Literary Schtuff
I haven't been posting about reading lately. I just haven't been in loooooove with anything I've read. But I had a very literary lunch; first of all, Kojo Nnamdi was talking with author Ron Rash about contemporary appalachia when I got in the car, which made me excited because I'd never heard of Mr. Rash and I love southern regional fiction. Additionally, I got to hear the sentence "That girl's not wearin' enough clothes to wad a shotgun." which said author used to illuminate a particular lesson about poetry which I appreciated.
Then while eating my chicken sandwich I was delighted with the following passage from Robertson Davies' What's Bred in the Bone who, while at times tediously academic, is also a fucking brilliant author.
Zadok Hoyle presented a fine figure on the box of carriage or hearse, for he was a large, muscular man of upright bearing, black-haired and dark-skinned, possessed of a moustache that swept from under his nose in two fine ebony curls. On closer inspection it could be seen that he was cock-eyed, that his nose was of a rich red, and that his snowy collar and stock were washed less often than they were touched up with chalk. The seams of the frock coat he wore when driving the hearse would have been white if he had not painted them with ink. His top hat was glossy, but its nap was kept smooth with vaseline. His voice was deep and caressing. The story was that he was an old soldier, a veteran of the Boer War, and that he had learned about horses in the army.
I've also zipped through Alison Bechdel's Fun Home which was excellent, and am still slogging through Mailer's Harlot's Ghost very, very slowly, mostly because the book is so heavy it's not compelling to hold it up when I try to read in bed. Also the subject matter is much less accessible than that of The Executioner's Song which I ripped through, all 1072 pages of it, in no time at all. In comparison, anyways.
So that's what's got my attention bookwise right now. My latest purchases from Audible I haven't spent time on because in the car I am more enjoying music and my commute is pretty short now.
In the Burger King there was a young mother who refused the Simpsons toys for her children with a weird mumbled explanation that she didn't want her kids exposed to that. Really??
Then while eating my chicken sandwich I was delighted with the following passage from Robertson Davies' What's Bred in the Bone who, while at times tediously academic, is also a fucking brilliant author.
Zadok Hoyle presented a fine figure on the box of carriage or hearse, for he was a large, muscular man of upright bearing, black-haired and dark-skinned, possessed of a moustache that swept from under his nose in two fine ebony curls. On closer inspection it could be seen that he was cock-eyed, that his nose was of a rich red, and that his snowy collar and stock were washed less often than they were touched up with chalk. The seams of the frock coat he wore when driving the hearse would have been white if he had not painted them with ink. His top hat was glossy, but its nap was kept smooth with vaseline. His voice was deep and caressing. The story was that he was an old soldier, a veteran of the Boer War, and that he had learned about horses in the army.
I've also zipped through Alison Bechdel's Fun Home which was excellent, and am still slogging through Mailer's Harlot's Ghost very, very slowly, mostly because the book is so heavy it's not compelling to hold it up when I try to read in bed. Also the subject matter is much less accessible than that of The Executioner's Song which I ripped through, all 1072 pages of it, in no time at all. In comparison, anyways.
So that's what's got my attention bookwise right now. My latest purchases from Audible I haven't spent time on because in the car I am more enjoying music and my commute is pretty short now.
In the Burger King there was a young mother who refused the Simpsons toys for her children with a weird mumbled explanation that she didn't want her kids exposed to that. Really??