Reading Diary
a) The New New Journalism: Conversations With American's Best Nonfiction Writers On Their Craft
by Robert Boynton
I worked at the Newseum one day recently and decided to look around their gift shop for a few minutes on the way out and made an impulse buy of the most interesting book I could find. I always feel like I could be doing more both in terms of what nonfiction I read and what I do with the nonfiction I write, so this has been a fun, inspiring read. Boynton mostly just does no-nonsense Q&As with each writer about their working methods, and manages to get surprisingly varied answers -- my favorite probably from Richard Ben Cramer, who seems to have the exact opposite philosophy from most of the writers in the book. One thing that kind of annoyed me, though, is that each interview is preceded by a capsule bio which uses several quotes from the interview. Those quotes always made sense or were more interesting in the context of the interview, so I made a habit of reading those first and then the bio later.
b) The World According To Garp
by Jon Irving
My dad's always been a big Irving fan and I've enjoyed what I've read of his stuff so I decided to check this one out when I came upon a copy. It's a really strange read, both compelling and also leaving an incredibly bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended). For one, it's an incredibly autobiographical novel about a novelist, that argues vehemently against reading novels as autobiographical, which is navel-gazing enough as it is. Plus, I haven't seen the movie adaptation, but I feel like this could be ground zero for a certain strain of modern storytelling, the tragedy-by-coincidence, especially when heavily foreshadowed and set in a domestic situation, that I've come to really hate about so many movies ever since American Beauty. And I'm also irritated by books that feel compelled to leave absolutely no mystery to what happens to the characters at the end of the story, to the point of detailing how everyone dies, and how they children and grandchildren and friends die, and so on. But aside from those gripes, it's really a pretty great read and the good parts stick with you for a while.
c) City Of Illusions
by Ursula K. Le Guin
My wife has a few Le Guin books, and one day I picked up a short story collection and found the first couple really original and intriguing, in the sense that sci-fi was such a different thing 50 years ago than it is now, and some of the concept being worked with back then actually haven't been done to death now. So I decided to read one of her novels, and I haven't finished this yet but it hasn't hooked me as well as the short stories. But I do like that the premise is kind of unique for an alien world dystopian thing, and the prose kind of helps make it all feel otherworldly.
by Robert Boynton
I worked at the Newseum one day recently and decided to look around their gift shop for a few minutes on the way out and made an impulse buy of the most interesting book I could find. I always feel like I could be doing more both in terms of what nonfiction I read and what I do with the nonfiction I write, so this has been a fun, inspiring read. Boynton mostly just does no-nonsense Q&As with each writer about their working methods, and manages to get surprisingly varied answers -- my favorite probably from Richard Ben Cramer, who seems to have the exact opposite philosophy from most of the writers in the book. One thing that kind of annoyed me, though, is that each interview is preceded by a capsule bio which uses several quotes from the interview. Those quotes always made sense or were more interesting in the context of the interview, so I made a habit of reading those first and then the bio later.
b) The World According To Garp
by Jon Irving
My dad's always been a big Irving fan and I've enjoyed what I've read of his stuff so I decided to check this one out when I came upon a copy. It's a really strange read, both compelling and also leaving an incredibly bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended). For one, it's an incredibly autobiographical novel about a novelist, that argues vehemently against reading novels as autobiographical, which is navel-gazing enough as it is. Plus, I haven't seen the movie adaptation, but I feel like this could be ground zero for a certain strain of modern storytelling, the tragedy-by-coincidence, especially when heavily foreshadowed and set in a domestic situation, that I've come to really hate about so many movies ever since American Beauty. And I'm also irritated by books that feel compelled to leave absolutely no mystery to what happens to the characters at the end of the story, to the point of detailing how everyone dies, and how they children and grandchildren and friends die, and so on. But aside from those gripes, it's really a pretty great read and the good parts stick with you for a while.
c) City Of Illusions
by Ursula K. Le Guin
My wife has a few Le Guin books, and one day I picked up a short story collection and found the first couple really original and intriguing, in the sense that sci-fi was such a different thing 50 years ago than it is now, and some of the concept being worked with back then actually haven't been done to death now. So I decided to read one of her novels, and I haven't finished this yet but it hasn't hooked me as well as the short stories. But I do like that the premise is kind of unique for an alien world dystopian thing, and the prose kind of helps make it all feel otherworldly.
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on Monday, November 26, 2012 at 2:33 PM.
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