SFist Reads
Walking to the train to work this morning, we were thinking about winning the lottery (when we do, Rain, we've got you covered). While a lottery win would definitely mean both no work and far less public transportation, we still think we'd reserve books from the San Francisco Public Library. Sure, we love our local independent bookstores, but unless we're after books that library doesn't have (like Rain and Jackson's selections this week), many of the books we read we'd prefer to borrow rather than buy.
SFist Rita just finished The Friend Who Got Away, which is a collection of essays by women about friendships that broke up. It's a pretty trendy topic these days, given books like Borderlines and the identically-themed Secrets and Confidences from indie publishing house Seal Press. It's interesting, in a women's magazine kind of way, but honestly, most of the book was just, wow, these people sound like terrible friends. (Though it's really no surprise that Katie Roiphe is not really a girls' kind of girl, you know?)
While on vacation Rain picked up Early Bird by Rodney Rothman. This memoir of "premature retirement" seemed an appropriate read for a stay at a motel complete with a shuffleboard. The book, which details former "Late Show with David Letterman" writer Rothman's decision to move to Florida and live the retired life--while still in his twenties--is hilarious, (but this is coming from a reader who tends to find making fun of old people high comedy.) But while the jokes at the expense of the elderly are indeed funny, Rothman also manages to make the book kind of touching. And reading it while spending all day in 100 degree weather lounging by the pool kind of made Rain contemplate the whole early retirement thing herself. She's decided to start to play the lottery regularly.
SFist Cedric recently finished M.F.K. Fisher's Serve It Forth, a collection of essays and tidbits about the history of gastronomy. Fisher is the most revered food writer, after maybe Brillat-Savarin, whom she idolized. Although she passed away in the early 90s, her influence is still pervasive in the way many people write about food, so Cedric had to go to the source itself. For instance, Josh Sens in this month's San Francisco Magazine quotes Archestratus, an antique Greek poet we only had heard of before reading Fisher. Serve it forth was re-edited as part of a compilation of her works, The Art of Eating, so we'll keep you updated on his progress.
SFist Jackson managed to score a copy of Attaboy and Annie's new mag Hi-Fructose, which is so shiny and colorful it really does seem like sweet, sweet candy. He was given a review copy by Attaboy after arriving v.v. late to the magazine's launch party -- let's just say it pays to know Scott Beale. His favorite part? The piece on Kaiju Big Battel, including super-spooky shots of Dr. Cube in the operating room. Oh man, are those guys the funniest f**king thing ever! But you don't have to take his word for it -- see Kung Fu Chicken Noodle lay waste to Unibouzu and Dr. Cube in steel cage match! You can check out an interview with Attaboy over on Fecal Face.