Photographed any good books lately?
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I love “Eataly” on West 23rd Street between 5th & 6th avenue. Their food, wine & Italian market triggers every pleasure center of my brain. The moment I was recommended this book, I was honestly shocked. The salesperson (maybe she’s the owner too, I didn’t ask) handed it to me, and for a second, I was mute. To learn the history of the streets where Eataly is now is such an incredible experience. It is… especially when I love the history of places I love so much. For an independent store that store is pretty good & efficient.
11 novels, 1 collection of novellas, 1 collection of stories, 1 collection of plays, 1 collection of poetry, 1 long poem, 1 mock anthology, 2 biographies (about 1 mathematician and 1 author), 1 memoir, 1 book of history/long-form journalism.
15 books first published, collected, or translated in the last 5 years. 7 books written before I was born; 2 books written over 100 years before I was born; 1 book written over 2000 years before I was born.
4 books in translation: 1 from Latin, 1 from French, 1 from Danish, 1 from Spanish. Books by 9 Americans, 6 Brits, 2 Canadians, 1 Mexican, 1 Dane, 1 nineteenth century Frenchman, and 1 ancient Roman.
11 books by authors I have read before, in one case the same book. 1 book that I didn't get to from my 2009 summer reading list. That book was purchased in 2008, 2 others in 2009, 6 in 2010, 12 in 2011 (8 this May). All were purchased from independent booksellers: 11 books purchased at Greenlight (my localest independent bookstore), 4 books purchased at the Strand, 3 from Better World Books, 1 at the Housing Works Bookstore, 1 from Powell's, and 1 at Crow Bookshop. I had borrowed 4 of the books from the library before purchasing.
9 hardcover books; at least 5 now available in paperback, possibly 6.
5 books with subtitles, only 1 of which is fiction. 5 book titles starting with the letter C (in 1 case, this is the entirety of the title), 3 Ds, 2 Ws (4 authors whose last names and 1 whose first name start with W as well), 1 each B, F, G, H, K, L, N, O, R, S, and T. Initial letters not represented: A, E, I, J, M, P, Q, U, V, X, Y, and Z. Only Q and Z do not appear in a title at all.
Most common cover background colour: tan.
7445 pages in total.
Yes, this is ambitious. No, I probably won't get through all of them. But I plan to do my damnedest, so we'll see.
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Finished:
7/5, Chronic city.
7/6, Liver.
7/10, Our tragic universe.
7/31, Chalcot Crescent.
8/18, Dragon country.
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In 2012 I got back to and finished The great night and Hiding man.
reading this lately
"The set-up goes like this: take two religiously flippant intellectuals (in this case, Manseau and Sharlet, the founding editors of the spiritually hip online magazine Killing the Buddha) and send them on a yearlong road trip to discover the underbelly of America's religious culture. Make sure they mingle with the most wild and weird of holy rollers-a philosophical stripper working out of a converted Baptist church in Nashville, a one-eyed rodeo preacher from the "Cowboy Church" of Texas, a clan of bloodthirsty Jesus freaks in Florida and a cross-dressing terrorist from North Carolina badly in need of an exorcism. Take all these "true" stories, turn them into the "Bible's Book of Psalms," and alternate them with 13 freshly imagined "books" of the Bible, written by iconic American writers such as Rick Moody, Peter Trachtenberg and Haven Kimmel-and, voila, a heretic's Bible is born."