books

This Website Maps Your Literary Tastes and Tendencies

Books, culture, maps, writing

Literature Map says:

What else do readers of [any other famous author] read? The closer two writers are, the more likely someone will like both of them. Click on any name to travel along.

Did it map you right?  Tell us in the comments.

Electric Juxtapostion: “I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone” and “City of Electric Light” by Richard Brautigan and Chad VanGaalen

art, music, writing

I came across Brautigan’s story on Flickr. It made me think right away of Chad VanGaalen’s beautiful song.  Begging your pardon as I channel my inner teaching assistant: What do you make of this juxtaposition? Different crafts and media, both discovered and shared on the internet, both hewn here in bits of data and binary code.  Are these pieces complimentary or contrary? Which one speaks to you more? Is one enriched by its presentation with the other?  Are both? I should point out that the video was made by a fan.  The scan of Brautigan’s story was, too.

r_brautigan

Great Gatsby Video Game Lets You Party Like It’s 1929

Books
Cover of

Hello, reason I started writing.

Every now and then, the highly esteemed Shawn Rosler drops something on my Facebook wall that amazes, confounds, and renders me generally useless with fanboy delight. Maybe it’s something about Noel Gallagher or Ken Burns. And maybe, just maybe, it’s a link to an old-school-NES-style game based on The Great Gatsby.

Earlier today, I Facebook-officially liked this text art Gatsby poster, mostly because of the sublime touch of the famous green light in an otherwise black-and-and-white homage.  Major points there in my book. Like Tom Buchanan at a West Egg tennis tournament, Shawn countered with this.


What I’ve Been Reading Lately, and How

writing

There’s a Kindle in my household.  It’s my wife’s. But she lets use it.  I’ve downloaded hundreds of free public domain books in the last few weeks.  What I’ve been reading:

The Jungle Book

White Fang

Christian Mysticism (a series of lectures by William Ralph Inge)

Alarms and Discursions

I’ve also been reading a few short stories a week for my fiction seminar with James Lasdun.  A very diverse mix of very fine short fiction.

Having gotten used to the Kindle (I love it), I still believe, with Rick Moody, that print books will never really go away.  Holding a book, turning to a page, and highlighting it is just plain easier than doing it on a Kindle.  It’s also much more visceral, subversive, and empowering. And that’s what writing and reading are about, Charlie Brown.