December post

[ungeschickt]

Top 5 books you read this year?

Mine -

1) Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
2) The Late Mattia Pascal - Luigi Pirandello
3) Love in Infant Monkeys - Lydia Millet
4) Encyclopedia of the Dead - Danilo Kiš
5) The Piano Teacher - Elfriede Jelinek

Comments

[inertiam]

Alright -- this is school heavy, but:

1) Ethnicity, Inc. - John & Jean Comaroff
2) On The Postcolony - Achille Mbembe
3) Speed & Politics - Paul Virilio
4) The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties - Rosemary Coombe
5) The Ethical Soundscape - Charles Hirschkind

[inertiam]

By the way -- what's the Encyclopedia of the Dead like?

Off the top of my head

[mlknchz]

Earthly Powers - Burgess
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer - Howard
Panzram - Gaddis
Dragon Factory - Maberry
Man-eaters of Tsavo - Patterson

Re: Off the top of my head

[ungeschickt]

Reading your list, I was like, "Hmm, I've never heard of that one by William Gaddis." Then I looked it up. Wrong Gaddis, but very intriguing nonetheless!

Re: Off the top of my head

[mlknchz]

It's seriously a difficult book to read

Re: Off the top of my head

[neddy_s]

Man-eaters of Tsavo is great. I remember liking the movie, too, but it was a long time ago....

i finally found poetry that i like more than fiction lately

[murdermystery]

Ettore Sottsass - Metaphors

[neddy_s]

My xmas list to check out from the university library before I leave for the term:

Manuel--portrait
Schore--affect regulation and the repair of the self
schivelbusch--culture of defeat
kestner--sherlock's sisters
Fussell--Great war and modern memory
Lessing--Shikasta
Alexie--The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
egalia's daughters
Ottaway-romans on the Yorkshire coast
Thompson--Customs in Common
Florence--Lawrence and Aaronsohn
Spufford et al--cultural babbage
Jardine--Ingenious pursuits
Osler--rethinking the scientific revolution
Headrick--tools of empire

[decemberthirty]

Oh, I love Gilead so much. So much! Have you read her follow up, Home? It's not as good, but still worth reading.

I didn't have great reading luck this year, and can only come up with four books that I really loved:

1. Maurice - E.M. Forster
2. Lavinia - Ursula K. Le Guin
3. Owls Do Cry - Janet Frame
4. Surfacing - Margaret Atwood

[neddy_s]

I didn't know UKL had a new book out....

[decemberthirty]

That's exactly what I thought when I heard about it, and it turns out that it's not even that new anymore! I'm out of the loop. The book is a retelling of the end of The Aeneid from the point of view of Aeneas's second wife. I'm biased because I have a huge sentimental attachment to The Aeneid, but I liked it quite a bit.

[neddy_s]

Yeah, I went and looked it up and it's 2008, but I certainly hadn't heard of it. And now I have, thanks to you!