Read on Twitter
i am going to descend into the valley of the pleasant and basic and do a "here's what i've read in quarantine" thread
kicked off by re-reading this, despite being about a pandemic flu ending civilisation I found it as lovely and comforting as ever and it remains probably one of my favourite books
sigi gave me this, highly recommending it as "beckett but really really kind". it's a strange book, about a father and his son who has Down's syndrome wandering out across a landscape. it's clearly a book of real heart but it never moved me as it might have done
Quite enjoyed this, particularly the sections on opioids, the body and the politics of pain. bit of a slow start and wasn't wholly convinced by the bits about 17th c science (or maybe just not that interested) but read it in a sitting so engaging enough with some neat insights
Stone cold banger tbqh. Really lovely gripping sad book about Swedish pioneer family in late 19th c Nebraska. has given me entirely false notions about how I'd get on being hardy and planting alfalfa and displaying grit, which I will be disabused of sharpish in current climate
a strong recommendation from eve- enjoyable but maybe a bit rambling? But great observations and quite funny and a good evocation of 70s London suburbia and felt like one of those books I should have read ages ago
Went to the launch of this on my bday a few years back because we were looking for somewhere to pre & bought for 5ÂŁ but didn't read til now. an enjoyable counterfactual- was bizarrely moved by parts about revolution in the US. made me sad about capitalism, lack of space travel
through my door this morning, a lovely book of poems. "my girlfriend's tongue is covered in hundreds of tardigrada and when she's asleep i pry her jaw open and watch them by the light of my iphone 4."
borrowed this on strong recommendation from sam and enjoyed it; I would never normally read a book in verse but this had real verve
i can never quite escape the feeling that dfw is crushed under the weight of his own genius, or maybe the weight of the promise of his own genius. an interesting biography aside, i have never actually finished one of his books before- some essays fine, some borderline unreadable.
the obvious joke to go for here is "actually finishing a dfw book: a supposedly fun thing i will never do again", but i'm not sure anyone actually enjoys reading him. hot take: dfw is to pseud-y soft men as kathy acker is to pseud-y riot grrrls
