**** = Really good.
*** = Worth reading.
** = A waste of time, but one or two good moments.
* = Not worth your time.
-0 = Less Than Zero.
1. Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle ****
Finished this book while at Joe's basketball practice 1/3/17, and you know a book's got to be pretty compelling if you can read it while in a gym with twenty special needs folks practicing basketball! And indeed it was compelling. More than that, too. I found some most excellent quotes, most of which I've already thrown down in blog posts, a few of which I'm still sitting on. Not a must read, but I am glad that I did read it.
2. The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang***** My second reading of this one, but this time in book form courtesy of Subterranean Press (and the LFPL). Quite an extraordinary reading experience. Do yourself a favor then, love.
3. Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash by Dave McKean***** An amazing, incredible, powerful work. http://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2017/01/more-songs-about-dave-mckean-black-dog.html
4. Grief is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter***
http://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2017/01/grief-is-thing-with-feathers-by-max.html
5. My Father, the Pornographer by Chris Offutt***** Yep. An astonishly captivating and insightful book.
http://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2017/01/my-father-pornographer-by-chris-offutt.html
7. Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins, with Jad-bal-ja, the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs** Not a very good book, but it is the last Tarzan book written completely by ERB that I'll ever read, so respect. (11/5/16 to 1/27/17)
8. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann***** I can't even tell you how good this book was, other than to say that (1) at 854 pages, I still wanted it to be longer, (2) it is definitely in my top ten favorite books, and (3) ahmo go get another huge Mann tome: the 1,492 page Joseph and His Brothers (which is actually an omnibus of the four novels Mann wrote about the biblical Joseph). Hot damn! That's a lot of Mann, and I can handle it.
Speaking of which, I'm not sure how long it took me to read The Magic Mountain; I checked it out of the library on 12/1, but I don't know if I started it right away . . . and I know that I put it on hold while I read two Chris Offutt books, so I don't think it took the two months that the check out date would indicate. Probably not even one month. But for sure this wasn't one of those classic books that you read because it's going to be good for you and then you have to work to get it done. It was a pure plum pleasing pleasure, let me tell you. From what I've heard (and from my experience with the various translations of Death in Venice), Mann had a less than adequate translator in Ms. H.T. Lowe-Porter, so I'm going to read all the books translated by John E. Woods that I can find, as I think he did a bang up job on The Magic Mountain.
9. Under the Sign of Capricorn by Hugo Pratt**** This was a very nice and impressively big (9.2 x 0.9 x 11.5 inches, 2.3 pounds, 140 pages) slice of Corto Maltese. The story isn't as good as the art, but the art is pretty damned fabulous. He and Alex Toth were contemporaries, so I don't know who influenced who or if someone else influenced both of them or if there was just a magical Calculus Moment, but Pratt's work is somewhat similar to Toth's. Not as black, though. The LFPL saved me $30 on this one. It's a shame they haven't got any of the other Corto Maltese books, though, as I see that there are at least four other volumes in IDW's series. Speaking of IDW . . . they're expensive, but they shoah do put out a fine product. Nice to see a comic book publisher who focuses on quality.
10. The Same River Twice by Chris Offutt** Probably should be another * on that, but I was super-offended by a bit near the end. (See http://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-same-river-twice-and-why-i-wont-be.html for details if you're interested.)
11. Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure by Richard Lupoff*** This book had some great information about ERB's work. Too bad that Lupoff's tone was so arrogant and asinine. I may have to go full review on this one just to get it out of my system.
12. Marcia of the Doorstep by Edgar Rice Burroughs** One of the lost ERB books, not published until late 1999. It wasn't what I'd call a good book, but it wasn't a chore to read, either. Just a bit much at times. The editing was terrible, though--probably a hundred errors, many of them in forming possessive forms, which shouldn't exactly be a challenge. This book is significant, though, in that it puts the complete ERB oeuvre within my grasp with only one exception: You Lucky Girl!, which was produced by the same publisher at the same time, so I'm guessing it will be of the same quality as well. But if the LFPL doesn't find it for me, ahmo go ahead and buy it.
13. Little Women (Great Illustrated Classics) by Louisa May Alcott (11/21/16 to 2/10/17) Bought it for Jacqueline, kiddingly asked Joe if he wanted to borrow it, he surprised me by saying yes, Jacqueline surprised me by saying she'd loan it to him--though she did loan him the GIC Bible Stories book we read previously. Number 10 in the Joe-Read-It-To-Me Series.
14. St. Joseph's Illustrated Children's Bible adapted by Jude Winkler (9/1/16 to 2/16/17 )
15. You Lucky Girl! by Edgar Rice Burroughs** Y'know. It was interesting to see Burroughs write a romance, and there were times when it was even interesting, but for the most part it was very stiff. I'm glad that I didn't have to buy it, actually. Thanks LFPL.
16. The Good Brother by Chris Offutt*** A step up from The Same River Twice. In fact, the first half of this book was more of a **** for me, but once Virgil did that thing and everything shifted drastically, it seemed like another--and lesser--book. Onward to Out of the Woods, I suppose.
17. Out of the Woods by Chris Offutt*** After the first couple of stories I thought, "This is the Chris Offutt I knew in those first short stories." But as I read on, it just began to feel like the sameohsameoh. Not bad, but not very many moments when I was really impressed. This would have been a good book to read first, actually. Or maybe second after The Good Brother. No, wait a minute . . . for maximum effect, here's the order in which to read Chris Offutt: The Same River Twice, The Good Brother, Out of the Woods, Kentucky Straight, and then My Father, the Pornographer. And No Heroes yet to be determined.
18. No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home by Chris Offutt** It is a testament to the power of Chris Offutt's writing ability that I was able to finish this book. There are moments when he is so eloquent, so sincere, so real, that it allowed me to continue my way through a book that is so bad that it probably shouldn't have been published. For some reason, he decided to roll up the story of his return to the hills of Kentucky with the concentration camp stories of his mother and father-in-law. It makes no sense whatsoever . . . and the juxtaposition actually suggests some equivalency in the experiences which is just egregious beyond the capability of my words to express. I wish that this had not been my last Offutt book. In fact, I don't need to amend my Suggested Chris Offutt reading order (above), since I'd recommend that you not read this one at all. Besides the preceding, the book also suffers from the "repeating stories I've told before" syndrome. I know that all writers succumb to this at some point, but with Mr. Offutt it seems more extreme--to the point where the wording even seems to be identical. It probably isn't, but I don't have any inclination to check on that. Sigh.
19. They're Not Like Us Volume 1: Black Holes For the Young
by Eric Stephenson and Simon Gane*** Part of the charm of this comic book is the "coverless" design, which is lost in the collected format. But the story is interesting, and the art is very good. In a way it's just another riff on super-heroes, specifically X-Men, in that each of the young people in the book has a different power: super-speed, telepathy, super-strength, etc. The usual suspects. But they don't have costumes or stupid names, and the problems that they deal with are ordinary life things, which makes for a bit of a deviation from the standard. It bothers me that they victimize other people (beating up a guy on the street, for instance), but it also bothers the protagonist, so I'm willing to wait to see where that goes.
20. Superman: The Final Days of Superman by Peter J. Tomasi and a bunch of other guys*** The combination of a great Comixology sale and the high quality of recent issues of Action Comics conspired to get me to purchase this collection. And it was quite good. Probably more like ****, but the quality of the art varied wildly. The two Superman issues, with art by Mikel Janin, were just amazing. The other six issues ranged from okay to actually quite bad. But Peter Tomasi was the writer for all eight issues, and that worked out. He's a much better writer than I've previously credited him with being. One of the little touches that I loved was the inclusion of a Superman symbol with the number of the "chapter" (1 through 8) in it on the covers of these issues. Just like those good old days.
21. Squadron Supreme: By Any Means Necessary! by James Robinson and Leonard Kirk** I'm not a big Marvel fan. But when I saw the cover of this collection on Comixology . . . and in the on sale category . . . I was tempted. However, I had just discovered that Superman: The Final Days of Superman (above), which I had purchased from Comixology, was available at the LFPL, so I restrained my Must Buy impulse and checked. And yep, there it was. Put in a request and a few days later Squadron Supreme: Malcolm X! was in my hands. It didn't take long before I was really happy that I hadn't spent my money on this. It was somewhere between "your average dopey comic book" and just a "Return to Plain Awful." Which really surprised me, as after the cool Alex Ross cover, the thing that attracted me to this tome was James Robinson's writing. He has done some really good stuff in the past. Alas, the more recent stuff I've read from him (Earth 2) was so bad that I stopped buying the horse in midstream. Sigh.
22. Adventure Time Volume 1 by Ryan North, Braden Lamb, and Shelli Paroline**** Not as good as the show, of course, but not all that far from it, either. I want more.
23. Adventure Time Volume 2 by Ryan North, Mike Holmes, Braden Lamb, and Shelli Paroline**** Got more. Enjoyed this volume even more, but I will have to confess that I was pretty stoned when I read it, so that undoubtedly enhanced the effect. But I still want more.
24. The Death Factory by Greg Iles**** Good stuff. Please, sir, may I have some more?
25. The Footprints of God by Greg Iles**** As a matter of fact, you can, child. Have some more, that is. (Is this mic on?) This was quite a thrilling read. I am burning to get a start on the Natchez trilogies (pun intended, Greg Iles fans), but ahmo try to hold off and read the first books GI wrote before I get to that. I don't want to end up reading the early books last, as that is not always conducive to The Love (see notes on Chris Offutt and Charles Willeford).
26. The Incal Vol. 1: The Black Incal by
30. Tales of the Quintana Roo by James Tiptree, Jr. **
http://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2017/03/tales-of-quintana-roo-by-james-tiptree_26.html
31. The Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition by Neil Gaiman and J.H. Williams III ** Yeah, I know. I love both of these guys, and I am at least fond of this iteration of The Sandman, but this thing was just a big old bloated tick of a story for me. Lots of flash, no substance. I think this is what happens when writers try to write "cosmic" storylines or invent their own cosmologies. Stick to the Norse Myths, Dave.
32. Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! Vol. 1: Hooked On A Feline by Kate Leth and Brittney Williams ** I was really looking forward to reading this. Almost bought single issues on the stands several times, and had it in my basket when this collected volume went on sale on Comixology. But stopped myself to check to see if LFPL had it . . . and they did. So I waited for that. Glad that I did. Other than the title of this story arc, which I really like, there's not much to recommend this series. It's not even bad, it's just meh. Like eating those packing peanuts that are made out of corn starch. I also got volume 2 from the library, but I don't know if I'm going to bother with it, as I have lots of things on my Must Read Now list.
33. Black Science Vol. 1: How to Fall Forever by Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera *** This was my second time through the first couple or so of these stories (it reprints the first six issues). I dropped it because it was too expensive for me--$3.50 then, $3.99 now--for what it offered. But I like Rick Remender, and I've wondered how things were going with this title, so when I saw that the library had a copy of the first trade paperback (and some others as well, but I didn't take the deep plunge), I ordered it up. And it was pretty okay. But I feel like I've read most of this stuff before, you know? I mean, the whole thing is just a riff on the old Time Tunnel series, after all. So I don't know if I need anymore of this.
33. Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! Vol. 2: Don't Stop Me-ow by Kate Leth and Brittney Williams ** Went ahead and read this since I already had it from the library, and it was slightly better than the first volume (even though the title of the story arc wasn't as good), but not good enough to warrant further investigation on my part. My Hellcat! stomach is now officially full.
34. Perfect Example by John Porcellino **** I've been aware of King-Cat Comics for a few years, but hadn't read any of John Porcellino's work until today. I can't remember what put King-Cat in my mind, but it climbed in about a week ago and I went looking and finally found Perfect Example amongst the LFPL's holding. And it was quite good. QUITE good. It captures the sense of despair that so often grips my soul so well . . . and nothing relieves despair like knowing that someone else shares it, y'know? I want more Porcellino. Going on the hunt.
35. The Damnation of Mythos: Thinning the Veil by David Annandale **** I think this was the best Warhammer 40,000 book I've read so far. David Annandale is a good writer, and though there was plenty of the usual gore and evisceration and battle after battle after battle, there was more, too. The heart of this book was an examination of what it means to be human. Specifically the meaning of the body / spirit duality, but here played out in a strange and interesting way . . . wherein the body is primarily portrayed as the barrier to the rise of the spirit, I think. This is played out in part in terms of the Ultramarines, many of whom have replaced just about all of their human parts with robotic stand-ins, and who see The Machine as the goals to which they aspire. The Machine here means rationality, determination, loyalty, courage. And then there's another side of this ported in the person of Rhydia Erephren, Mistress of Astropaths, who is a very powerful psychic warrior / telepath. There's even a point in the novel wherein one of the characters talks about how both Atticus, of the Iron Hands--who is down to one human part, one of his eyes--and Erephren are alike in that they have both moved away from the impurity of bodily existence. And there's more than that, too. Ahmo most definitely look into some more of Mr. Annandale's writings. (And there are plenty others. Do all of these Warhammer boys just write non-stop 24/7?)
36. When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin by Mick Wall*** This was my first Playaway exercise book. It helped to pass the time, for sure. At times interesting, at times horrifying. I will never think about this band the same way again . . . and, unfortunately, that's almost all to the bad. Roy Harper popped up a few times, which was nice, though.
37. Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Wealth and Power by Noam Chomsky *** . . . because no book by Noam Chomsky could conceivably be less than worth reading . . . but that said, this book was very disappointing. If it'd been my first Chomsky book, it would have blown me away, though, so I have to keep that in mind. Since it isn't, there's not much that is new here, and, worst of all, the presentation of the material is just plain awful. Details to follow . . . because I must give Minerva her birth.
38. Aquaman Volume 1: The Drowning by Dan Abnett and several mediocre artists** What a disappointment this was. When I started picking up the Aquaman comic book (lured in by the Kamandi-esque cover to issue #12), I was really excited about this book. And kept picking it up for several issues until the stupid villain factor became too much for me. But during that nice little canter bit I almost bought this first collection of the new version of A-m because I was so caught up in it. Fortunately I held off and got this from the library. Because it's just not a very good comic book. The writing has some moments here and there, but the art is non-stop sub-standard, and I would have felt really ripped off if I'd paid for the right to read this thing. Oh, Dan Abnett. I had such high hopes.
39. Tarzan: The Lost Adventure by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Joe R. Lansdale (1/27/17 to 5/8/17)* Joe R. Lansdale seems determined to drive this Tarzan story into viciousness and stupidity. It's a shame that this book has ERB's name on it, really.
BTW, Wikipedia says, "The Lost Adventure is the twenty-seventh book published in the Tarzan novel series. It follows the 24 main novels and two short children's novels, all by Burroughs."
40. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel*** Pretty interesting, actually, but I don't think I need any more. (There are five more books in the series.) I didn't like the telepathy stuff or the racial memory bullshit, but the story as a whole was pretty interesting.
41. Ordinary Victories by Manu Larcenet**** I wasn't at all sure about this book at first. It seemed kind of mean spirited and pointless. But the story deepens as it went, and by the end of it, I wanted more. And the good news is that there's almost 200 more pages of this story available to me with the touch of a few buttons. The bad news is that it would cost me $24 to procure them. (I got the first issue from the library). And I'm not ready to part with that much money. So here's hoping for a big sale in the near near, cause I really do want to see how this story continues to develop.
42. King Cat Classix: The Best of King-Cat Comics and Stories
by John Porcellino**** I was really anxious to get hold of this, and almost bought it . . . then saw U of L had it, so went that route. Started reading it and was pretty disappointed--to the extent that I was just about ready to give up on it. But about 100 pages in things started to get a lot better, and by the end of it I wanted more. So now I'm going to try to find some more.
43. Striving Towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz edited by Robert Faggen***** An amazing, wisdom-filled book. Made me love Thomas Merton all over again, and made me love Czeslaw Milosz. So I'll be reading some of his stuff in the near near. The last letter gave me the chills when I read it.
Gave me the chills again just now.
44. Les Miserables by You-Know-Who ***** Well, it was literally years in the doing, but tonight I finished reading Les Miserables to Jacqueline. And it was just amazing. Finished May 15, 2017.
45. The Teeth of the Comb by Osama Alomar ***** One of the most amazing books I've ever read. Just wall to wall wow, gotta write that down. I loved this book SO much that I actually went back to the St. Matthews Branch of LFPL to get Alomar's other book, Fullblood Arabian--even though I haven't set foot in that library for a very long time, wanting to avoid Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and The Scene She's Likely to Cause--because I needed to have it right away. (It takes several days to a week to get a book sent to a different branch.) So now ahmo go read that one.
46. Fullblood Arabian by Osama Alomar *** This was Osama's first book . . . at least his first in English . . . and it's still good, with moments of great . . . but it's not even close to being as good as The Teeth of the Comb. Which might mean that his next book will be brain-tryingly good, right? Here's hoping. I know I'll be in line to read it.
47. Tørst (The Thirst) by Jo Nesbø *** It wasn't the best Harry Hole novel, and it wasn't the worst, but it was the 11th. I have to say, though, that I am getting tired of the "Harry is dead!" fake outs. A little bit of that shit goes too far. And the "Harry goes back to being an alcoholic" schtick has gotten threadbare as well. As for the rest of it, it was okay. And I do still love the character of Harry. What I'd really like to see, though . . . and I am sure that neither Jo nor his publisher have the guts for this . . . would be a totally mainstream novel about Harry. That would be daring. Ironically.
48. Fables Volume 18: Cubs in Toyland by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham **** It's been awhile since I read Fables. But whilst perusing the shelves of the Middletown Branch of the LFPL, I spotted one of the later volumes, picked it up, wondered how far back I had to go in order to pick up where I'd left off, found that they had all of them, so picked up 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22. Then kind of forgot about them and thought I might just return them unread, but today I picked up 18 and plowed right through to the end. Quite a nice little morsel. All seemed familiar, too, so maybe I'd gotten farther than I thought I had. Needless to say, I now intend to read 19 - 22 in short order. Heh heh. Intend.
ADDENDUM: Well, this is kind of weird. I checked, and so far as I could discern, the last issue of Fables that I bought was #113. The weird part? Cubs in Toyland starts with issue #114. Is it possible that my subconscious memory is that good? I suppose so.
49. Fables Volume 19: Snow White by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham **** I was really confused when I looked at the indicia and saw the notation that the stories reprinted in this collection originally appeared in #114–123. (Cause that's where the stories for Cubs in Toyland came from.) And then I finally found out that there were short back-up stories (3 pages apiece) that had appeared in 114 - 123, and then the rest of the collection was taken from #124–129. And the stories . . . very good stuff. The short ones were a little tedious, but once the full issues came up I was groovin' on a Sunday afternoon. Think I'll just go right ahead and step right into
50. Fables Volume 20: Camelot--which collects issues #130–140, and is still by that wondrous Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham team.
51. Spandau Phoenix by Greg Iles ***
52. The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan***** Not just a delightful (funny, informative, eye-opening, etc.) book . . . though it was allathat . . . but an important book. Yeah. I am going to read me some mo Michael Pollan, foe shoe.
53. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell ***** 2nd time for this one. I can easily envision there being argued time. In fact, I kind of felt like starting over as soon as by finished it this time around. So many great lines. And so funny, too. GO was The Man, man.
54. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami **** Mixed feelings about this book, but mostly good. Glad I didn't pay $26 for it, though. That's just bullshit for a book this short. But maybe Murakami doesn't have much--or any--input / control over that shit. Still . . . I looked up his net worth and it was $10 million. So maybe he does. Maybe he's okay with that. I wonder what Franz Kafka's net worth was. (I found a website that said it was $779,911. I wonder how they came up with that bullshit? Ha ha. Anyway....)
55. Burning Down George Orwell's House by Andrew Ervin ** Some quite good moments, but as a whole this didn't work for me--primarily because of what I saw as serious lapses in believability. For instance, one guy tries to kill the narrator twice. Who the hell would put themselves into a situation where someone could attempt to kill them twice? For fuck's sake. And the would be killer gets off scott-free, which is just ludicrous. I listened to this book as read by Donald Corren, though, and his reading definitely gets a *****. Wonderful job on that.
56. At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs (5/8/17 to 7/27/17) Another ERB series (having finished reading all of the John Carter of Mars and Tarzan books out loud to Joe). We're going to try a twist this time around, though. Joe has really been struggling with Point of Impact, as it is a bit out of his weight class, but he doesn't want to stop reading it. So I talked to him about switching it up and I'll read POI and he will take over the ERB reading. 'Cause after all this time (not sure how many years, but at least five and probably several more than that) I don't want to be without an ERB book, y'know? So we'll see how that goes. UPDATE: Joe okayed us for the next Pellucidar novel--which is Pellucidar. And there was much rejoicing.
57. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ( __/__/17 to 8/6/17) From Great Illustrated Classics. Made me miss Jules Verne. Been a long time since we did the stroll.
58. Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut **** 3rd time (at least) through, and this still worked for me. Though there were some "soft spots," for sure, and it's clear that Vonnegut hadn't really found his voice yet.
59. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut ***** Oh, man, this was SUCH a great book. Why hasn't anybody made a movie based on this, I wonder?
60. Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 1: Rise of the Batmen (Rebirth)
by James Tynion IV and artists **** I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this. Not that it was without its stupid comic book moments, but even so . . . Team Batman was okay. I might even stick with the monthly book for awhile . . . been picking it up for the past couple of months.
61. A Place on Earth by Wendell Berry **** My first not an essay or a poem Wendell Berry . . . and it was really good. Might need to have some more of that.
62. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut *** Funny, in my memory this was one of the best of Kurt's early books, but this time through (#3) I was painfully aware of its faults as a novel, and would have to rate it as the worst of the first three. The biggest problem, to me, is that instead of developing the wonderful voice that bloomed in The Sirens of Titan, Kurt tried to go back to a less original tone, and he ended up creating a character who vacillated between being that character (Howard Campbell, Jr.) and his (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s) new found voice. Which pretty much wrecked it from both angles. It wasn't serious enough to be taken seriously, and it wasn't satiric enough to be good satire. It was namby pamby. It trivialized the subject matter. And when your subject matter is The Holocaust, that's just not going to work out. So I'm shaking the dust of this novel from my sandals and moving right on to Canary in a Cathouse. And yes, I do have a copy of Canary in a Cathouse. And yes, it was published before Cat's Cradle. Two years before, as a matter of fact.
63. Skylark by by Dezso Kosztolanyi and Peter Esterhazy ***** A truly magnificent book. https://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2017/09/i-was-looking-for-some-laszlo.html
64. Letters to His Neighbor by Marcel Proust (translated by Lydia Davis) * A truly disappointing book. https://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2017/09/proust-why-not-to-buy-his-letters-to.html
65. Kornél Esti by Dezső Kosztolányi ***** Amazing book. One of my favorites ever. i need more Dezső Kosztolányi, and I need it right now. So ahmo get me some.
66. Anna Édes by Dezső Kosztolányi ***** Another amazing book. I'm very sorry to say that it looks like there is only one more Dezső Kosztolányi book available in English: Nero, the Bloody Poet. (And I found this online and available for download, so I've already started reading it.) Which is frustrating, as it looks like he wrote quite a few other books (I found this bibliography, which may or may not be complete:
1907 Négy fal között (Within Four Walls)
1908 Boszorkányos esték (Witching Evenings)
1910 A szegény kisgyermek panaszai (Lament of a Poor Little Child)
1922 Néró, a véres költő (Nero, the Bloody Poet - Darker Muses)
1924 A bús férfi panaszai (Lamnet of a Sad Man)
1924 Pacsirta (Skylark)
1925 Aranysárkány (The Golden Kite)
1926 Édes Anna (Anna Édes)
1928 Meztelenül (Naked)
1933 Esti Kornél (Kornél Esti)
1935 Számadás (The Final Account)
1936 Tengerszem (Mountain Lake)
1936-40 Összegyűjtött művei (Collected Works)
So obviously there's a lot more out there that I can't get at, including all of his poetry. Must learn Hungarian immediately, I suppose.)
67. The Manhattan Project by László Krasznahorkai **** I loved this book and it mos def made me want to read some Melville, but I have to say that I'm glad I didn't pay $40 for it. 20 fuckin' pages, man. And one of them was a long quote from Moby Dick. Sheesh.
68. Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury by Lise Caldwell ***** Well, how many stars would YOU give a Bible? Finished it 10/8/17.
69. The Students of Spalato by István Tamás ***** and then some. https://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2017/10/rolling-with-magyar-irok.html
70. Origin by Dan Brown **** Well, you know how it is with Mr. Brown: Once you're in, you really can't turn the pages fast enough. And that was mos def true here as well. But there are some major flaws that you have to overlook (especially with respect to the way that many of the characters do not act like human beings), and the "surprises" are almost visible from several miles off (especially the "secret code" stuff, which I almost always solve as soon as it appears, then have to wait a hundred pages for Robert Langdon to catch up. And the ending of this novel was a real let-down for me. I think Dan wanted to have his cake and eat it, too, so far as the whole science vs. religion thang goes. But I still enjoyed the read. And I went online and found that you can get a copy of Dan's brother Gregory's Missa Charles Darwin signed by Dan and Gregory for a mere $9.99 + shipping (missacharlesdarwin.com), which I'm only telling you because I just ordered my copy, so I don't have to worry about the competition. Now back to the Hungarians.
71. Fighting the Flying Circus: The Greatest True Air Adventure to Come Out of World War I by Eddie Rickenbacker *** Finally finished this. I can't even remember when I started it. A long, long time ago, for sure. And it was quite good, actually. Though it was hard to put up with Eddie's endless harping on how many planes he and his squadron had shot down. But maybe that's how he insulated himself from the reality of the fact that he had killed quite a few people. There were hints throughout the book that he was not comfortable with that. He also tended to criticize the actions of German pilots as being unnecessarily cruel . . . or even worse . . . when it seemed pretty obvious to me that they were doing the same things that Eddie and his friends were doing. But by insisting on the moral superiority of himself and at least most of the other American flyers, a justification for the slaughter of two dozen human beings is provided. So there's that.
72. Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs (7/28/17 to 10/22/17) **** This was most definitely a cut above most of the ERB books I've read in the past several years. I'm not sure what it was about it, really. David Innes's character is nowhere near as cool or as fascinating as John Carter of Mars or Tarzan, for sure. But I think he was more compelling. Maybe because this was told in the first person? I can't remember if any of the Barsoom or Tarzan stories were told via first person narrator. I don't think so, though. At any rate, Pellucidar was quite excellent. As was the first Pellucidar book, At the Earth's Core, come to think of it. Though I don't think that I actually realized that at the time. I am really looking forward to reading the rest of this series. I might even have to re-read the Tarzan crossover book. (But I'll have to do it on my own, since Joe does not go for that kind of shit. It's onward and upward for him.)
73. The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell **** The short version: I was intrigued by the cover on the first issue of Titan Comics The Lost Fleet: Corsair, which looked very cool, very Old School Science Fiction-y, so I looked into this Lost Fleet business. Found that there were some novels that preceded the release of the comic book, and that LFPL had several of them, so I started with the first book, which was this one. And it was quite the rip-roaring yarn. I knocked it back very quickly, and wanted more, more, more. (How do you like it? How do you like your love?) LFPL seemed happy to oblige, but somebody else was on the train ahead of me, and the second novel--Fearless--was not immediately forthcoming, so I went to Half-Price Books and picked it up. As soon as I finished Dauntless I opened up Fearless and commenced to get to it. Which is always at least a bit of a mistake in a series, because inevitably (and necessarily) there's repetition to bring the reader up to speed, and that's a little irritating when the previous novel is steaming not in the snow fresh in your mind. But I couldn't help it. I needed to know what happened next. Cause this Jack Campbell fellow does know how to spin a yarn. There's not a whole hell of a lot of character development, but there's enough to keep things rolling. And he does indeed know how to roll a story. He's also very good at creating "villains"--ranging along the continuum from Pain in the Ass to Outright Evil. Can't say for sure at this point, obviously, but I can see me riding this The Lost Fleet train to the very end of the line . . . which looks to be at least a dozen books en toto. Those Hungarians, Balkans, and Spaniards might just have to wait a bit while I do me some good old Amurican reads.
74. Lunar Caustic by Malcolm Lowry ***** Read this because László Krasznahorkai referred to it in The Manhattan Project, and I'm glad that I did. This book was so good . . . I am definitely going to need to read it again. And it's not that easy to obtain, so I think ahmo hafta do a little scanning. Fortunately it's a short book. Reading it also totally reversed my thinking on Malcolm Lowry, so I am now determined to have another go at Under the Volcano, which I definitely did not get a big thrill from the first time around.
75. The Manhattan Project by László Krasznahorkai ***** Again. Because it was due back at the library and I needed another gulp. Which I did this time, reading the whole thing (which is admittedly very short) in one sitting. Which was the way to do it. Man do I love László Krasznahorkai.
76. Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle by Slavoj Žižek ***** Wow . . . a truly amazing book. It was kind of sorta about Iraq . . . but it was about a whole lot of other shit, too. Like everything, really. I was really impressed and am now determined to read more Slavoj Žižek.
77. The Lost Fleet: Fearless by Jack Campbell *** Not quite as riveting as the first novel, but still a fun read.
78. Private Beach by David Hahn ** Could have been good, and looked pretty good--much like Terry Moore's artwork on Strangers in Paradise--but too much juvenile male shit going on, which is especially inappropriate in a story told from a female point of view.
79. Xanth Graphic Novel, Volume 1 - Return to Centaur (or: What Kind of Foal Am I?) by (deep breath) Piers Anthony, Richard Pini, Dennis Fujitake, and Gary Kato ** Well, this was actually pretty awful. In fact, it's no more than a *, now that I think of it. Although I'll confess that I would still read Volume 2 if I could find a copy. I'd even pay as much as a dollar for it--which is all I paid for this one.
80. rock bottom by Joe Casey and Charlie Adlard **** Superb bit of work. Charlie Adlard's art is really a *****, and the story is quite good as well, just not quite must read level for me.
81. The Lost Fleet: Courageous by Jack Campbell *** I kind of pooped out midway through this one, then got back into it and finished it off pretty quickly. Still going on to the 4th one, and will probably finish the first six novel arc, but I'm thinking that I might not need any more of this once that's done. It'd make a hell of a good movie if anybody felt like doing it right, though, foe show.
82. Doom Patrol: Brick by Brick by Gerard Way and Nick Derington **** I read the first three or four, possibly five, of these books when they came out, then got really tired of it. Seemed to me that Mr. Way was just doing his damnedest to be Grant Morrison and falling way short. Reminded me of those girls who dye their hair purple, y'know? But reading the collected edition (courtesy of the public library) was a better experience. There's still a fair amount of pretense to wade through, but there are some piercing moments, too. I think it's worth the time it takes to read. And I wouldn't mind reading some more, but it looks like the series may have stalled out a bit, and I'd really rather wait and read it for free later on down the road, if you don't mind.
83. Detective Comics Volume 2: The Victim Syndicate by James Tynion IV and a bunch of other folks *** Catching up with the reboot bit by bit. This was a good set of stories, with some very good moments here and there. Onward to Volume 3. But first . . .
84. The Dark Knight III: The Master Race by Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello * Yep, this was a huge disappointment. Seems pretty clear to me that Frank Miller shot his wad on The Dark Knight Returns and has just been milking the cash cow for the past decade and a half. And I don't like the taste of that milk. What a shame to witness this beshitting of his work.
85. Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 3: League of Shadows by
Now reading:
Forges of Mars Omnibus by Graham McNeill
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo began May 18, 2017
The Children's Illustrated Bible by Selina Hastings and Eric Thomas (2/17/17 to )
New Catholic Picture Bible by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik (10/9/17 to )
Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter (2/12/17 to ) (re-started 8/7/17)
Tanar of Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs (10/23/17 to
2016
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