our aspirations are wrapped up in books

where i actually post now

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:15:27 +0100

iyoupapa: Kemah power lines (via S. J. Alexander) (c) 2009 S....

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:18:41 +0100

Kemah power lines (via S. J. Alexander)

(c) 2009 S. J. Alexander under CC-BY-NC-SA license.

god i love this. there are power lines in our bloodlines, and all that nonsense.

i read this for dystopia week, but just realised that i never...

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:43:45 +0000

i read this for dystopia week, but just realised that i never mentioend it here! i read it in one day, it’s well short, but it’s sooo good. seriously. he manages to write largely in this invented, slangy, bastardised language and you know what’s going on, even if you don’t know what each word means you can work it out, and it’s so MENACING. also this cover is awesome, i have this edition and it’s so much better than other covers. for once.

this is the second novel that i’m reading for dystopian...

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:39:34 +0000

this is the second novel that i’m reading for dystopian week next term - i’ve already done a clockwork orange and loved it. i’m almost halfway through 1984 and it’s SO GOOD. i didn’t think i’d like it this much - dystopian novels aren’t really my kind of thing, and the idea of animal farm (the other orwell book i have to read) just really annoys me. i love the way orwell writes. i like all the stuff about the invented language, the antique shop, his clandestine meetings with julia, everything. it’s so awesome. wish i had this cover, though, my edition is weirdly shit-looking.

THE WASTE LAND so okay, i didn’t read it in a book by...

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:35:46 +0000

THE WASTE LAND

so okay, i didn’t read it in a book by itself. it’s one poem in a book of ts.s. eliot’s poems that i have yet to finish (the four quartets are just sitting there, mocking me). but it’s so incredible. i love the stuff at the end, all the broken things, all the vulgarities… everything. beautiful.

i’ve just started reading this - what a headfuck! crazy....

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:33:28 +0000

i’ve just started reading this - what a headfuck! crazy. but i do quite like it, which is a good thing, right?

i let this die a bit. sorry. anyway i finished this today,...

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:37:20 +0000

i let this die a bit. sorry. anyway i finished this today, it’s good but not AS good as i was hoping… i think it may be better understood if i consider it for a while. and i was reading it for science, which isn’t really the point of the book. i love this cover.

BLEAK HOUSE. this book took me so long to read. really, really...

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:36:53 +0100

BLEAK HOUSE. this book took me so long to read. really, really long. i mean, not the actual reading… but i started it so long ago and only just finished it. i got really into it over the past few days though, and am now almost sad that it’s over. it reminded me a bit of kavalier & clay - not in subject matter, but because it’s got such a world, and the characters are drawn so well. i’m watching the miniseries on youtube at the moment, and it is so good!

so. if you’re into modern american literature at all then...

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:36:33 +0100

so. if you’re into modern american literature at all then you’re unlikely to have failed to hear the news that david foster wallace killed himself on friday (i think it was friday). i was reading infinite jest anyway, but i hadn’t read much for a week or two. this made me pick it up again and i’m trying to get through it and it’s hard going but i really, really like it and i can’t believe he died so young. it’s so terrible. terrible for him and his family and everyone he knew, but terrible for everyone else. he was so talented! but anyway, i’m not going to repeat every obit written by someone who hadn’t read him or whatever. i’m not very far in, but i love hal. i love the way this is written. i love how fucking smart this is.

if you even vaguely like tennis, look up the article david foster wallace wrote about federer for the NYtimes. it’s incredible. RIP.

jane eyre. i don’t think the bronte sisters and i are...

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:25:00 +0100

jane eyre. i don’t think the bronte sisters and i are going to get on. this is a book that’s so obsessed with hell and nostalgic rhetoric that so far it just seems lifeless, for all of jane eyre’s assertiveness towards the end of her stay with her aunt she never seems like a real child, just a small adult who is swamped by the long fussy words used by her older self. i don’t like it so far at all.

before trying the murky waters of literary theory i decided to...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:54:33 +0100

before trying the murky waters of literary theory i decided to start with this book. it’s short and not very hard to understand, but it’s also not that compelling… i really like terry eagleton, maybe i’ll try his litcrit stuff.

here’s a photo of me & some other people in christ...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:17:00 +0100

here’s a photo of me & some other people in christ church, oxford, towards the end of last week. i did a poetry summer school there… it was very brief, but AMAZING, and i wish i wasn’t back home. i really hate ipswich. i know that sounds lame but when i was there i was just like… it’s the most amazing place, i actually do really love it, and ipswich is so dull and dead to me by comparison. i am very excited about going there soon… i might as well state here that yeah, i am going to do english at oxford in just over a month. it’s so exciting.

the communist manifesto. i haven’t finished this yet, but...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:04:57 +0100

the communist manifesto. i haven’t finished this yet, but i started reading it because i kept starting conversations about communism/marxism/socialism without having read it, which isn’t really all that great. it’s quite dry but i like some of it. it’s so influential that i feel i need to finish it though… maybe i’ll go and read it now.

wuthering heights wuthering heights wuthering heights. i...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:34:00 +0100

wuthering heights wuthering heights wuthering heights. i finished it a week ago today (i haven’t kept this as up to date as i would like, but i was away in oxford most of last week with limited internet).

i didn’t see a trace of the twisted love story i’d been promised. i saw barely any of the moors. there were petty, cruel, stupid characters shoved in on top of each other doing callous or silly things without thinking. heathcliff was just horrible, but not really in an interesting way. he hanged dogs and was a bitch to everyone. great.

anyway it was pretty shit, but kind of funny in places.

me a few weeks after the initial photo, by the same bookcase!...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:20:34 +0100

me a few weeks after the initial photo, by the same bookcase! not sure why i took this to be honest. hi guys.

i read this earlier in the year (i’ve skipped a book that...

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:20:22 +0100

i read this earlier in the year (i’ve skipped a book that i don’t really like writing about, so this was sixth or something) and it’s pretty incredible. i really like neil gaiman and i like urban fantasy; this is a dark, grotty urban fantasy book with a light touch, dark because it’s set in a twisting and weird alternate world underneath london. it’s (sort of) based on a tv series, but i prefer the book… it’s amazing. richard is a lovely main character, and they never do the obvious, the surprises keep coming.

i’m reading wuthering heights because it’s on my...

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:51:11 +0100

i’m reading wuthering heights because it’s on my reading list for university. i got it in the post a couple of days ago. i can tell that it’s good but i’m having real issues with it - i would not choose to read this type of book, and i’m not connecting with any part of it at all. oh dear.

waiting for godot was the fourth book i read this year. i liked...

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:20:22 +0100

waiting for godot was the fourth book i read this year. i liked it a lot - really i should have read it before rosencrantz & guildenstern, since that play references this one a lot. anyway i’m getting sort of into absurdist stuff at the moment and i guess this is the first real absurdist play i read… again, haven’t seen it performed, but i imagine i will get the chance to at some point considering how famous it is. it’s so disturbing in places, and still pretty different now. i should reread it.

rosencrantz & guildenstern are dead is the third book i read...

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:00:03 +0100

rosencrantz & guildenstern are dead is the third book i read this year, and the second play by tom stoppard. i liked it a lot more than arcadia, although i like a both a lot… i haven’t seen it performed either but i really really really want to. it’s so funny and ridiculous, they’re so confused, and i think the dynamic works really well. i love hamlet anyway, so it was fun reading something written from it.

the second book i read this year, special topics in calamity...

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:58:00 +0100

the second book i read this year, special topics in calamity physics. this is another one filled with endless literary reference, allusion and discussion. but that was largely the point. the twists were incredible and this is another book where i really fell for the characters. i wish i could live in this book. there are few books that i would want to live in, but this is one of them, i think. at about the same time i read this i tried a book by daniel handler called the basic 8, which i found similar, but i finished this and never made it through the daniel handler one. that’s because with this book i really cared.