Yeah, I've heard him called "biopunk," which as silly as it seems, really describes what he's doing pretty well.
I'm reading From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way by Jesse Thistle. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ashes-Story-Being-Homeless-Finding/dp/1982101210 I do enjoy autobiographies, memoirs, biographies, real life stories. As Jean-Paul Sartre said: "This is what I have been thinking: for the most commonplace event to become an adventure, you must – and this is all that is necessary – start recounting it. This is what fools people: a man is always a teller of tales, he lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others, he sees everything that happens to him through them; and he tries to live his life as if he were recounting it. But you have to choose: to live or recount." Here is one of the many rave reviews of From the Ashes (picked randomly from Amazon): "A powerful life story about how trauma, family history and Canadian history can shape a person. Jesse has been brave enough to share his journey through early hardships to unpredictable success. Once a homeless drug addict and now an university professor, we have a lot to learn from his story. "A great read and sure to become a Canadian classic!" Reading this memoir, I can't help recalling that some literary agents stipulate in their lists of 'forbidden topics/genres' "no misery memoirs". So how did Jesse Thistle's get through? Because he had a dramatic enough life story? Why do some lit agents despise "misery memoirs" so much?
The Hidden Life of Trees ~ Peter Wohlleben. 36 chapters in a 246 page book. So...'snippety', I'd say, in the way it's presented, that it suits my dotage. A charming fact book on roots, branches, and beyond. Overstory fwiw (another book (a prize winner, I think, on same topic but with 2D tree-huggery-people-narrative twined in)) crippled and confused me with its seemingly endless circularity.
Does anyone else read Malcolm Gladwell? I knew him from talk shows, podcasts, etc but started David and Goliath and I'm really enjoying it.
Isn't he the one who popularized the 10,000 hour rule? I think I read Blink at one point. I don't remember what it was about though.
I've got Oliver Twist to read... only ever read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens but enjoyed it. Am I in for a treat? Course' we all know the story but be nice to read it from the original source.
So, after reading Great Expectations you held up your empty Kindle and said "Please Sir, may I have some more?"
Pretty much, though I didn't get any more until roughly 10 years later after getting distracted by anything not written by Charles Dickens. Now I've hit 30 and thought I must read more Dickens I can't leave this world only having read his Great Expectations!
Yeah, Dickens is amazing. I read A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and I'm sure a few more but I don't recall what they were. Probably A Christmas Carol. I was stunned at his magnificence even back in high school.
Very well, Sir, if you must use such dastardly means I will retire to write; the dickens it is, this writing business.
The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace, anyone? People seem to love him or hate him but he was such a fascinating writer. I'm digging it. He's definitely more raw here compared to Infinite Jest.
Alright, I finally finished Ann Radcliffe's The Italian, and I'm quite happy to be done reading her for a good, long while. It was her best book I think by far, but it still wasn't extraordinary. Honestly, she's a difficult author to read back-to-back novels for. It's kind of like reading pop-literature of the late eighteenth century. Actually, that's exactly what it is. The book is likely a response to an actual horror story revolving around a corrupted monk called, very unexpectedly..., The Monk by Matthew Lewis, which I'll read in a couple months. Except this isn't horror, it's another Gothic romance. So the evil monk is actually a side character afflicting the romancing pair. Much like The Mysteries of Udolpho, Radcliffe gets so close to being interesting in the horror aspect, but shies away at the last second, and all the interest peaks in the middle of the book. I think TMOU actually gets a bit more into the horror side, even though this book threatens death and torture by the Spanish inquisition. But it's just another tease, like all of her books are. As an unexpected positive, the Gothic heroine this time around faints about a quarter of the time, standing up for what she believes in with some actual backbone. There's a hapless hero, as God damn always, but at least this time he isn't soooo creepy. Just a little. AND, yet again, the male servant is another awesome dude with some logical sense that actually carries some success in his endeavors, rather than the hapless hero who lucks upon a good ending despite being a miserable idiot. The description is cut way down from her mammoth book before, but it's replaced by a lot of telling as well. Less hearing of the Monty Python "get on with it" and more of the desire to see what's happening rather than teleporting. I somewhat like it, but I think I'm just tired of Radcliffe and her insistence to avoid anything that actually turns to true horror. It's all about the terror of build up, but then she stifles it and leaves the story stilted. She only has like five books total. I may just complete them sometime to say I did, but otherwise, get Radcliffe the fuck away from me. I'm tired of this writing style and development entirely. I'll be heading to America in literature next month with The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (mad excited for this), Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist by Charles Brockden Brown(which is actually two stories and the first Gothic novel in America so I don't know how it will be), and Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I'm only excited for the James novel so I can see how my interpretation and impression of it matches up with @Seven Crowns harsh review of it last year. From what I've read from James before, I do have a sinking feeling that I'll be quite bored, but I'll give it a semi-honest college try. Goodbye, Radcliffe. No, really. Scoot. You aren't welcome here anymore.
Decided to just start reading the first book of the Witcher series. I was going to wait until I finished the short stories, but I don't want to wait anymore for Geralt.
I apologize, I meant the book of wasteland short stories. I reached the halfway point in that and decided to leap into the world of Witcher. The short stories about wastelands are more of a palate cleanser now, I think.
I have Infinite Jest taunting me from the bookshelf. If only we had some kind of catastrophic shut down, I'd venture in. Absolutely loved various parts\ most of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.
