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Wednesday Weeds of the Past
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What I've Finished Reading
I got The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante for Christmas, and was almost physically unable to put it down until I'd finished it. Because my sister was in town with her kids, I read a large portion of it with a baby in my lap. It was even better than My Brilliant Friend, except for my irrational dislike of overnight literary successes in fiction. The translation feels more confident, too, though that might just be me getting used to it.
What I'm Reading Now
Titus Groan is still The Book That Would Not Die, but I don't need for it to die, because it's also still great. Steerpike has just successfully convinced the twins to set fire to the library with the rest of the family locked inside, as part of his creepy plan to grab a postition of power in this rotten tooth of a court. It's wince-inducing and delicious. And Fuchsia is still the best.
My hometown is a used book paradise, so I ended up buying a lot of books on the trip. I read Plutarch's biography of Alcibiades, a beautiful and arrogant human trainwreck whose life was one unbroken stampede of drama llamas on fire. It was completely delightful -- Plutarch at his best. Alcibiades' Roman parallel, Coriolanus, is less immediately compelling because Coriolanus is all about the boring Roman virtues and making his mother proud, rather than drenching himself in perfume and destroying diplomatic relations through injudicious seductions, but Plutarch's entertaining writing style makes it ok.
On the $1 table of John K. King Books, I found a book of critical essays on television (Watching Television, Todd Giltin, editor) assembled in 1987. The first essay, on network television news and its discontents, is extremely interesting -- I don't know how it is as pop culture criticism, but I learned about a million things about TV news programs in the 80s, and also some things that happened in the 1980s and were handled poorly by the news. Did you know that in 1985, the Philadelphia police literally bombed a city block, using a bomb, from their police helicopter? I didn't, but now I do.
The 1980s are fascinating to me because I was technically alive for the entire decade, but spent most of it paying no attention whatsoever to anything that wasn't Sesame Street, miscellaneous books, or my bike. There are some things being referenced in this book that I was vaguely aware existed but know nothing about, like TV Guide (apparently a magazine as well as TV listings) and other things I didn't know about at all, like the Philadelphia bombing or the distinctive styles of morning and evening news programs. I'm especially looking forward to reading what looks like a super grumpy essay about children's television.
I'm also making good on a twenty-year-old promise to myself to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. It's really good so far! It's been almost as hard to put down as The Story of a New Name, but since this is a Major Reading Project, I'm going to see if I can manage a weekly (or maybe twice monthly) post about it specifically.
What I Plan to Read Next
C. P. Snow! I'm sorry I've neglected you for so long! The Light and the Dark has been waiting patiently on my floor for many days. I also made a resolution to work through my bookshelves from left to right, which means. . .*checks* it looks like I'll be re-reading Persepolis! Could be worse!
What I've Finished Reading
I got The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante for Christmas, and was almost physically unable to put it down until I'd finished it. Because my sister was in town with her kids, I read a large portion of it with a baby in my lap. It was even better than My Brilliant Friend, except for my irrational dislike of overnight literary successes in fiction. The translation feels more confident, too, though that might just be me getting used to it.
What I'm Reading Now
Titus Groan is still The Book That Would Not Die, but I don't need for it to die, because it's also still great. Steerpike has just successfully convinced the twins to set fire to the library with the rest of the family locked inside, as part of his creepy plan to grab a postition of power in this rotten tooth of a court. It's wince-inducing and delicious. And Fuchsia is still the best.
My hometown is a used book paradise, so I ended up buying a lot of books on the trip. I read Plutarch's biography of Alcibiades, a beautiful and arrogant human trainwreck whose life was one unbroken stampede of drama llamas on fire. It was completely delightful -- Plutarch at his best. Alcibiades' Roman parallel, Coriolanus, is less immediately compelling because Coriolanus is all about the boring Roman virtues and making his mother proud, rather than drenching himself in perfume and destroying diplomatic relations through injudicious seductions, but Plutarch's entertaining writing style makes it ok.
On the $1 table of John K. King Books, I found a book of critical essays on television (Watching Television, Todd Giltin, editor) assembled in 1987. The first essay, on network television news and its discontents, is extremely interesting -- I don't know how it is as pop culture criticism, but I learned about a million things about TV news programs in the 80s, and also some things that happened in the 1980s and were handled poorly by the news. Did you know that in 1985, the Philadelphia police literally bombed a city block, using a bomb, from their police helicopter? I didn't, but now I do.
The 1980s are fascinating to me because I was technically alive for the entire decade, but spent most of it paying no attention whatsoever to anything that wasn't Sesame Street, miscellaneous books, or my bike. There are some things being referenced in this book that I was vaguely aware existed but know nothing about, like TV Guide (apparently a magazine as well as TV listings) and other things I didn't know about at all, like the Philadelphia bombing or the distinctive styles of morning and evening news programs. I'm especially looking forward to reading what looks like a super grumpy essay about children's television.
I'm also making good on a twenty-year-old promise to myself to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. It's really good so far! It's been almost as hard to put down as The Story of a New Name, but since this is a Major Reading Project, I'm going to see if I can manage a weekly (or maybe twice monthly) post about it specifically.
What I Plan to Read Next
C. P. Snow! I'm sorry I've neglected you for so long! The Light and the Dark has been waiting patiently on my floor for many days. I also made a resolution to work through my bookshelves from left to right, which means. . .*checks* it looks like I'll be re-reading Persepolis! Could be worse!