Sun - November 4, 2007

"Hey, what's your problem?" "The milk of human kindness."


My name is popemark, and I am addicted to buying books. I can't walk past a bookstore without walking in, and I can't walk out of a bookstore without buying 2 or more books. On this trip to Ireland, I have been reading a ton, but I can not keep up with all the books I have already bought and that are sitting on my bedside table.
On the last week-long visit I had to Austin, I made what could have been a mistake and stopped in an airport Hudson Booksellers (I think it was in O'Hare, and I was at risk for completing the one book I took with me in my carry-on; God forbid I might be out of reading material! As it happened, I didn't actually complete that book I already had with me until I was back in Austin). Interestingly enough (to me), I think it is possible Ms Pope worked for some branch of Hudson when we were in Puerto Rico. Not sure. I have to follow up on that.

Anyway, the two books I bought in that desperate foray were The Historian and Whatever, by Michel Houellebecq. Both books turned out to be surprisingly good buys. I wrote about The Historian last week; today, I finished reading Whatever. I was under the misconception that this was a more recent novel of his, but was surprised to discover it had been written in 1998 and he has followed up on his early promise with several more books, all as compellingly interesting (based on published abstracts!) as his debut.

Serpent's Tail (the publisher) did not explicitly compare this novel to Camus, but the implicit connection leavened my interpretation of the novel as I was consuming it. His humor is spot-on, and the dread with which his characters face their unfathomably bleak conditions is, dare I say it, deliciously enjoyable. Click on Read More to see an example passage (and yes, the Title of this blog entry is from the book, as well...).

Posted at 08:20 PM     Read More  

I haven't even sent a picture of a rabbit to her...


Last autumn (2006), I went through an awkward phase of intense longing, and I sought partial fulfillment in a return to my collegiate appreciation of poetry. I searched for new (to me) poets whose work reminded me of a younger self, one who had encountered and survived similar phases in the past. One evening, in particular, after Sören and I had wandered through the aisles of BookPeople picking up anything that interested us, we found ourselves eating a convivial dinner at Habana on South Congress, eating tostones and reading our own individual books of poetry. I believe Sören's choice was Shel Silverstein, and one of mine was Anne Sexton.



I have been selectively rereading her poems while I am in Cork (don't ask me why I'm not reading any of the great Irish poets -- I promise I will work my way around to them, plus finally get through Ulysses, before I leave this island for good next summer...). One poem ("The Double Image") has piqued my interest and has been hard for me to stop thinking about. Click Read More for the stanzas that are calling out to me...

Posted at 12:26 PM     Read More  

Wed - October 31, 2007

Fighting evil in the library stacks


When I was reading Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, I was struck by the thought of the books that feature librarians as brave heroes.

I have to admit that I have a very soft place in my heart for libraries and the clerks and professionals who work in them. I worked in the Business Library at University of Iowa as an undergraduate student, and was very interested in pursuing a career in library science when I received an offer in 1996 from my current employer. In fact, the Papal Consort and I went together to the University of Texas MLS department to review the offerings and course structure. (I like that it is a non-thesis graduate program! :)

So, I came up with a short list of my favorite books where librarians put themselves at risk and save the world with their information retrieval skills!
1) The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova
2) Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
3) The Time Traveller's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

Posted at 09:10 AM     Read More  

Happy Spooky Hallowe'en reading


I love Hallowe'en. It may be my favorite holiday of the year... I think it might be a combination of the fascination with getting scared and an unhealthy obsession with mortality. Being in Ireland for the day this year, I do not miss the costumes and candies that are hallmarks of how America observes the day. But I do miss my tradition with Sören, originating with an afternoon spent with Sugar Booger, of going to a graveyard in Austin and having a picnic on the gravesite of a family named "Hello."

In honor of the holiday, I started to read Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian while I was in Prague. I finished it Monday night, in a fevered rush to complete the book. It tells the story of a teenaged girl in Amsterdam whose father has a mysterious book that appears to be blank except for a woodcut image of a dragon with a curling tail. That book is the commencement of a perilous compulsive hunt for the truth behind the historical figure of Vlad the Impaler -- Dracula.

Posted at 08:53 AM     Read More  

Fri - December 29, 2006

I ♥ Murakami


Not that I'm in the dating field, but I found this interesting... Leave it to the Aussies to make speed-dating actually an interesting proposition.

Wed Dec 20, 8:18 AM ET
CANBERRA (Reuters) - A 150-year old Australian public library has a new true-romance section after introducing speed-dating nights for lovers of classic texts.
The state library of Victoria in Melbourne introduced dating with a literary twist after the idea was raised at a staff party.
Those who attend must bring a book they either love or loathe as a conversation starter, ensuring there are no uneasy silences during the series of five-minute dates.
"It's speed dating with books. It's designed to bring book lovers together," the library's project manager, Jackie Felstead, told Reuters Wednesday.
The library's first event was quickly sold out with 52 book lovers taking part, and 13 couples linking up for further dates.
It proved such a success that more speed-dating nights have been organized for 2007.
Felstead said books taken to the first dating night included Susan Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, and several novels by Japanese author Haruki Murakami.

Posted at 12:52 AM     Read More  

Sat - November 4, 2006

Spiders and Flies


In addition to The Flowers of Evil, I have had a wealth of great reading material in the last few months. I bought Coraline for Ms Pope as a Hallowe'en present. It is a very quick read at 162 pages and by the night of Hallowe'en itself, I had finished a collection of ghost stories edited by Roald Dahl and picked up Coraline to read myself while handing out candy to trick-or-treaters.

Ms Pope had already warned me that it gave her nightmares (the good kind, I'm sure). Theoretically, this book is for young readers, say 14 or so, but it's one of Gaiman's scariest books I have yet read. Most of his books are kind of dark, but like with Anansi Boys, it's almost a farce.
Coraline is a young girl whose family has just moved to a new flat in an old house. There's a door from the drawing room that is bricked over if you open it. Maybe it once led to the other flat on that floor. But one day she opens the door and the bricks aren't there; there's a hallway that leads to what appears to be a mirror version of her family's flat. And in that flat, there's an Other Mother, an Other Father, there are Other versions of the neighbors that live in the real world. And everything is more interesting, the food is better, and they want her to stay with them. Forever.
When she goes back to her real world, her Other Mother responds by taking her real parents captive. Coraline has to go back and get them.

"Yes," she said. "I think I like this game. But what kind of game shall it be? A riddle game? A test of knowledge or of skill?"
"An exploring game," suggested Coraline. "A finding-things game."
"And what is it you think you should be finding in this hide-and-go-seek game, Coraline Jones?"
Coraline hesitated. Then, "My parents," said Coraline. "And the souls of the children behind the mirror."
The other mother smiled at this, triumphantly, and Coraline wondered if she had made the right choice. Still, it was too late to change her mind now.
"A deal," said the other mother. "Now eat up your breakfast, my sweet. Don't worry -- it won't hurt you."
Coraline stared at the breakfast, hating herself for giving in so easily, but she was starving.
"How do I know you'll keep your word?" asked Coraline.
"I swear it," said the other mother. "I swear it on my own mother's grave."
"Does she have a grave?" asked Coraline.
"Oh yes," said the other mother. "I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back."

Posted at 04:47 AM     Read More  

Sat - August 19, 2006

Millhauser the Illusionist


Coming home from work tonight, I heard a review on NPR for the new movie, the Illusionist. The interview with writer/director Neil Burger and the review definitely piqued my attention, but I caught my breath when I heard the movie is based on a short story, "Eisenheim the Illusionist," by Steven Millhauser.



Steven Millhauser is one of those authors that one encounters when one is in college, haunting your dreams of fitting into acceptable American society, raising a family, working an office job. Instead, you see an image of yourself as the outcast you are, seeking solace in writing beautiful prose that goes out of print within a few short years, discovered only by a certain type of recluse on the verge of hopelessness.

In my sophomore year of college, I took a second part-time job as a janitor at the Student Union at the University of Iowa. Three times a week, I would arise before 6 and go down to the Union, starting my day with a furtive Benson & Hedges and a round of vacuuming through the bookstore. It was on these very early morning pre-coffee routines that I started to discover some of my favorite authors... John Barth. Tom Robbins. Susanna Kaysen. Milan Kundera. And Steven Millhauser. Specifically, Portrait of a Romantic. Sure, From the Realm of Morpheus and Edwin Mullhouse were beautiful works of art. But it was the opening passages of Romantic that captured my heart and made me willing to give up whatever potential I had for being a fine upstanding man in order to chase Millhauser's muse...

"Mother of myself, myself I sing: lord of loners, duke of dreams, king of the clowns. Youth and death I sing, sunbeams and moonbeams, laws and breakers of laws. I, Arthur Grumm, lover and killer.

"And you, dark angels of my adolescence: you too I sing. O restless ones. Setting forth this day in my twenty-ninth year, on the voyage of my dreaming youth. I, Arthur Grumm..."

Posted at 01:18 AM     Read More  

Tue - March 28, 2006

Lem made his way to the launching bay


As some Polish newspaper is reporting:

Zmarł Stanisław Lem

Grzegorz Kowalczyk, PAP (aktualizacja 17:14)

W wieku 85 lat zmarł w poniedziałek w Krakowie Stanisław Lem, jeden z najpopularniejszych i najbardziej cenionych polskich pisarzy. Łączny nakład jego książek tłumaczonych na 41 języków przekroczył 27 mln egzemplarzy. Pisarz zmarł w szpitalu Collegium Medicum UJ, gdzie przebywał od kilku tygodni.

Apparently, that means Stanislaw Lem is dead. Long live Lem.



Lem is the brilliant mind behind Solaris and Hospital of the Transfiguration. I stumbled upon him my senior year in college. If I hadn't been kiting checks to get through college, I may never have known of his genius!

Posted at 11:26 PM     Read More  

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