Tennyson’s In Memoriam and Reading Old Editions
I read an old copy of an old poem. I was given this gorgeous anthology of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s work, an original Excelsior Edition published in 1880. The book is…
Reading Log: Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley
At 58, John Steinbeck drove across America for a little over three months in a camper pickup with his elderly French poodle, Charley. The dog was not only a companion,…
2014 Book List and Best of 2014’s Reading
These are the books I’ve read this year. I’m afraid this list pulls the curtain aside; there are a few books you can see I’ve read but haven’t…
Reading Log: The Unbearable Lightness of Being -Milan Kundera
Franco-Czech novelist Milan Kundera is a man of ideas. His essay Testaments Betrayed (an essay in 9 parts, weighing in at 280 pages) is the most conceptually dense piece of…
Reading Log: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead -Tom Stoppard
I’ve seen far too few plays. Part of this has to do with where I live. I tend to default to reading them due to a lack of reasonable alternatives.…
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
A high school class I was covering for a few days was reading this. I took a look at it after playing them a chapter of the audiobook. The voice…
Thom Jones’s The Pugilist at Rest
This is my favorite book of the year, bar none. A few authors have left me disturbed after reading (Carver, Tobias Wolfe, John Darnielle) but Thom Jones literally brought tears…
Sherman Alexie’s “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”
I love short story collections. Whenever possible, I try to read a story (or a collection) by any given author before I take on one of their novels. The unique…
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs -Chuck Klosterman
This collection of essays produced a magical juxtaposition in my mind where I was both entertained by Klosterman’s cleverness and really wanted to punch him right in the goddamn face.…