Tuesday, December 21, 2010

I am here. and you are not. Happy Holidays.

Friday, December 17, 2010

a little less than 2 wks and 2010 will go out with a whimper. if I get around to it, I'll be posting top 10's of pretty much everything. if I can come up with 10 books/records/movies/etc. that came out this year that I actually paid attention to. the problem with being so immersed in grad school from '06 - '09 is that I spent a lot of this year trying to get my life back. as in, having a social life again (one that didn't revolve around classmates/readings/etc.). I also spent a lot of the year avoiding even mildly challenging reading. watched a whole lot of TV though. and some decent enough movies. and spent a lot of time outside walking/swimming/climbing things. now that it's 8 degrees outside (and I can't find anyone to learn how to snowshoe with me) I guess I have time to catch up on my reading. and listening. I did write a novel. so that's something. In one month (Nat'l novel writing month). And I did write a poem a day since April. Those will come out in a little chapbook shared with my friend MES - probably by April of '11. And I think I did a whole lot of other stuff in there too but that will just have to wait for the list portion of things. maybe this weekend. while it snows. meanwhile, there's this.

Labels: , , ,

Friday, December 03, 2010

52 books in 52 weeks

I'm woefully behind on my reading this year. apparently. still. and this means I'm either forgetting some (a lot?) of books I read this year, or I have 12 books to read between now and 12/31. Which, really, is do-able.

1. drift/victoria patterson
2. once the shore/paul yoon (sp? gave it away so can't look it up)
3. sense & sensibility & sea monsters
4. point omega/delillo
5. face/sherman alexie (poems
6. war dances/sherman alexie
7. Inspector Alleyn Calls (3 novels)/Ngaio Marsh
8. Nevermore (a graphic adaptation of Poe's short stories)
9. off the reservation/paula gunn allen
10. neither here nor there/marcel jolley
11. the passion/j. winterson (2nd/3rd? read)
12. tapping the source/kem nunn
13. the dogs of winter/kem nunn
14. breathe/tim winton
15. dirt music/tim winton
16. the particular sadness of lemon cake/aimee bender
17. solar/ian m.
18. hell/robert olen butler
19. rat girl/kristin hersh
20. nights at the circus/angela carter
21. invisible cities/calvino
23. tinkers/paul harding
24. diary of a bad year/coetzee
25. the boy detective fails/joe meno
26. brooklyn/colm toibin
27. on the nat. history of dest./sebald
28. let the great world spin/colum mccann
29. zoli/colum mccann
30. unquiet mind/kay jamison
31. by night in chile/bolano
32. inherent vice/pynchon
33. the third elevator/aimee bender
34. the signal/ron carlson
35. essential/kathy acker (re-read)
36. new orleans noir (akashic anthology)
37. french quarter fiction: the newest stories of America's oldest bohemia
38. haunted/chuck p.
39. Emma & the vampires

Labels: ,

Labels: ,

Labels: ,


Labels: ,

Labels: , ,



really should post on here more often but I'm just too busy well...living. even my addiction to tumblr has waned somewhat. that said, November was spent writing a novel for "Nat'l Novel Writing Month" - though most of it was written on a plan to/from Phoenix, Arizona which may color the content somewhat. I managed to get to 50, 400 some words by 11pm on Nov. 30th. And a lot of those final 20K words were written Sun/Mon/Tuesday night. Left me pretty brain dead but at least those characters' voices have quieted down for a while. I tried writing a "normal" plot-driven novel & mostly that's what it is but it ended up being in alternating sections, all in first-person, telling about the same central event(s) from 6 (7?) characters' POV's. It was pretty ridiculous though I think if I re-read it, I'll find at least some usable work in there. I really like one of the characters a whole bunch and may re-use him in something else. Or maybe try to salvage this thing and send it out? can't hurt. ***Had Thanksgiving Dinner at the Grand Canyon, thanks to my ultra-generous parents. We stayed at the semi-crappy "Grand Hotel" in Tusayan (just outside the park) and had dinner at El Tovar. They even had a vegan entree which was more than just roast veggies. I even had pie. The day before, we (my mom & I that is), hiked along the South Rim in the snow. It was amazing though I was pretty happy to have a warm car/hotel room to go back to after that. Can't imagine hiking down into the Canyon and having to camp out in that weather. Still, I do want to do the North-South Rim hike one of these days. Soon. That's about it. Think I'm canceling my planned trip to New Orleans for New Year's - just can't afford it this year. But may have a friend interested in Mardi Gras. Which could be fun. I hate that I don't have a place down there anymore. Being there as a tourist just feels really weird & wrong. Oh well.

Labels: , , , ,