books read :: caught up & redesigned

dear faithful readers, lately i have not been blogging about the books i've been reading. i have many good reasons for this. first off being, i have moved. moving takes a lot out of someone. it involves packing, moving, unpacking, organizing. i'm still not through with the last one. on top of this, i spent a week and a half plus another day and a half in ocean city, two days (when i meant to spend one) in nyc, and i believe, since i've written last, a few days in boston. i am putting miles on my car. i am remembering to roll my windows up at night.

so how are we going to do this? i have been moving towards a new approach to my books blogging anyway. why not blog every two books i read instead of every month? why not blog each book? i am going to come at this at a new angle because i think it will give me more to say about the books i'm reading and why. and i think it will be more interesting. since July began, i have been reading Moby Dick. when i am through with that, i will tell you all about it. i tweet about it often.

HOWEVER. for now. i must tell you all about everything i've read since i last blogged about books i read! there are a lot. hence, my commentary will be shorter than usual. which is probably still comparably long... i give you...

books read MAY / JUNE

The Complete Poems by Elizabeth Bishop

fantastic tome. my copy is especially pretty. good to pick up put down pick up put down.

Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

should have read a different Murakami. the plot kept me going but i wasn't too invested in his characters. i have heard he has better.

Hera Calf Lightning Rod by Debrah Morkum

i review this in the forthcoming issue 2.1 of GIGANTIC SEQUINS. please read all about it there. also, Morkum is reading at the Boston Poet Tea Party at the end of this month, which i am also reading at. yay!

Writing Degree Zero by Roland Barthes

i liked the beginning parts better than the end parts. he sort of lost me at the end, but i was right with him in the beginning. lit crit always goes in my brain and out my brain unless i reread it, though. i will admit that much.

2666 by Roberto Bolano

one of my new favorites. this book is worth all of the hype and was a quicker read than i expected. it was worth every page. i have been having trouble reading since i read this because this book was so good. you know when you read something that envelops you so completely that to leave the world of it and to enter any other world makes the next world seem mediocre? finishing reading this book is like when you are on vacation and you know you have to leave.

The Collector by John Fowles

quick read about kidnapper and his victim. interesting format to the book, written from both points of view. the characters, though, were unlikeable. i could relate to some things that the girl was saying, but in the end she annoyed me. and i didn't like the end! a friend read this and said that she liked the end better than the rest of the book. but i didn't.

The Captain is out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship by Charles Bukowski

i read this at a bar while i was eating dinner. bad idea. never read Bukowski at a bar. excellent journal. makes me want to go to the horse races. he puts everything so simply and smart and true.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

fantastic memoir of Smith's beginnings and early life with Robert Mapplethorpe. this book made me miss NYC intensely, though. also, it made me envy her and Mapplethorpe's relationship because i think i almost had a friend like that once and it just didn't work out like theirs did. or maybe it did. everything is everything. (nothing is everything.)

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

cute intense book. i have trouble with Gaiman's novels because Sandman is so brilliant, but i made it through this only doubting him in the beginning. the characters they build are surprisingly kinetic and strong despite how the book's plot jumps all around.