#nowreading

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I just finished reading ā€œThis is Happinessā€ 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. Itā€™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 ā€” 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.

Itā€™s not the kind of book I normally read, but Iā€™m very glad I ā€¦

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.

Two for the price of one:

"During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher."

-- Opening sentence of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839)

and

"Across the flyleaf of my old *Commemorative Edition of the Works of Edgar Allan Poe in Ten Volumes, Volume I* (the only one I owned), a strong hand had written, 'I hate Poe,' and signed my name. The hand was mine."

-- Opening sentences of Daniel Hoffman's *Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe* (1972)

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Will use this thread for reading ā€¦

I just finished reading ā€œChildren of Blood and Boneā€ by Tomi Adeyemi. Itā€™s a fantasy novel set in an alternative version of Nigeria, where people with magical abilities are ruthlessly suppressed by the ruling class. Itā€™s a quest novel with all the elements ā€” swords, magic, ancient wisdom, a chase, romance, betrayal, and an escaped princess. Itā€™s Adeyemiā€™s first novel, so it has a bit of the awkwardness of anyoneā€™s first novel. There are two more books, making a trilogy, but the first is a complete story.

While reading I thought it would probably make a good adventure film, so I was pleased to discover that itā€™s already being worked on, with Idris Elba and Cynthia Erivo, planned release in 2027.

"Eight million killed in a single day, each of them in improbable, bizarre ways"
-- It's like someone took my column and turned it into a book plot, which is to say: A perfectly unlikely fit for me šŸ’–

The book "Lucky Day" by Chuck Tingle
The back of the book with the blurb, reading: "Four years ago, an unthinkable disaster occured - the Low-Probavility Event. Eight million killed in a single day, each of them in improbable, bizarre ways. [...] A day that proved anything is possible, no matter the odds. Vera, a former statistics and probability professor, lost everything that day [...]"