Books and days with soundtracks
I spent most of last Sunday reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (after some attempts at A Scanner Darkly and Pride & Prejudice) on the porch, switching seats occasionally to keep my head in shade. A mysterious sound like a bird flapping its wings kept me company; the source of that sound turned out to be a hedgehog under the boards, moving about.
After recommending Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell to a friend, I had been envious of her, reading the book for the first time. It's that feeling of discovery and being immersed in a big book that I missed, and wanted to find something like JS & MN.
Now, Kavalier & Clay does feature two male colleagues, a war and loved ones in need of rescuing, but most important of all is that it's a big book to get lost in on a lazy summer day. I had considered reading it last summer, but was then more in the mood for the melancholy of Blind Assassin (which, now that I think about it, is also partly about pulp fiction, although it bears no relation to Chabon's novel otherwise). But now it was exactly what I wanted, not quite as light as Austen but neither as dark as Philip K. Dick.
During the week I've had less time and energy to read, but I'm still 400 pages in and ready to say that this rocks as much as Jonathan Strange did. Character love and very fine writing.
(I just realized that the, should I say, approach of the narration is reminiscent of JS&MN too: a first person voice looking back, to the lives of two great men who made history -although that sounds a bit pompous when one's talking about comic book writers.)
My mp3 player went nuts (once again) last Friday, so I've listened to music a lot less than usual, mainly to the album Bad Conscience Patrol by Rubik that I bought last week. I heard about the band ages ago, but had my doubts until I fell in love with the song City & the Streets without knowing it was theirs. Despite the album's Radiohead-esque (as it has been described in reviews) atmosphere, it has worked rather well as a soundtrack for these warm summer days (for me Radiohead is like a bleak spring day, or late autumn -except for the song There There, which is summer. And green). Sunday was City & the Streets; Monday Jesus/Hypnotist, weird and humorous; A Hard Try, my favourite at the moment, Tuesday, bright and somewhat bittersweet. Today has been mostly Radio Helsinki, although after one particular scene in Kavalier & Clay I've had the urge to have Rufus' Between My Legs on repeat.
After recommending Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell to a friend, I had been envious of her, reading the book for the first time. It's that feeling of discovery and being immersed in a big book that I missed, and wanted to find something like JS & MN.
Now, Kavalier & Clay does feature two male colleagues, a war and loved ones in need of rescuing, but most important of all is that it's a big book to get lost in on a lazy summer day. I had considered reading it last summer, but was then more in the mood for the melancholy of Blind Assassin (which, now that I think about it, is also partly about pulp fiction, although it bears no relation to Chabon's novel otherwise). But now it was exactly what I wanted, not quite as light as Austen but neither as dark as Philip K. Dick.
During the week I've had less time and energy to read, but I'm still 400 pages in and ready to say that this rocks as much as Jonathan Strange did. Character love and very fine writing.
(I just realized that the, should I say, approach of the narration is reminiscent of JS&MN too: a first person voice looking back, to the lives of two great men who made history -although that sounds a bit pompous when one's talking about comic book writers.)
My mp3 player went nuts (once again) last Friday, so I've listened to music a lot less than usual, mainly to the album Bad Conscience Patrol by Rubik that I bought last week. I heard about the band ages ago, but had my doubts until I fell in love with the song City & the Streets without knowing it was theirs. Despite the album's Radiohead-esque (as it has been described in reviews) atmosphere, it has worked rather well as a soundtrack for these warm summer days (for me Radiohead is like a bleak spring day, or late autumn -except for the song There There, which is summer. And green). Sunday was City & the Streets; Monday Jesus/Hypnotist, weird and humorous; A Hard Try, my favourite at the moment, Tuesday, bright and somewhat bittersweet. Today has been mostly Radio Helsinki, although after one particular scene in Kavalier & Clay I've had the urge to have Rufus' Between My Legs on repeat.