lauralh | Entries tagged with books:2009

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NONFICTION
Tweaked
Nobody Likes a Quitter (and other reasons to avoid rehab): The Loaded Life of an Outlaw Booze Writer
The Night of the Gun: A reporter investigates the darkest story of his life. His own.
Drinking: A Love Story
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
Slash
Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Lessons from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer
Opium and the People: Opiate Use and Drug Control Policy in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century England

FICTION
Time's Child
Rex Mundi 1-4, FABLES 1-11 (graphic novels)
Thief
Joker
Tribute To Another Dead Rock Star
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men: Stories
An Instance of the Fingerpost: A Novel
( the rest )

Current Music: Charlemagne Palestine - Schlongo!!!daLUVdrone (excerpt)

I started watching Kalifornia last night but it was so boring that I downloaded the first two Dexter books and started reading those instead. Spoilers. ( Read more... )

Like most fucking pussy ass faggy writer chaps, I actually enjoy the works of Shakespeare. On a whim in the YA section I pulled out a book called Joker by Ranulfo. His author's bio on the back flap contains "blah blah blah" quite a bit, and the Modern Hamlet structure also pulled me in. This morning I was in a mood to rival athe Black Prince, so I pulled it out and read it all in one sitting. (It's just under 200pgs.) The lead character, Matthew, is quite mad after his best friend is killed in an arsonist attack and his dad's best friend seduces his mom. The madness takes the form of - in my opinion - an alternate personality called the Joker. The Joker turns this model Australian boy into an unemployed angry layabout who wants to destroy the world if he can't destroy himself. Or something like that.

I remember a newspaper story about a Czech who always wanted to visit Sydney, scraped and stinted to pursue his dream down under. Years of hard work and sacrifice finally brought him to his goal. A dream comes true. A week after arriving as he strolled down a street in Woolloomooloo, admiring the blue gem of Sydney Harbor, a stranger with an axe pounced on him and opened his head like a grotesque flower.

I must go to Sydney. Maybe a man with an axe is waiting for me.

Friday

quent and

velvet and I went to the Sunset Tavern to see Kinski. Before that, Reg and I spent the day sort of enjoying the sunshine - he bought me a nice sunhat so I could feel less headache-prone, and we caught the tail end of

suxdonut's bbq as well. Kinski's new album is sort of weird, from what we caught of it. Lots more singing and ordinary/typical song progressions, but then some Joy Division-y tracks too. (I proclaimed that I loved Shoegaze Division.)

Saturday the weather wasn't as nice, and Reg felt awful, so we didn't do very much at all. There was talk of going to see Wolverine but I didn't think I could take the fanboys. Sunday was nicer, so we walked to the Farmer's Market and bought cheese and fruit and veggies, and Reg got some metrosexual face shit at Blackbird, and we decided to go for a drive. I picked Lake Washington, and mapped out the northern half. So we drove from Sand Point to Yarrow Point, really quite pleasant and I think I may return to the east side the next time the weather is nice.

I spent a lot of time reading Tales of MU, which I'd read consistently last year till my last job picked up speed, so I started from the top and re-read the entire thing. It hadn't moved much since then, really. (It's a web serial that takes place in a D&D sort of modern-day world, and the main character is a sheltered girl who comes out as a submissive lesbian who gets off on being spanked. Also, she is half-demon.)

After that I started reading Slash, Slash's bio. I got about halfway through. Since it's from his pov, it's not as broad as the Zeppelin book, and some stuff he doesn't know anything about, but a lot of it is in-depth, particularly his substance abuse issues. I hadn't realized, either, how young they all were when GnR got started. In essence they got a big advance and then were told to not do anything like tour or record for a year, during which they kinda went crazy, as any 19-yo would do in the same position.

The weather has not been very nice this week but I decided that just means I should try out my rain pants and whatnot.

Current Music: We Are Scientists - Lethal Enforcer

I couldn't get to sleep for a while after reading Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong. In high school I read probably 75% of every case Doyle ever wrote for the guy, and had to read The Hound of the Baskervilles for 8th grade English I believe. So the book is about, not just this one case (the Hound), but a bit pomo with the reality of literary characters and such. Doyle killed off Holmes at one point, but the public outcry was so great that he brought him back, while hating him, and the author of this book reasons that's why he made him fuck up the solution to HotB. But reading about murdering murderers in bed at midnight on a Saturday kinda made me afraid to fall asleep.

Other than that... We watched Hamlet 2 and it's utterly amazing, to the point where I am upset that there weren't more deleted scenes and extras. Coogan plays a failed actor cum drama teacher with such aplomb that I really felt like I was back in high school. And Catherine Keener as his frustrated wife reminded me so much of my mom before she got a divorce. I mean, it was a comedy but to me it felt so dead-on in so many ways, it could almost be considered a drama.

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23	24	25	26	27	28	29
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I've even raped and killed a mountain panda in the hills of Shaanxi.

But these perks are beyond the point.

Entries tagged with books:2009

this year's books: 56 (or so)

well that was a wash

deconstructing hamlet

we're all right where we're supposed to be

eerie

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