First, an announcement: Erin Anderson has signed with Joanna Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary and Media! Which means that HOUND IN BLOOD AND BLACK is just that much closer to being published and taking over the world. About damned time, Guppy.
That reminds me that my agent's birthday is next week. More about that next week. Remind me, someone, to send her a card.
Which reminds me to ask if anyone else has any good news. So do ya, punk?
Also: I don't need to be told that my most recent posts have been less than brilliant, and I haven't really been saying much of late that could be construed as, say, useful to someone wanting to read about writing. So I'll work on that.
Which reminds me that next Friday, I will not be around for Friday Filler/Filler Friday because I'll be in glorious California, at a resort on the beach, working very hard for my employers. Work, work, work: that's all it will be. Though one of today's work-related emails read, in part: "Fran mentioned that the hotel lobby has a great bar..." Work, work, work.
One of the things I've been meaning to do lately but haven't actually done (aside from conquer the universe and all that) is to write up a list of books I intend to read this year. So here's something of a list:
James Joyce Finnegans Wake
(I started this back in November but shelved it; it's going to be my 2011 Summer Book)
Sam Beckett The Malloy Trilogy
Something by Nabokov TBD
Something by Virginia Woolf TBD
Beowulf again
Something by Salman Rushdie TBD
Something by David Mitchell TBD
Haruki Murikami The Wind Up Bird Chronicles
Apuleus The Golden Ass
Something by Agatha Christie TBD
More of the Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond because Pads rocks.
More Chekhov stories
More Alice Munroe
Z.Z. Packer Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Frans Bengtsson The Long Ships
Laurence Sterne Sentimental Journey
Stendahl The Red and the Black or The Charterhouse of Parma
Kristen Hersh Rat Girl (because the Rejectionist recommended it to me)
and, hopefully, a lot of other cool books.
You?
My marginally good news is that between the new glasses and a new writing routine, I've been able to kick things back into over-drive, and Sublimation is so close being done I'm at the stage where I need to not get in a rush and get sloppy. Will hopefully be in the hands of my two readers and my personal editor in the not-too distant future.
ReplyDeleteMy TBR list is full of books already and is in flux. It's a very practical list right now, mostly full of.
That said, I'd like this to also be the year I tackle Finnegan's Wake. I'd like to read some more Kafka and Chekov, too.
But mostly it's practical stuff -- reviews I've agreed to do, books by author-contacts, books in and around my genre, things like that.
To be read:
ReplyDelete1. Bleak House
2. the rest of Christopher Fowler's "Bryant and May" series
3. One of Our Thursdays is Missing (Jasper Fforde, coming this Spring)
4. as many cozy mysteries as possible
5. a bunch of nonfiction on birds, natural history, and travel/history/adventure
I just re-read "A Bear Called Paddington". I re-read my favorite children's books fairly often - am currently on "The Borrowers", and also Pippi Longstocking. I always keep a lookout for good new middle-grade fiction as well.
Yay Erin! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteScott, for Virginia Woolf, I'd like to recommend To The Lighthouse. It is most most excellent. My mouth waters just thinking of the middle section.
I have no plans to read anything in particular at the moment, aside from more Proust. I have no good news. I don't even have a very exciting dinner planned.
In other news, why are neckties so expensive???
ReplyDeleteDomey: A good necktie isn't cheap, and a cheap necktie isn't good. I have something like $800 invested in ties. Yhough I almost never wear them. Huh.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to start making my own ties out of toilet paper, crayons, and safety pins. It will go perfectly with my aluminum foil suit and grocery bag shoes.
ReplyDeleteDress for success, Big D!
ReplyDeleteSo you'd recommend To the Lighthouse over Miss Dalloway?
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, a katrillion times yes!
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I think Michelle might have a different opinion on the matter. I forget which Woolf book is her favorite, but she has one and it's not To The Lighthouse.
ReplyDeleteWell, we guys must stick together in the Woolf Wars.
ReplyDeleteAlex: "Bleak House?" I shudder to think. That book almost put me off Dickens for good. Though perhaps I was too young and dumb for it at the time. Paddington always makes me happy. Mighty Reader is mighty excited about the new Fforde.
Nevets: Yeah, don't get cocky close to the finish line. Slow and steady, etc. I am closing in on the end of revisions to a novel now, and I have to remind myself to maintain the same pace to the end. It's hard, because the pacing of the story keeps picking up and I find myself getting caught up in the action. Which is good, but it's also not the job in front of me.
That's a great way of putting it, Scott. Trying to keep myself from getting caught up in pace of the story, since I'm the one who's supposed to be making that pace not experiencing it. lol
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, I have found that thrift stores very often carry excellent ties in just about mint condition, because when fellers die their widows often don't have a need for the ties.
The fellers don't die, they just retire and go live somewhere that only requires Hawaiian shirts. Dark, dark Nevets.
ReplyDeleteHuh. I never thought of that option. hahaha
ReplyDeleteAnd I wonder sometimes whey my writing is so dark?
Nevets: I am thrilled that Sublimation is almost done. You know why. :)
ReplyDeleteDomey & Scott: My favorite Woolf book is Orlando. I ADORE that book in so many ways I can't even count.
MY BOOKS TO READ:
Anna Kerenina...
among some other not-so-classic-but-I-can't-wait-to-get-to-them-books. I'm still building the list. I always have my Goodreads list to keep me on track. :)
Oh, and we should announce that JEANNIE has had her baby!
ReplyDeleteWow! Yay Jeannie!!!!
ReplyDeleteAwww, thanks guys!
ReplyDelete:D
I remember enjoying most of Wind up Bird chronicle..
ReplyDeleteMy list:
Remembrance of Time past part I (this is the one I am most excited about reading)
Resume Anna Karenina
Resume Lessing's Golden Notebook
Resume Brother's Karmazov
(It is embarrasing the number of books that I have started but not finished- nothing to do with the books, though)
Oh and re-start Potrait of an Artist as a young man..:)
I have been using Alexander McCall Smith's Sunday philosophy club series as my escapist filler reading and enjoying it..
Have also been reading cookbooks since I am obsessed with food like that.
My TBR list for the year includes Shakespeare and that stack of things under my bed, because I should probably finish those off before buying anything else. But we'll see how that goes.
ReplyDeleteI was feeling guilty about reading an "old" author (Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio) and not making time for current authors until I read your TBR lists. There's a ton of established authors I'd like to make time for, but don't I owe to the new authors trying to make a name to read their stuff too?
ReplyDeleteI have a few that I know I"ll read:
ReplyDeleteBrooklyn, Corrections, I-Hotel (which I have just started.) AND I am not going to stop reading a book when it gets challenging. This old fuddy brain is badly in need of some good exercise. Well, so does the fuddy old body but I can only deal with one thing at a time! I know, reading Brothers K on the treadmill!
Nice list there. Murikami is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteNow, I have a rather random question that has nothing to do with writing: How in the world did you get the header photo to stretch wide? I've got the Simple template as well, and can't for the life of me widen my blog and stretch the picture along w/it! I've tried the pixel thing to no avail. Help!
Oh, and I like what you're doing here - nice work. I'll be following along! ;)