, although what is likely the top selection isn’t in the group.
I took a course in speed reading … and was able to read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It’s about Russia.
Woody Allen
Random Observations
Why You Should Never Say Never, Chapter 1: After dissing them forever, I joined the CrackBerry world with the new Storm.
Why You Should Never Say Never, Chapter 2: Eighteen months after joining Facebook, I finally put stuff up there.
Bookish Linkage
What, men lie to impress women?!? Who would believe that? Of course, some say this is just a “crap survey.”
Other uses (?) for books.
Another use: as architecture.
As it is a Canadian site, it leans a bit toward Canadian interests but it’s worth checking out the top ten hockey books of 2008. There’s one in particular I’ve had my eye on.
Nonbookish Linkage
What year is this? Dylan and Mellencamp in the top five albums of the year? Metallica, Guns n’ Roses, Randy Newman, B.B. King, Jackson Browne and Brian Wilson among the next 25?
This should be interesting: the Pulitzer Prices are being expanded to include “online-only publications primarily devoted to original news reporting.”
Check out The Best of LIFE blog.
Life … cannot be mastered by technology.
Max Frisch, Homo Faber: A Report
1. Do you get to read as much as you WANT to read?
(I’m guessing #1 is an easy question for everyone?)
2. If you had (magically) more time to read–what would you read? Something educational? Classic? Comfort Reading? Escapism? Magazines?
Of course the answer to No. 1 is no. There are two things from the early school years I think need to be required in every workplace. One, of course, is nap time. The other is designated reading time. Not only would that give us readers a bit more time each day, it might even contribute to a more literate America.
With the magically added time, I’m guessing I would try to go back and read some of the so-called classics I’ve never read. I just never seem to make the time to go back to the books I really should read. I would consider reducing the “to be read” stacks but don’t want to hasten my demise.
The time to read is any time: no apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is necessary.
Holbrook Jackson, The Anatomy of Bibliomania
When Hotel California was released on December 8, 1976, I didn’t run out and buy it. In fact, I don’t think the copy we now have on CD is one I bought but something my wife bought.
 Granted, part of the reason I didn’t buy it at the time was that, as a college student, I didn’t have a lot of disposable income. While that didn’t keep me from buying LPs I wanted, I was of the opinion at the time that Joe Walsh would ruin the Eagles. What makes that funny in retrospect isn’t just that Hotel California became one of the biggest selling albums of all time. There’s also the fact that if you’ve seen the Eagles over the last several years, particularly since the band fired Don Felder, Walsh tends to outshine the other remaining members.
The fact remains, though, that when I heard the album I wasn’t overly impressed. Walsh did change the Eagles, although not in the manner or to the extent I thought.
I’d been an Eagles fan since On The Border. It led me back to the first two releases, which were even more country oriented. In fact, in time Desperado grew to become my favorite Eagles release.
Those first albums were a wonderful combination of the country rock sound I enjoyed at the time and the increasingly popular so-called Southern California sound. Walsh, though, came from a more hard rock background, both as lead guitarist in the James Gang and on his own. I figured his harder rock background would alter the trademark Eagles sound. I was right but it evidently was a move the public loved.
There’s no doubt the guitar interplay on the title cut, particularly that between Walsh and Felder (who wrote the song’s intro and the ending solos), is top-notch. I’ll even admit Walsh’s own “Pretty Maids All in a Row” as well as “Wasted Time” and “The Last Resort” (both Don Henley-Glen Frey compositions) are worthy tunes. Quite frankly, though, I didn’t really come to appreciate even those songs until hell froze over nearly two decades later. To this day, the rest of the album just doesn’t grab me aside from certain bits and pieces of the songs (e.g., the background guitar work Walsh does on “Life in the Fast Lane”).
I know Hotel California has sold a bazillion and a half copies, went platinum within a week of its release and remains among the top 20 bestselling albums of all time in the U.S. I know it won a Grammy for Record of the Year. I know it’s No. 37 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 greatest albums. And maybe a contrarian attitude kept me from buying it. Even so, I’ll still take any of the band’s prior releases over this one.
Why do we give up our hearts to the past
And why must we grow up so fast?
“Pretty Maids All in a Row,” Eagles, Hotel California
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