I have not blogged recently because I’ve been a bit busy with work. The past few weekends have seen us selling out a fair bit, which is good for the hotel, but it also means some extremely grueling days that are quite long and exhausting. I do not mind the work but I find that when I get home most of my day is gone and I find myself sleeping. This summer has gone by fairly quickly and I’m not so sure that I’m ready for school again. Will blog shortly about something more interesting than my boredom and lack of blogging. Cheers.
Just finished Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind, and it feels good knowing that I’ve read a fantasy novel. It has been far too long since I read a good fantasy that I could sink my teeth into. I am going to jump right on into The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, hopefully I can sneak a few more books in before school starts this September. Cheers.
A book should be a book, right?
I’ve read two recent articles over at the Guardian and it has made me reflect on a trend that seems to be occurring at the moment, the blending of mixed media when it comes to the book form.
Nick Cave, a musician, poet, artist, actor, dare I say it: renaissance man recently released: “Nick Cave’s new novel The Death of Bunny Munro – the story of a sex-maniac travelling salesman taking his last road trip – goes to market through the iPhone App Store, in an enhanced edition that is being launched before the print version.”
The enhanced app has the following advantages:
you can faff with fonts, change colour, bookmark it, and so on; and there’s some smart social networking stuff attached. But it also includes enhancements that could have a noticeable effect on the experience of reading. Instead of paginating the book conventionally, it’s presented as a continuous vertical scroll (one geek-pleasing trick is that you can adjust the scrolling speed with the angle of tilt of the phone), and the App includes an audiobook that syncs with the written text. Pop on the headphones, thumb the screen and Cave’s voice picks up where you left off.
So the question is? Is all of that necessary for the enjoyment of a book? Thomas Pynchon’s latest release Inherent Vice now has an added feature to “enhance” the reading. Pynchon has released a playlist to accompany the reading:
a list of the songs which feature in Inherent Vice, which follows the story of pot-smoking private eye Larry “Doc” Sportello. From The Beach Boys (God Only Knows and Help Me, Rhonda) to The Beatles (Can’t Buy Me Love), Frank Sinatra (Fly Me to the Moon) and Pink Floyd (Interstellar Overdrive), the soundtrack, whichhe designed for Amazon.com, is a journey through the music of the 1960s, the setting for his new novel.
It also includes a few fictional tunes: a song “performed” by Doc himself, Skyful of Hearts, as well as providing a nod to Scott Oof of Vineland fame, whose band Beer “performs” the theme song from The Big Valley.
Again, I have to ask if all of this is necessary for the reading of a book? I guess on the one hand I can understand that in today’s modern world with all of the distractions that are constantly around us, I can understand the desire to add some pizzazz and punch to a work of art in any medium to attract people so that they generate some interest and passion for the work. But it is also sad that it takes this much excess to draw the eye.
A book cannot be a book anymore, it must have a playlist, it must be read to us, it must glow in the dark and be downloaded instantly into our minds.
The fact that books now have “trailers” astounds me and I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not? Good in catching the eye, but as I’ve said, bad because this signifies that we are too caught up in the light-show and that these works cannot simply stand on their own now.
I enjoy mixed media and I support the arts in all of its forms, but still, sometimes a book should just be a book. Maybe I’m turning into a curmudgeon (I can hear Erin saying outloud, “turning into….” with a very particular tone).
Your thoughts?
End of Summer Reading Review:
The end of the summer is here and I thought it would be nice to list everything that I’ve managed to read over the summer.
- RASL by Jeff Smith [ Graphic Novel ]
- Burma by Guy Delisle [ Graphic Novel ]
- Zot! by Scott McCloud [ Graphic Novel ]
- The Newford Collection by Charles de Lint [ Urban Fantasy Short Stories ]
- Lush Life by Richard Price [ Thriller/Crime Fiction ]
- Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West [ Fiction ]
- The Years by Virginia Woolf [ Fiction ]
- The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann [ Biography/History ]
- The Debt to Pleasure by John Lancaster [ Fiction ]
- Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead [ Fiction ]
- A Better Angel: Stories by Chris Adrian [ Fiction Short Stories ]
- Dragonlance Chronicles & Legends by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman [ Fantasy ]
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy [ Fiction ]
- Death of a Cozy Author by G.M. Malliet [ Mystery ]
This has been one of the slowest reading summers in quite some while. I usually manage to read a bit more than this but being at work so much of the summer I sometimes struggle to read. Also, for most of July I was unable to read anything. I just found myself unmotivated and uninterested in everything I picked up. A reading summer-slump.
I have so many “half-started” books as I like to term them, chapters two and three being popular points of abandonment. Woolf, Lancaster, & Whitehead were some of the best works that I read this past summer and I recommend them to everyone. I’ve linked to the various postings and individual reviews.
Still, despite the fact that I fell into a bit of a summer-slump, I enjoyed this summer’s reading variety. Cheers.
Thomas Pynchon selling Thomas Pynchon:
The rumors abound and I think that I’m on the side that believes. Rumor has it that Thomas Pynchon himself, narrated the book trailer for his recent release Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon.
“At that point it gets sort of peculiar. Maybe you’ll just want to read the book. Inherent Vice. Penguin Press. $27.95 … $27.95 – really? That used to be like, three weeks of groceries, man. What year is this again?”
If that’s not Pynchonesque, then I don’t know what is. I personally believe because it’s more fun to believe. Cheers to all my Pynchonheads out there, enjoy.
Crappy Taxidermy
Words fail me….I mean just look at….ok….you see the thing about this site that blows me away is……ok…just look at the photo below and click on it for more.
Enjoy…..as much as you can enjoy something like this. Again…words fail me.
Death of a Cozy Author by G.M. Malliet
Death of a Cozy Author by G.M. Malliet is is described as, “an affectionate send up of the traditional or “cozy” mystery genre. The author calls it an homage to the golden age of the classic British mystery”, or so the back of the book tells me. 
The book centers around an aging author, Sir Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk who enjoys torturing his children by dangling his estate & fortune in a revolving door will that seems to change with his every whim. All of the children seem on the brink of benefiting from his death and yet Sir Adrian has upped the stakes of this game by announcing his engagement to Violet, a widow with a muddled and suspicious past.
I would love to tell more but it would ruin the story. Chief Inspector St. Just ( How I do love the pun that is his name) is called to the estate to sort out what is going on and to solve the various murder(s)? that occur.
I picked this out randomly in the mystery section a week and a half ago, intrigued primarily by the title and the book cover. I am pleased that I gave this book and this author a chance. The start of the book is a bit slow and action does not take place until half way through, (not to worry though, book clocks in at a modest 286 pages) and quickly picks up speed once Chief Inspector St. Just appears. That is the best part of the story, she makes you wait and wait and wait for the actual “solving” of the story to begin. By the time Inspector St. Just appears, a number of possible suspects have been presented to the reader and all of them more than capable of the crime(s) that have been committed. I will say this, she writes the most deplorable family relationship I’ve ever read, very entertaining.
It seems that Ms. G.M. Malliet has another book in this series that was just recently released Death and the Lit Chick. If you enjoy mysteries then this book is for you, and if you’ve been a long time fan of classic mystery genre, even more so as Malliet is clearly having fun taking apart the cliches and tropes that abound in stories of this type. Oh and if you’re one of those readers who insist on peer reviews to help tip the scale in your decision to purchase a book, this work has won several awards and nominations: here at her blog you can read a full list of reviews and commentary.
Ernest Lessons:
Uncle Ernest’s Life Lesson of the Week:
“On my desk next to my typewriter I have the following words emblazoned on a plaque and whenever I find myself struggling with writer’s block, I turn to them and I inevitably feel more relaxed and more at ease with myself and my work, heed them well:
‘Remember the three M’s: Misogyny, Machine-guns, & Murder, as long as these three are present in a story, one is surely to never fail.’
Alas, the lessor known three N’s are not as reliable as the three M’s: Ninjas, Nickels, & Note-cards.
The three M’s though, these words have never failed me and I find that my readers are always pleased when these elements are in place. I mean afterall, who could say no to a story about a machine-gun? Would you?”
Connecting
I’ve been reading G.M. Malliet’s mystery book Death of a Cozy Writer, and feeling a bit nosy I sought out her webpage and blog. I posted a comment on her site. A few days later, I find that she has found me out on twitter and is now following me.
There are some who mock me and my twitter usage, but I enjoy connecting with various authors and celebrities. I recently corresponded with Aravind Adiga, Booker prize winning author of The White Tiger. I realize that I am not on a first name basis with these people as much as I would love to be with @neilhimself, but it is nice to ask questions or comment on a work of literature or a question that I may have and to receive immediate contact this way.
The internet may be a lot of things and we all know that Social Networking will be the downfall of all of society as we creep ever closer to a 24/7 network neural life, still, you have to admit its pretty awesome when you ask an author who you respect a question and they respond back. Cheers.
'ahems and ahahs' 