Women
by lz in Reading Archive on 30Apr2006
Bukowski demolished my theory that the first sentence indicates preference for the rest of the book; although now that I look back, it's not a bad first: "I was 50 years old and hadn't been to bed with a woman for four years." I turned my back on Bukowski due...
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The Kite Runner
by lz in Reading Archive on 30Apr2006
I finally got into this one sixty or so pages in, very near my threshold for giving up. Glad I stuck with it b/c I was unable to put it down once into the story. A boy from Afghanistan lives with a shameful secret about his boyhood friend/brother Hassan, and...
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The Tender Bar
by lz in Reading Archive on 29Apr2006
Completely readable and entertaining; a memoir by JR that speaks lovingly of 2 things: his mother, and the bar in his hometown (named Dickens, then renamed Publicans) where he learned to be a man and lived many of his best memories. Definitely funny material throughout. Fatherless JR, constantly battling the...
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I've always wondered how it is that authors (or more realistically, editors) order the stories in a short story collection. This group starts out strong and trickles into less as the nine stories tick by. There are brief flashes of brilliance, it is entirely readable and sometimes surprising. "The trick...
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Singularly goofy and madcap. Crazy frothings of a madman. Pure fantasy. Amusing at times and entirely skimmable. Hodgman is at his best listing the top 700 hobo names (Salad Fork Ron, Beef-or-Chicken Bob Nubbins) with detail on the extensive hobo wars and symbols, prohibition-era euphemisms for alcohol and the fact-based...
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Indecision
by lz in Reading Archive on 15Apr2006
"The trouble with going on living would seem to be the mortifying implication that somehow you approve of yourself." Dwight Wilmerding undergoes a mental crisis in the days leading up to his high school reunion, breaking it off with his girl in NYC, losing his job, flying to Ecuador, taking...
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Never eat alone
by lz in Reading Archive on 01Apr2006
Skimmable wisdom from the networker extraordinaire. Basically, help others connect, build and utilize your network, merge personal with professional contacts, have fun doing it. Be yourself and vulnerable to connect at a more real level with people. Birthday rememberance is a nice touch to reaching out to the corners of...
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A somewhat average guide to Belize; several things worked against it-- minimal maps, dated information (written in 1994, Hoffman suggests writing away for information from the mountain lodges before you go-- as in POSTAL mail) and no web addresses. It did have a few things going for it-- instead of...
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More goodness from Moon Handbooks. I like their guidebooks in general because of the detailed mapping and off the beaten track information. This was more of the same. The trip is now looking like this: * Northern Cayes (San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker) * Cayo District (San Ignatio...
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