Thursday is among the best days of the week. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no Friday or Saturday, but it sure beats Sunday into the ground. Don’t believe me, just look at all the amazing stuff I found on the internet today.
- Anne brought this fine site to my attention. Several things are amazing about this site, which I’m convinced is a joke. 1. The atrocious grammar that persists throughout. I’m no E.B. White, but come on, people. 2. Hire a copy editor already. Sarah Palin spells her name with an ‘h’ at the end. And she was governor of Alaska, not Georgia, as it claims on this page. (And how terrifying is it that Barnes & Noble, San Diego sponsors this site.)
- In somewhat less offensive news, Bruno opens this weekend. Opinion is split on whether it is good or bad for gay people. I will wait to see the movie before weighing on that particular point, but in the meantime, I can’t recommend Choire Sicha’s “review” enough. I love the way he brings extratextual elements into his reviews, discussing audience reaction and other reviews. “Bruno parodies gay sex quite outrageously. But at the end of the movie, all I could really think was that sex is always really gross, whether you are dressing up for it or not.”
- From The Second Pass: Ten classics you can skip. This is a great post to argue about. I’m going to agree with One Hundred Years of Solitude, a book that many people I admire list among their favorites but that I just didn’t get, and I will agree with White Noise, only because I think it is oft-imitated and might seem, to a savvy reader, a bit dated. But The Corrections? That’s a good book, and really, quite a lot of fun, too (except that interlude on the cruise ship). Via Anne Trubek’s Twitter feed.
- And lastly, a quick plug for our summer Saturday afternoon Music & Author Series. It kicks off this Saturday with Quinn Cummings reading from Notes from the Underwire and local band Mynameisguy (they feature ukulele). “If you miss this, you better be dead or in jail. And if you’re in jail, break out.” Seriously, though, it’s a lot of fun.
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The ‘Censor the Book’ site is just absolutely hilarious. One of my favorite things is that the CIA is listed as a site sponsor! Totally cool, spelling errors and all. I love it. There are actually people out there willing to commit serious time and effort to concocting slow-burn humor. What better way to spend one’s time than purposely misspelling Sarah Palin’s name? I can’t imagine that she gets it right every time either.
It has to be a joke, right, Alessandro? Please reassure me.
Haven’t we learned by now that there is no agreement on what books are great? We all have our reasons for liking or disliking a particular book, we all have our little line we draw, below which we will not stoop. For example, when people talk about funny books, they hardly ever mention Norwood by William Portis. For me there is hardly a funnier book. Friends of mine don’t get it. Bottom line, who gives a fuck? Nobody gives a fuck. The life of a literary snob is a lonely one.
Holy fuck, I meant Charles Portis. Jesus, what a dumbass.
Totally a joke. Yes. Don’t worry. You are not losing your mind. Now whether or not it’s insane to create such a joke is another matter entirely. But perhaps fighting insanity with insanity is the perfect choice.
It’s true that we all disagree about what makes a “great” book — and to prove it, I have to tell you that I finished “The Corrections” only because I was really hoping that all the characters would die in ugly, painful ways. And when I was done — I THREW IT AWAY.
And it felt good.
Most of the books I’ve hated are the ones I read out of a self-imposed sense of obligation/guilt. Like Love in the Time of Cholera. It took me so long to get through the first half that I finally gave it up as a lost cause. Or Brave New World — which I hated so much I actually yelled at my husband for recommending it. I finally decided I wasn’t going to read books just because I thought I “should” anymore. Now I need to work on not feeling guilty when I re-read old favorites (which I do from time to time, because I find it comforting). I have to admit, I have four great books I want to read on my nightstand right now (all literary fiction). But what am I reading? Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. For the third time.
I’m like that with TV, Paria. So many things out there I should probably watch (30 Rock, Damages, Battlestar Galactica), and what do I watch? Season 4 of The Wire. Again.
I’m actually going to re-read Kate Christensen’s The Epicure’s Lament because I’ve been feeling awfully Hugo Wittier lately, and because it’s really what I want to do.