The full title of this is “Soft City: The Lost Graphic Novel.“ I think that gives a bit of insight into the background of this oversized, seemingly impossible creation pub. by New York Review Comics. As Chris Ware writes in the intro. “Though it masquerades as narrative , the term 'graphic novel' seems inadequate to describe Soft City, especially for a book that existed before the term was even coined.“ Elsewhere in the brief, yet (cont)

Out of the flowering of post-war Polish poets, Wislawa Szymborska is my favorite (with Zbigniew Herbert a close second). The tagged book is an illustration of Szymborska's love poem. I love Szymborska's cool irony, how she addresses serendipity & how the couple in the poem are convinced that they were “in love at first sight“ yet they had been passing one another for years; yet there is real emotional warmth for her subjects too. This was a (cont)

#FolsomPrisonBlues
Although bank robber Jack Foley is imprisoned in Florida & not in California, this book came to mind. I read this one years ago. It was when a lot of Leonard's books were being adapted & I read it right before the Clooney/Lopez adaptation was released which I recall really enjoying. Although I haven't revisited the book, I loved it at the time & have since read several others. He's one of the best at writing snappy dialogue.

#EveryBreathYouTake
Last weekend I watched a very awkward, yet creepy & memorable movie called Speak No Evil. While watching it the tagged Simenon came to mind. This was my first experience with the prolific French author & it is a standalone work. About a well to do couple vacationing on a French island, the husband develops an obsession with escaping his regular day to day life. Has a claustrophobic feeling to it.
@alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs

#EdgeofSeventeen made me immediately think of the tagged book, despite having read it several years ago. Buntin's strong debut tells of Marlena & Cat & their dangerous friendship. Cat, the narrator, is 15 at the time of the events of the novel & she has a fascination with her older friend's reckless lifestyle. Highly recommend.
@eggs @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
#volumesandvocals

It's a general consensus that aphorisms are best consumed a few at a time. I just read all 130 in a single sitting. I love aphorisms. I find philosophy to be most impactful when it is delivered in compact format. I think of Cioran or Schopenhauer. Heraclitus is interesting because of the range: from the philosophical to the practical to the enigmatic. This is a volume I will be returning to in the future & I'm hard pressed to think of a (cont)

1) The tagged book which some consider to be the oldest written book. Highly recommend the Stephen Mitchell or David Ferry translation. I'm intrigued by the version published last year, translated by Sophus Helle.
2) It is really hard for me to be interested beyond 3-5.
3) I had a major book hangover with The Dark Tower.
#wondrouswednesday @eggs

As my next read is the tagged book, or I should say re-read, I was put in mind of Lewis Caroll for #weirdwords Specifically one of my favorite poems of all time, including one of my all-time favorite nonce words coined by Caroll: vorpal sword. Jabberwocky, alongside Carroll's other works, is a treasure trove of great words, as this article shows:
https://theweek.com/articles/468355/10-whimsical-words-coined-by-lewis-carroll

#weeklyreport
Non-reading Bibliophile Highlight: My order of the tagged book arrived. A story collection; I was intrigued when I heard that there's a piece in here about a man who believes there's a giant toad who will save Tokyo.
In the middle of Datlow's anthology “Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror.“ The highlights so far have been Ballingrud's Scream Queen, Laird Barron's The One We Tell Bad Children & Brian Hodge's Insanity (cont)

Creature features, both movies & books, are a good time all year long; but I am especially in the mood for them during the summer. My choice for #TitlesandTunes is the latest in Valancourt publication of titles from Paperbacks From Hell. Pairs nicely with Aquabats Shark Fighters.
https://open.spotify.com/track/06WArFWIZUt3WUk6E6PdIu
#guiltypleasure
@cinfhen @barbarabb

Oliver Twist is Dickens' second published work, initially released as a serial. This is a novel that reads like a classic serial & I can picture in my mind where the cliffhangers must have been. Widely considered to be Dickens' foremost social novel, OT tackles judicial corruption, child labor & exploitation, & laws targeting the financially vulnerable. The politics of casual cruelty targeting the vulnerable is one reason readers return to (cont)

Frobly-Mobly: “As an 1839 Glossary of Provincial and Local Words put it, to be frobly-mobly is to be merely “indifferently well”—that is, neither well nor unwell, or neither good nor bad.“
More on other reduplications, or “ricochet words“ ( some great #weirdwords contenders) can be found here:
https://www.haggardhawks.com/post/frobly-mobly
@cbee

My first #weeklyreport in awhile. This week I read 3 books: 2 graphic novels & a novella. I also started the tagged book Saturday night & am now about 3/4 through it. Have quite a few thoughts on it. I can see the flaws, but I'm really engrossed. Non-reading, yet book highlight of the week is my first Macmillan Collector's Library. I love these small editions with their uniform, yet appealing, light blue colors & wonderful designs
@cinfhen

I LOVE this poem from the latest issue of the NY Review:
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/06/08/talking-to-the-sun-in-washington-squ...

I somewhat recently came across Podsnappery not in the original source, Dickens' novel, but in several articles about certain public figures who aren't too fond of facts. Merriam Webster Online defines Podsnappery as, “an attitude toward life marked by complacency & a refusal to recognize unpleasant facts.“
#weirdwords @cbee

1) Setting of my current book is in the words of the Beastie Boys, “Intergalactic Planetary“
2) Hmm..it seems to vary. At the moment I'll go with London or Venice.
3) At the moment I'd have to say Discworld
#wondrouswednesday @eggs

I loved this graphic novel that tells of Shokry, a kiosk owner, in Cairo where wishes are real & regulated & controlled by the local & federal authorities & bureaucracies. The frame narrative is that Shokry is determined to sell his three first class wishes & the bulk of the book is comprised of the stories of the disparate individuals who buy them. The artwork, by turns colorful & starkly black & white as necessitated by the story is (cont)

A group of 4 strangers meet on the titular message board to end their lives. The book opens with them driving to do so & they begin sharing their reasons why. Existential anxiety, modernization & fear of their doubles are a reoccurring theme in the opening with the Japanese author Akutagawa mentioned. In the second chapter a gateway to the other side opens causing minerals to spill out into this side. These minerals & what happens (cont)

#MayMontage
This is the second Oyamada novella that I have read & I love her style of lightly treading the waters of the awkward & occasionally dipping into the absurd or even surreal. In The Hole Asa's husband is transferred to a different job in the countryside where they will no longer have to pay rent. However they will be living literally right next to her in-laws. Asa is good natured about the situation & is def a #mellowcharacter

Hello & thanks to everyone who has reached out. Where have I been? I don't want to go into specifics but I have experienced a lot of uncertainty & turmoil in both my professional & personal lives the past couple of months that frankly left me with little energy for much in the way of an online life. I am hoping that some of these issues have been resolved & I have missed this community & have missed posting.

I just watched a booktube video of a ranking of the creator's 5 favorite plays of the past 60 years. Although it's been awhile since I've been to a play, I love live theater so I started thinking of my favorite plays that I have watched the past few years. Pictured are my 5 favorite plays of the past 60 years. The only one that I have not seen an in person performance of is Happy Days & for that one I watched a recorded performance on a box set👇

#escapetoanewworld #marchmagic @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

I don't particularly remember the GR nominees for last year, however I do recall the continuing trend of posting the first round earlier and earlier. Almost as if GR wasn't so much interested in acknowledging literary merit across genres as they were in using it as a marketing tool for increased holiday sales.
#marchmagic @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

Pictured are my #favoritebookishpodcast There's almost always one that fits my mood, increases my TBR & in the case of Mallory & Brea provides a chuckle with the slide whistle. @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

A selection of #truecrime high on my TBR. I only recently found out about the PR Keefe. For some reason I thought that Say Nothing was his debut. #marchmagic @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

Reposting this year old post for good reasons (Headline cut off at top said "Time has named Michelle Yeoh as one of the 100 most influential people")
?????

#weeklyreport
Three books finished this week. I loved all 3, but the tagged one was my favorite. I just know that it will make my best of the year list. Also dipping into other books that I've been making my way through for a bit: Ray Bradbury's 100 Stories & The Complete Poetry of Dickinson. Don't have a deadline for either but I will probably finish both in the next couple of months.
@cinfhen

This Everyman's Library anthology mostly consists of excerpts from full-length books, mostly novels. Looking through the table of contents there are only 6 selections that are not excerpts. This didn't bother me, but I can understand why it might deter some from picking it up. The selections span 4 centuries (from the ribald humor of Rabelais to the gossipy account of the Beats meeting the French Surrealists to the lyrical desperation of Jean

I mean, he's not wrong...

I have read Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky siblings, but not the tagged book. I have to say that this might very well have the most terrifying title I have heard in quite awhile.

I received the Jules Verne volume Christine. Thanks again for the generous gift. It'll look great with my other special editions. 📚📚
@TheBookHippie

Found this fascinating book in the Sci Fi section while browsing B&N after leaving the movie theater. Published by Europa Editions, an epistolary lit sf it sounds fascinating! Of course it followed me home.

Rather than post a book that has been #onTBRlistfor1year I checked my Litsy TBR for the book that has been on there the longest. I don't recall where I heard about this book or William Gay from, but I suspect that his name popped up when I read Donald Ray Pollock around the same time I added it. #marchmagic @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs

I love a well told story about children behaving badly. William March's Bad Seed & Zoje Stage's Baby Teeth come to mind. Even more, I like an atypical, complicated evil children story such as Tryon's The Other, or Highsmith's Edith's Diary. Lessing's The Fifth Child firmly falls into the latter category. Lessing's book charts the meeting & subsequent marriage of David & Harriet Lovatt, their purchase of a large house outside of London, an (cont)

I stumbled across the above over the weekend, which led me to other ghost words. According to wikipedia, “A ghost word is a word published in a dictionary or similarly authoritative reference work even though it had not previously had any meaning or been used intentionally. A ghost word generally originates from a typographical or linguistic error...“ #weirdwords @cbee

I have heard lit fiction referred to as a genre. I don't nec agree with this, for various reasons. I will say that I personally think that there are few (minor) differences between lit fiction & genre fiction, but there are genre writers who are as talented as those who have been widely acknowledged in literary fiction & deserve to be recognized as such. As I read across several genres, there are several that are close to my heart, but if (cont)

Although I wrote an enthusiastic review upon finishing McCullers' book a little over a year ago, I haven't posted about it since. Since the title work struck a chord with me, it is perfect for #titlethatstartswithb Adapted into a film in '91, it seems to be McCuller's second most well known work. Although I am not yet a completionist, it is not really hard to see why. I read many novellas last year & this was one of the best. In my original (cont)

I have very very few books with #heartsoncover but the one I do is fantastic. Keane's Good Behaviour is a dark comedy of a character who very well might have killed with kindness. Aroon St. Charles is a fascinating complex character & despite the vitriol of her mother much is left unsaid in this chilling, effective novel. #NYRBBookClub for the win #marchmagic @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs

#weeklyreport
I had 1 DNF & 2 books read this week. I finally finished the audio of Born A Crime. Completely fantastic. Also read the tagged book. A graphic novel about 2 rats wandering through a labyrinth which is also a metaphorical labyrinth as it explores the philosophies of Sartre. Amusing & more informative than I expected. @cinfhen

Might fuck around & change my Litsy user name to Dr. Zeus. Thoughts? 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNT8IKr9mhM

1) After a recent discussion on Litsy my order of the tagged play arrived. I am very excited, esp as I have managed to avoid spoilers!
2) David Mitchell's “Slade House“ (A great design for a wonderful book)
3) Born A Crime, which I have managed to finish after 2 months on audio. Loved it. It's just that all of my audio was in snippets so it took forever. Still, I have been meaning to read forever & am so glad I did!
@rachelsbrittain
#weekendreads

A #lovetriangle plays an important role in the pictured books that I have read & loved. Love triangles are often associated with YA & I vaguely recall one somewhere in Shusterman's dark book Unwind, the first in his series. #marchmagic @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs

I love creating a playlist! My #independentwomen playlist consists of 35 songs I love by 34 women artists I admire (the list is bookended by one of the patron saints of rock 'n' roll). I aimed for an uptempo feeling for this list:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6DAHWZYUd0mc0sDc3DwIW8

A few books that I have read & loved over the years with musician MCs & music as a major theme, a couple of them with a speculative or paranormal bent. #marchmadness #involvesmusic @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs

Although I have posted about other scalzi books I have read, I have somehow never posted about this one. According to GR I read it a couple of years ago. I really ought to continue with the series as I did greatly enjoy it, like all other works by Scalzi that I have read. #marchmadness #mcolderthanyou @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs

My admiration for Manguel is no secret, so when I ordered a previously owned copy it was quite the surprise to receive a signed edition. #marchmadness #specialedition @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs

A few #independetwomen who were trailblazers: Joan Didion, Tove Jansson, Susan Sontag, Toni Morrison, Kim Gordon, Michelle Yeoh.

I noticed that this biopic of my favorite Bronte is playing this weekend. There doesn't seem to be a critical consensus. Any fans of WH or other Bronte novels see it and recommend?

February '23 Wrap-Uo:
31 books read: 7 graphic novels, 5 books of essays, 2 novels, 3 poetry collections, 5 story collections, 1 design book, 6 novellas, 2 memoirs. Highlights are Born A Crime, Notes On Grief, Great Short Books, Stray Dog Cabaret, 97196 Words, In The Pines & Dirty Snow,

Not miffed, not livid, more along the lines of aggrieved after sitting through several hours of silly meetings today. I repeat the process tomorrow, which very well could result with me leaving the office afterwards in high dudgeon. Pray for me, friends.
#weirdwordswednesday @cbee