December 2011
9 posts
Year in Read, 2011
This was the year I left New York. It was also the year I learned it’s possible to read without riding the subway. Looking over the list, in 2011, I especially enjoyed being in the middle of a big book. I guess I like to spend time in a world someone else made. There are also a lot of books on this list that I didn’t really enjoy, just read. But I like reading, and when you like a verb, you do it...
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Nondenominational holiday music on repeat.
Nearing the End
I find end of year lists released in early December a little offensive. Offensive is too strong a word, but you know, culture is still coming out in these final days. So I will wait until December 31 to release my year in read list. That said, since finishing 1Q84, I’ve had a lot of trouble getting into another book. After all these years of reading on my own, I still can never figure out the...
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Sweet Talk
Two days before we left Fort Niagara, we took the dog, Duke, to Charlie Battery, fourteen miles from the post, and left him with the mess sergeant. We were leaving him for only six weeks, until we could settle in Oklahoma and send for him. He had stayed at Charlie Battery before, when we visited our relatives in Ohio at Christmastime. He knew there were big meaty bones at Charlie Battery, and...
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Other Realities
So there’s this piece on Slate about a writer who lost her computer in a cab, and after a bout of self-loathing, she bought a new computer. This was a story because a year after she got a new computer, she checked her Facebook Other Messages and learned that someone had found her computer soon after she lost it and wanted to return it.
And what are Facebook Other Messages? Something no one...
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On Brand
I’ve been a fan of the Christos since Calvin Tompkins 2004 profile of the couple and their efforts to bring the Gates to Central Park. Actually seeing the Gates was one of those experiences where forming a new opinion was impossible. I had been looking forward to the project for a year. I loved it.
So when friends of Over the River emailed (I’m on their email list, of course I’m on their email...
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A Conversation Between Girls
Girl 1: Do you like looking at strangers' wedding web sites?
Girl 2: Obviously.