Finished the trilogy this weekend, and it goes off in some really crazy directions. I feel like the first one is fairly grounded for a sci-fi novel (and takes place in the recent past/present), but by the end of the third book we're just going completely nuts with visions of the far future. The characters continued to be weak throughout, but if you're into theories about spaceship propulsion or what four physical dimensions would look like, these books are cool. I need to read something completely character-focused now, though.

David Goodis, Nelson Algren

esp rec goodis "moon in the gutter" and algren "never come morning"

BOOYASHAKA
 

so fucking hard bent on david goodis right now

what a bull

oh and also this



concise commentary

pretty sweet. probs the most compassionate book on addicts i have read.

^ Always really loved that one, all fun and games until it sinks in and breaks your heart

Reading this at the moment:



Found a beautiful copy from 1942 (can't find a picture of the edition) at a used bookstore for like $6

I've loved each Chandler I've read but this uh, this uh is from 1940 and features black people and uh, and uh,

i am reading this:

Chandler rules (he replaced Chandler big time). For a long time he was my favorite author.


Really been into David Goodis lately. Recently got turned onto Raymond Carver/

Carver's "what we talk about when we talk about love" is an interesting work. His editor did the editing work with a chainsaw. The original manuscripts are available as a work called "beginnings".

Carver claims these works as being part of his second life, because he got sober after this publication (his first). I love that.

Also, just to add, David Goodis is the most depressing and despairing author I've ever read. Top shelf.

Used to be a huge Chandler fan (and still am) but he was educated in England and all of his stories are knights in shining armor/hero saves girl-style

read these a year or two ago and really enjoyed them. it makes me marvel to think about how smart you'd need to be to write something like this. fair criticism regarding character, and i had a hard time connecting as much on the third one, but the scope of it all was pretty staggering, and i loved reading it.

2 of the 3 were translated by Ken Liu, and he's got a book of short stories called The Paper Menagerie, which i loved - strongly recommended

i've been in a weird funk for the last year where i deliberate on what i should read next, and end up reading nothing because i can't decide. pretty dumb.

the 3 i did read inthe last year were:

educated, tara westover
super pumped, mike issaac
endurance, alfred lansing


the set of books i'm currently "trying" to decide between include:

the grace of kings, ken liu
if beale street could talk, james baldwin
city of theives, david benioff
homo deus, yuval noah harari

any recommendations from that list?

joy williams, this collection.

better every time. shrewd, brutal.

Finally got around to reading Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance - have been taking some time off academic reading because my coursework finally ended. (Just research essay for internship and the 10,000 word research project to go).

I am reading Bounce by Matthew Syed.

These two books go well together, in a way. Frustrating and yet a lot of nuggets of helpful truth. I didn’t realise how ubiquitous the cycle of industrialisation, migration and subsequent economic depression was. It’s hard not to feel betrayed by both these authors - one ended up at Yale law school, and the other at Oxford.

I don’t usually get into the bootstraps and hard work mentality and these books rubbed me up the wrong way, a bit. But it’s been helpful to read them together, and to apply the deeper exploration of growth mindset and persistence in Syed’s book, and consider if that ability to accept mistakes and try again (or the lack of it), is a significant part of the story of families in poverty.

i wrote this this morning in five minutes:

Above the valleys, over rills and meres,
Above the mountains, woods, the oceans, clouds,
Beyond the sun, past all ethereal bounds,
Beyond the borders of the starry spheres,

My agile spirit, how you take your flight!
Like a strong swimmer swooning on the sea
You gaily plough the vast immensity
With manly, inexpressible delight.

Fly far above this morbid, vaporous place;
Go cleanse yourself in higher, finer air,
And drink up, like a pure, divine liqueur,
Bright fire, out of clear and limpid space.

Beyond ennui, past troubles and ordeals
That load our dim existence with their weight,
Happy the strong-winged man, who makes the great
Leap upward to the bright and peaceful fields!

The man whose thoughts, like larks, take to their wings
Each morning, freely speeding through the air,
Who soars above this life, interpreter
Of flowers' speech, the voice of silent things!

i feel elevated

no, we can not

yeah but what are you reading?

Just this article about Took's father (hope he's doing alright)

https://life.shared.com/man-shoves-2...s-constipation

:erm:

and i thought a couple of fingers were risque

i bet he did that for the sex factor. he could have just had one of these.

i dunno that looks a little wide

u scared

yes

¯\_(ツ)_/¯