SFist Reads
We just discovered the Branch Library Improvement Program Bookmobile and we are IN LOVE. We're switching all our online reserves to the bookmobile, we're that excited. Seriously, some of our happiest childhood memories involve the bookmobile! (Mom, save your email. We have many excellent childhood memories, some of which involve the bookmobile, others of which involve the many other wonderful things you have done for us. Envy not the bookmobile!) But our crush on the bookmobile doesn't mean that we're still not loyal patrons of our fine local independent bookstores. But, dude, bookmobile!
SFist Jackson has come around on the Houellebecq question after reading The Elementary Particles and Platform. The former definitely lives up to the hype, and should probably be considered the great fin de siecle novel of the 20th century. At times the dialogue, especially, can get a bit dense, but the philosophical refinement, frank sexuality and post-industrial malaise combined with an interesting storytelling form make for a must-read. The latter, Platform, explores very similar themes (especially in regard to Houellebecq's exploration of Immanuel Kant and August Comte's thought throughout the narrative) of humanism in the new millenium. Jackson's calling it a "high-concept beach read." The books are best when dealing with the relationships between the genders, and the conflict between religion and secular liberalism. Houellebecq could probably be read as somewhat reactionary on both counts, the complexity behind his treatments of the subjects are still thought provoking.
Hell yeah, it's the bookmobile!
SFist Mary-Lynn has actually finished a book! Its a bloody miracle. Better, she finished two: First, she sped-read through Suze Orman's Young, Fabulous and Broke and learned a few things, even though Mary-Lynn isn't exactly young or fabulous, she's definitely broke! (Damn shoes). Then, she finally got around to reading the final few chapters of Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair which is totally not the kind of book she normally reads but was completely charmed and delighted by it and can't wait to tackle the rest of the series. Which she won't buy (see above re: broke) until she finishes the rest of the pile of books underneath her nightstand, now numbering more than a dozen. Other people do that too, right? Just buy them and never really read them? Right?
SFist Cheshire has just cracked open Grace Paley: The Collected Stories. He hearts Grace Paley and has loved her poetry as well as TJT/Word for Word's productions of her short stories. He doesn't know why it's taken him this long to get to actually reading her stories, but he's glad he finally is.