October 28th, 2016 / 1:49 pm
 Snippets
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What’s the most exciting thing you’ve read so far this year?

34 Comments

  1. October 28th, 2016 / 2:33 pm Ken Baumann—

      New: Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue.
      Old: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

  2. October 28th, 2016 / 3:18 pm lorian long—

      good people robert lopez

  3. October 28th, 2016 / 3:48 pm M Kitchell—

      the inner scar: the mysticism of georges bataille – andrew hussey
      white decimal – jean daive tr. norma cole
      testament of the dead daughter – colette thomas tr. paul buck
      disappearing curtains – ed. paul buck

  4. October 28th, 2016 / 3:49 pm Craig—

      Helen DeWitt – The Last Samurai

  5. October 28th, 2016 / 4:39 pm Peppy—

      Online – There’s a Kenneth Goldsmith essay about how he makes dumb art (or smart-dumb) and he celebrates artists like Warhol and Beckett and Stein and Lin – all of who he says create a kind of smart-dumb art. He says they don’t care about coming over as dumb. The article also introduced me to artists like Seth Price. The essay also confirmed something in me that I can’t explain here. But I relate to it and it kept me buzzing for a few weeks. I even messaged Mr Goldsmith to say I enjoyed reading it and he messaged me back and I messaged him again but he didn’t message back.

      Books prose – The work of Lydia Davis I’ve been rereading.

      I have learned what art really is, it says in Extracts from a Life. Art is not in some far off place….

      Those lines excite me, make me feel I can sit in my room and type anything I want to type. Something clicked in me anyway.

      Books poetry – The third verse of Songs of The Broad Axe by Whitman, which is a list of concrete images and it says “The glad clear sound of one’s own voice,” and “death-howl”… – I’m easily excited by such words. And I mention this cos Harold Bloom says Hemingway drew from Twain and Whitman and I’d wonder how so. This poem shows me how so.

  6. October 28th, 2016 / 4:50 pm Mike Kleine—

      Patience by Daniel Clowes

  7. October 28th, 2016 / 4:54 pm Peppy—

      Online – There’s a Kenneth Goldsmith essay about how he makes dumb
      art (or smart-dumb) and he celebrates Warhol and Beckett and Stein and
      Lin – all of who he says create a kind of smart-dumb art. He says they
      don’t care about coming over as dumb. The article also introduced me to
      artists like Seth Price. It also confirmed a feeling I can’t explain
      here. But I relate to it and it kept me buzzing for a few weeks. I even
      messaged Mr Goldsmith to say I enjoyed reading it and he messaged me
      back and I messaged him again but he didn’t message back.

      Books prose – The work of Lydia Davis I’ve been rereading.

      I have learned what art really is, it says in Extracts from a Life. Art is not in some far off place….

      Those lines excite me, make me feel I can sit in my room and type anything I want to type. Something clicked in me anyway.

      Books poetry – The third verse of Songs of The Broad Axe by Whitman, which is mainly a list of concrete images and it says “The glad clear sound of one’s own voice,” and “death-howl”… – I’m easily excited by such words. And I mention this cos Harold Bloom says Hemingway drew from Twain and Whitman and I’d wonder how so. I could see Twain in Hemingway. But I couldn’t see Whitman so much. This poem shows me though – in the style and the….

  8. October 28th, 2016 / 6:04 pm deadgod—

      I faintly remember—perhaps misremember—reading Kasparov say that one of his favorite chess books was Fischer’s My 60 Memorable Games, and one day last winter, in a used-book store and without looking for any particular thing, I saw a copy on a shelf. Serendipity! Never a systematic learner of the game (that is, a wheel-reinventer by nature), and suffering from greed blindness as a player, I’ve enjoyed guessing the next move in these games; it’s the most excited I’ve been reading this year. The brilliancies—one or two moves that turn the game inexorably in one player’s favor (in this book, almost all the wins are Fischer’s)—are simple, unremarkable moves, ones that I’d reject if told to try them (‘leaves the position too open’, or ‘doesn’t do anything to further the attack’)… and then the tactic clicks into strategically winning place. This Epimethean fate should probably be more distressing to me, failing again, failing worse — but it’s a tremendous pleasure to luxuriate in the cleverness of two players I couldn’t beat in a hundred lifetimes, the one just enough more far-sightedly incisive.

  9. October 28th, 2016 / 7:24 pm Jackson Nieuwland—

      Fra Keeler by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
      A Bestiary by Lily Hoang
      Duxplex by Kathryn Davis

  10. October 28th, 2016 / 8:21 pm reynard seifert—

      I really liked Nell Zink’s Mislaid

  11. October 29th, 2016 / 1:24 am Taylor Napolsky—

      Where’s that Goldsmith article?

  12. October 29th, 2016 / 1:25 am Taylor Napolsky—

      This is easily Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett. The book has stayed with me.

  13. October 29th, 2016 / 10:44 am j orloski—

      The Other City by Michael Ajvaz has completely changed the way I look at everything whenever I walk around alone.

  14. October 29th, 2016 / 11:36 am Ethan Ashley—

      The Recognitions, William Gaddis
      At The Bottom of The River, Jamaica Kincaid

  15. October 29th, 2016 / 12:36 pm Peppy—
  16. October 29th, 2016 / 5:38 pm bartlebytaco—

      so far—

      sudden death, álvaro enrigue
      i hate the internet, jarrett kobek
      the vermont book, john ashbery & joe brainard
      blood & soap, linh dinh
      impossible princess, kevin killian
      poetics of cinema, raúl ruiz
      jack the modernist, robert glück (maybe my favorite)
      the descent of alette, alice notley
      aliens & anorexia, chris kraus
      a day at the beach, robert grenier
      censorship now!!, ian svenonius
      considering how exaggerated music is, leslie scalapino

  17. October 29th, 2016 / 5:45 pm Weeatherhead—

      htmlgiant

  18. October 29th, 2016 / 8:39 pm Joan Osborne—
  19. October 30th, 2016 / 12:29 am Joel Kopplin—

      The Voudon Gnostic Workbook by Michael Bertiaux

  20. October 30th, 2016 / 2:56 am Joan Osborne—

      The most exciting thing I read was my paycheck when I stopped looking to a literary website run by a Basic White Male for validation

  21. October 30th, 2016 / 3:39 am Taylor Napolsky—

      Nice list!

  22. October 30th, 2016 / 11:31 am M Kitchell—

      did you like my cameo in i hate the internet

  23. October 30th, 2016 / 1:07 pm bartlebytaco—

      lol ya, yr immortal now

  24. October 30th, 2016 / 1:30 pm cake lamb—

      what did the paycheck say?

  25. October 30th, 2016 / 2:46 pm Matt_Margo—
  26. October 30th, 2016 / 6:40 pm Ken Baumann—

      One more, newish: Blood Orchid by Charles Bowden. It doesn’t blink and presses hard.

  27. October 30th, 2016 / 6:59 pm Matt Rowan—

      Reading Thomas Ligotti has been pretty great for the most part. I’m enjoying Mary Karr’s memoir The Liars’ Club, too. But it was James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” that absolutely floored me. How he is not thought of as America’s finest writer in the 20th century (and arguably ever) I will never understand.

  28. October 30th, 2016 / 7:00 pm Matt Rowan—

      I will not watch that video, no.

  29. October 30th, 2016 / 9:35 pm grm—

      either the mad man or through the valley of the nest of spiders by samuel r delany, but i went through a period where i was kind of reading all of his more pornotopic stuff and it felt incredibly strange. i think he is very underrated, even with the praise people throw his way. never read someone who can enact the thoughts of a graduate student in complicated philosophy who goes to a club to get pissed on and such then shares coffee with a homeless person after they just finished warming each other & fucking as the sun comes up.

      also english composition as a happening, which is a nice antidote to the state of things at most u.s. schools. keep rereading that one, along with black mountain college stuff, to keep head afloat.

  30. November 1st, 2016 / 2:56 pm Josh Spilker—

      i’m thinking of ending things — iain reid

  31. November 3rd, 2016 / 7:34 pm David Catney—

      Mickey by Chelsea Martin

      Crapalachia by Scott Mcclanahan

      The Fun We’ve Had by Michael J. Seidlinger

  32. November 3rd, 2016 / 8:32 pm David Catney—

      Your Glass Head against the Brick Parade of Now Whats by Sam Pink

  33. November 4th, 2016 / 8:57 am Jesse Sawyer—

      A couple I’d been meaning to read for awhile and finally did: I Love Dick by Chris Kraus and Stoner by John Williams.

  34. November 7th, 2016 / 5:21 am Taylor Napolsky—

      He should be thought of that way! I’m reading Another Country right now and it’s wonderful. I’m on a Baldwin kick lately.