#nowreading

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I finished The Manticore ca. a week ago. I read Fifth Business last year and liked it a lot so I had high expectations for this one. For some reason though this one was a bit underwhelming while I was reading it. But I just went over the passages that i have flagged and things suddenly started to fall into place. I think I like this book quite a bit more than I thought I did. I think I need to process this for a while. The getting to know oneself is right up my alley.

finished graham st. john's monumental new terence mckenna bio last night. sympathetic & infectious travelogue of mckenna's multiverse, but also pretty unflinching & even rigorous in unpacking the very, very high weirdness. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049573/strange-attractor/

Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna

Finished reading the Japanese Gothic book from Edogawa Ranpo, even it's a small book with four short tales but they are so intense, especially the last one that really creeps me out. Recommended !

I just finished reading “Dinner with King Tut”, a pop-science book about experimental archaeology. In each section of the book, author Sam Kean meets someone who is trying to recreate some ancient technology or practice to see what we can learn from it to supplement the archaeological record. It’s a light and fun read, although it can get a bit gruesome at times (eg in the description of how to turn a dead seal into a water-tight carrying bag).

The author tries to bring each section alive by including a fictional short story set in ancient times and involving the technologies in question. The stories were pretty good, but in my mind unnecessary to the point of the book. After reading the first two, I just skipped the rest of them, and didn’t feel that I missed anything.

I once read that having a large bookshelf filled with unread books is akin to having a wine cellar filled with various types of wine: you’ll have the right thing for the right occasion.

Now reading “Wintering” by Katherine May.

It’s been sitting on my bookshelf, waiting for a blustery, wintry, cold, snowy night.

Made myself some hot chocolate and I’m sitting in a cozy chair.

I just finished reading “This is Happiness” by Niall Williams.

The book is a coming of age story set in the tiny Irish village of Faha during the summer when the town was first electrified. It’s told in first person, by the narrator (now an old man) recounting his youth. The writing is wonderful. I had to slow down my reading just to take my time enjoying the taste of the words. While there is a plot, Williams spends just as much time painting the town with details about the people and their lives and quirks — the whole book is a love letter to a time and place that no longer exists, told in that Irish gift-of-gab style. The story is sweet and funny and sometimes heartbreaking, as a coming-of-age story should be.

It’s not the kind of book I normally read, but I’m very glad I …

This is a fun and interesting little book. A bit of a noodle scratcher at times but this episode of BOSS helped quite a bit. This one's as "sprawling" and intricate as Inherent Vice but not quite as funny and entertaining imo. Still good though. I'll keep going with Pynchon. https://booksofsomesubstance.libsyn.com/90-thomas-pynchons-the-crying-of-lot-49-guest-seth-of-waste-mailing-list

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

"Before the earth,

before the moon,
before the stars,

before the sun,

before the sky,
even before the sea,

there was only time and Ta'aroa.

Ta'aroa made Ta'aroa. Then he made an egg that could house him."

-- (or rather, first lines) of Richard Powers, *Playground*

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Started this morning. Looking forward to spending some time with this one.