CHICKENS IN A BOOK: BOOK BOOK BGAWK (new book thread)

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, reading things like pollo's post makes me want burn all my course packets and engage in nothing but hardest-line reader-response criticism.  He read Dalloway in the context of "Oh, hey, let's read another high-modernist wankfest! Capital!" whereas I read it in the context of "Another Woolf novel fuck yesssss."

I say this not to hate on pollo, but because I woulda had the same reaction, had I read Woolf's novels in a different order.  "I hope this is awesome and funny and engaging and sexually-tortured and drunken like Ulysses and not some boring-ass bullshit written by some horny asshole from Idaho who knows too much Latin like The Cantos," would've totally been my mindframe going into Dalloway cold. 

I've had to give the Woolf Apologia often enough to random people who'd just read Dalloway (a book I love; don't get me wrong) that I'm convinced that we should just cram Orlando down everybody's throats (no homo), just to avoid the Joyce comparisons and the knee-jerk stream-of-conciousness hate. 

[elpollodiablo]

But I like high modernist wankfests, stream of consciousness, dense allusiveness, nested mazes of clauses, etc., etc. And I wasn't exactly going in cold; I've read perhaps a dozen of her essays and a good whack of her criticism. I just don't dig her slightly-ruffled but otherwise buttoned-down bourgeois ethos. My preference is for Joyce, or, say, Djuna Barnes. But I'm learning to quite like this novel, so we'll see. To the Lighthouse, despite the effusive praise here and elsewhere, still strikes me as incredibly dull, though.

Also I detest reader-response criticism, but I guess that's probably not surprising.

[Greg Nog]

Virginia Woolf was a baller. This is the third sentence of To the Lighthouse:

"Since he belonged, even at the age of six, to that great clan which cannot keep this feeling separate from that, but must let future prospects, with their joys and sorrows, cloud what is actually at hand, since to such people even in earliest childhood any turn in the wheel of sensation has the power to crystallise and transfix the moment upon which its gloom or radiance rests, James Ramsay, sitting on the floor cutting out pictures from the illustrated catalogue of the Army and Navy stores, endowed the picture of a refrigerator, as his mother spoke, with heavenly bliss."

Holy conjunctions, Batman! I've often been told that you shouldn't make your sentences too long. I get the impression Woolf wasn't someone who often did what she was told.

And!  Four sentences later:

"But, said his father, stopping in front of the drawing room window, "it won't be fine."

Had there been an axe handy, or a poker, any weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father's breast and killed him, there and then, James would have seized it.

Later in the book, her writing of James is still the one portrayal of a teenage boy that resonates with my own experience more than any other I've ever read.

[elpollodiablo]

I finished Mrs. Dalloway in another sitting this morning, and could have probably read 2-300 pages more of the same without too much complaint. The psychic pace of it perfectly complements my present frame of mind, I think.

[elpollodiablo]

Started Wuthering Heights and A Handful of Dust last night. Love both of em so far. It's especially fun to see people acting like complete cocks to one another in the context of one of these typically staid 19th c. English novels.

[elpollodiablo]

Also:
Could someone explain what this Adrian Toomey comic is doing in this week's New Yorker? I know it's a fool who goes lookin' for reason in the hearts of New Yorker cartoon editors, but usually their choices seem inscrutable. This just seems middlebrow. There's not a single original or controversial thought in the whole thing, the punchline, as it were, would have seemed edgy in a Family Circus strip two years ago, and it takes up an entire page of the magazine. Is there something going on in this thing that I'm not cottoning to?

[mixed cats]

Cannot explain! Maybe it's supposed to be funny because most of the gadget pushers are older?

I swore I wouldn't use my iPad as an e-reader. Now I have a bunch of reader apps and looooooove downloading free classics. And my book light is broken. Yesterday I read a real book, and kept catching myself looking at the top of the page to see what time it was. Ugh.

[elpollodiablo]

There's also this.

"I think that there will be a 50% reduction in bricks-and-mortar shelf space for books within five years, and 90% within 10 years," says Mike Shatzkin, chief executive of Idea Logical Co., a New York consulting firm. "Book stores are going away."

Personally, I don't care*. While I've enjoyed buying books for these two lit seminars, examining the jackets, dogearing pages, etc., I'm also highly resentful of the fact that the fucking things are stacking up everywhere, we need to buy a new bookshelf already, and all of them are going to have to be boxed up and moved *again* in the near future. As soon as the right device comes along, I'm ready to donate all but a very precious few of my books. For me, though, that ain't the Kindle; I sold mine after having it less than two months. I want a full-featured tablet with a hybrid screen, basically.
The other night a friend and I were listening to music and reflecting on how it seems kinda ludicrous, at this point, to think that not so very long ago you needed an actual physical collection of objects on hand in order to hear a certain song, or watch a certain film.  I'm definitely ready to get to that point with books.

*This sounds callous: I do care that people will be losing their livelihoods and that some very special places will likely be disappearing in the coming decade. I care much much less about a Borders or a Barnes & Noble, however.

[ellaguru]

Bought a book of poetry by a dude in my department:



Haven't checked it out yet, but the cover's pretty nice.

Just read the first 3rd of the free ebook, and I'm impressed. He's got more imagination than the majority of Generation MFA, so no surprise he's had trouble getting published. He's also a genuinely likeable guy, going by the voice of his intro, with a quirky turn-of-phrase.

That said, there's zero meter here, which is fine, just not what I usually pursue.

If anyone's curious, I'd try the 3rd poem, "A Good Day," to see if you like his style. It's very readable.

http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120186

I've read about the first 50 pages or so, and, yeah, I think it's pretty good. It's light and the words flow pretty unpretentiously. Also, I'll tell him we've discussed the pros and cons of his cover for a book of poetry.

And yes, "A Good Day" is the one I would have picked, too.

[Greg Nog]

This just seems middlebrow. There's not a single original or controversial thought in the whole thing, the punchline, as it were, would have seemed edgy in a Family Circus strip two years ago

Cartoon in the New Yorker, you say?

[elpollodiablo]

I mean, yeah, but this one particularly stuck out to me because it's a full page and it really seemed conscious of the fact that it's rehashing a conversation everyone's been having for years to no added effect.

[Greg Nog]

Yeah, I dunno, my general feeling about the New Yorker is that it's where formerly-interesting cartoonists go to ossify.  If I had to guess, I'd say that Spiegelman is furiously pro-dead-tree, and thought Toomey's comic really captured The Spirit Of Our Times.

[Aglaya]

*This sounds callous: I do care that people will be losing their livelihoods and that some very special places will likely be disappearing in the coming decade. I care much much less about a Borders or a Barnes & Noble, however.

That's the bad thing about it though, it's the small and interesting places that are going to go first.  B&N is embracing the ereader and my store at least is doing crazy business in store because of it.  Our "How to Use Your nook" classes are bringing in people by the droves, especially through our cafe, and since they've had to foresight to have the "More in Store" option, people who buy a nook actually get free shit for walking into a brick and mortar store.  That's not to say that books aren't going to be suffering, we're planning on getting rid of a rather large section of them to build a digital boutique.  Basically, what this means is that giants like B&N are probably going to survive, at least much longer, and the little places are going to quickly disappear.  Which is great for my career, but sad, because the little places are way cooler.

[jebreject]

I disagree. I think some of the small, independent places are going to disappear, but that used bookstores in particular (esp those that deal in rare books and do much of their high money business online) are going to do just fine, at least for a good while. This is probably just wishful thinking, I don't know.

[elpollodiablo]

No, I think you're right. There will be a market for second hand books for at least the next several generations, I think.

[jebreject]

I mean, I think it's pretty similar to what's happened/ing to the music industry and the retailers selling physical media, the key difference being that the publishing world seemed much more able, ready and willing to embrace new delivery methods (and is less prone to piracy--though I understand that music piracy has gone down considerably in the last few years, and I've no doubt that this coincides with the recording industry embracing digital delivery methods over physical media).

[fishjim]

Started Wuthering Heights and A Handful of Dust last night. Love both of em so far. It's especially fun to see people acting like complete cocks to one another in the context of one of these typically staid 19th c. English novels.

Yep, Emily Bronte was one dark chick. Love that book.

Also love Monty Python's semaphore version.

[hannah]

I disagree. I think some of the small, independent places are going to disappear, but that used bookstores in particular (esp those that deal in rare books and do much of their high money business online) are going to do just fine, at least for a good while. This is probably just wishful thinking, I don't know.

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2011/02/08/breaking-powells-lays-off-31-workers

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

I really doubt that has much to do with kindles, nooks etc. i think it's much more to do with the fact that people simply don't read as much anymore.

[jebreject]

I disagree. I think some of the small, independent places are going to disappear, but that used bookstores in particular (esp those that deal in rare books and do much of their high money business online) are going to do just fine, at least for a good while. This is probably just wishful thinking, I don't know.

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2011/02/08/breaking-powells-lays-off-31-workers

[ellaguru]

 

[milly balgeary]

I admit to using Usenet and Demonoid for books for my Kindle. But at the same time, I am buying books at the same steady clip I have always bought books at. I just use Demonoid and usenet like I used to use the library, which due to budget cuts, had less contemporary stuff to offer. Plus I have a fine for the book Loki chewed up. Dick!

[milly balgeary]

Honestly I think this is just an evolution, a birthing, and what birthing is carried out without pain? Without blood?

E-books are virtually free for small press to sell, and I think that as brick and mortar stores fade, and everything becomes amazonable, the small press publishers begin to soar, just like the small record labels now soar, and the giant record labels weaken and die. I would not mind seeing these big publishers who determine what reaches publication, die like dogs in the street.

[mixed cats]

I was going to say something about how the small store I use the most seemed to be doing all right; they ran lots of extra events like local author readings and had knitting groups and kids' stuff and a cafe. And then I looked at their website and they closed on Jan 1. I'm an idiot. Usually I would stop in there when I went to my sewing machine dealer (same shopping center) but I haven't needed any stuff from there lately, so I missed out. Sucks, they had the best gigantic $5 sketchbooks.
The small discount/used shop on the main street in Princeton is usually buzzing. The Borders died at the end of December (and I may have gone to it three or four times and returned with armloads, so help me). The B&N here is an unstoppable juggernaut - there are one million people in the nook area at all times, and all the chairs in the cafe are taken.

I hope that milly's right about small press and ebooks, anyway, now that I've gotten into them. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. I've been wondering about comics, too (at least on the iPad/other gadgets with color displays) - some people are self-publishing PDFs that you can pay a small amount to download and read with your choice of app. That's pretty cool.

[elpollodiablo]

Just ordered this, for thesis reading. It looks devastating and thoroughly researched, and a perfect nonfiction complement to Europe Central.