So, really really disappointed with utopia Avenue. The characters were uninteresting to a large degree, I couldn't even tell you anything about the drummer and I just finished the novel.

The girl is a non-manic pixie dream girl but we've made her a and she plays the guitar. And organ. And writes top 20 hits when she's 16. And sings amazingly well. And she's also tough as nails.

The dutch guitarist is admired by Hendrix and is also possessed.

Dean Moss had a chance to be interesting but didn't quite get there.

The manager is because sure, why not. He also mostly disappears halfway through the novel.

The 'happy ending' denouement is completely unnecessary. The musical name-dropping is exhausting and I even knew who most of them were [and their music].

And we're beat over and over the head about how it's okay to be gay because love is love and war is bad. Thanks, David -- Newsflash: it's 2020 where your readers are.

But it's not okay for one of the record label guys to have a girlfriend 15 years younger than him. In the late 60s, no less. I guess love isn't love when it's straight love! And then we have to hear about this some more when the band goes overseas and meets another record exec.


I haven't been this disappointed in a novel since Cosmopolis. 4/10 avoid.

'Broken record' sums it up, alright.

Started A Study in Sherlock, by various authors. A collection of short stories related to Sherlock Holmes in some way.

Being a fan of the great detective, thought it would hit me. Not so far. Read about four of them. Not great, but enjoyable. meh+ so far.

I am at that part now and am glad I didn't read it first, but feel like I should now go back and re-read the first 6 volumes.

I'm reading Positively Fifth Street and the book cold opens with an extremely raunchy sex scene that the author - yes, the same guy who sanctimoniously berated an amateur on espn for bluffing with Jack high* - created in his mind. I wasn't really expecting much different, except to not have finished 10 pages faster than any other book that I've read.

His agony seemed palpable from the very first page. Which is all I've managed to get through.

I've been reading Pole to Pole by Michael Palin.

For those that don't know, in 1989 Palin did a BBC documentary tryng to emulate Phineas Fogg's Around the World in 80 days. Since then, he's done several other travel docs for them.

The idea of this one is that he & the crew traveled from north to south pole, trying to stay around 30 degrees east to go over the most land. This is from 1991, so dated in some ways, but still interesting--they passed through the Soviet Union just days before the collapse.

Anyway, it gives a good telling of the (mis)adventures of travel.

All of them are quite good, I recommend any of the series and/or books for those interested in first-person travel tales.

Unfortunately, it's given me the itch to travel again, which is problematic right now of course.

I just finished the first chapter and it's all solid. DFW very good at noticing and describing. It'll be another week before I can give book full attention, but right now it looks like everybody can shoot.

Reading The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King

When the Author writes on pg. 9, "For example, I had five sources tell me different stories about one of Andy Beal's trips...." it really excites me. Unlike most literary agents, perhaps, I want to know all of the lies and who told them!

A few pages later Ted Forrest sits with 1/5th of his remaining bankroll after 20 minutes of short-handed play.

Started on something called Left Behind. It's about Earth's last days. When I picked it up, I thought it might be sci-fi about people who didn't make an interstellar ark or something.

Became almost immediately obvious that it really is Christian rapture fiction (what's the word for obvious truth, like the opposite of oxymoron? tautology?). Made it about 15 pages before I couldn't take the theme + poor writing any more.

Moved on to Decoding Reality by Vlatko Vedral. If I understand his premise (not at all sure), our perception of reality is encoded into information at the quantum level, and we can understand the universe that way.

I think this will be another one I read through, grasp a few fringes of the discussion here & there, but mostly it goes over my head.

Kirk Cameron on the cover wasn't a tell?

I got the paperback. Black with a mottled-orange stripe and green lettering for the title.

Pretty sure I wouldn't have put two and two together if it was. We're talking about the former actor? Is he a fundamentalist now?

I have just ordered a copy of “The Crystal Bucket” by Clive James to see if a book of television reviews from 1981 can still be as funny and perceptive as it was when I first read it.

Hints on Clive James:-

His music with Pete Atkin is worth a listen.

His memoirs (Particularly “Unreliable Memoirs”) are very funny.

His novels are dire (for British readers of a certain age think of a worse version of Melvyn Bragg)

I am not qualified to comment on his poetry

“Don’t worry, no one gets out of the world alive.” - Clive James “

His essays on historical figures, Cultural Amnesia, are pretty good, and revealing of what a complex guy he was: super super smart, weirdly obsessed with epigrams, deeply shaped by losing his father to ww2. Iirc His ex wife whom he remained on good terms with is a world renowned Dante scholar; late in life he decided to write his own translation of The Divine Comedy, which strikes me as a bit of a dick move.

Clive channeling Hank Williams
“Don’t worry, no one gets out of the world alive.” - Clive James

Some notes on the story -

A couple new ones

Bozo Sapiens: Why to Err is Human by Michael and Ellen Kaplan. When I picked it up, I thought it might be like a Darwin Awards-type of thing.

Turns out it's a study on the reasons (physical and psychological) people misinterpret information, make mistakes, etc. They do keep the writing accessible to laymen, and light with some fun examples where appropriate though.

Hate Mail From Cheerleaders by Rick Reilly. Just started, I think it's a collection of his Sports Illustrated columns from some years ago. He's a pretty entertaining writer, looking forward to this.

Bozo Sapiens sounds interesting. I haven't thought much about why reality tv people fascinate me.

Next in line is the Stu Ungar biography. It starts off with a eulogy given by Mike Sexton. Comparing it to the basic writing style in the Beal book, and the absurd intro in Positively 5th Street shows a profound diversity in how art is measured among the pokersphere.

On a different timeline, it would have been nice for Stuey to play heads up with Andy Beal.

A. Alvarez authored the best-written poker book, by far. More fun because it's pre-bubble imho. [Alvarez is a 'real' writer, not a poker-player who writes.] He does play in the WSOP.

Now started Men at Work, by George F. Will.

In addition to being a political commentator, he's a very entertaining writer and a true fan of baseball.

Published in 1990, so most of the people being mentioned are people I'm familiar with.

So far, quite good, but I'm only partway through chapter 1, which focuses on the manager, specifically Tony LaRussa.

I liked this book quite a lot. I had never given George Will a second thought until I read it. I think the pool of people who can discuss or write about baseball intelligently grows smaller every year.

Al Alvarez is, alas, passed away. But his book The Biggest Game In Town is the best poker book ever written and it's not close.

Mack,

If you like Will's writings on baseball, might try Roger Angell.

Agree entirely. Love the fact that helped Sylvia Plath, John Berryman and others gain notice in the early 1960s, via The New Poetry anthology.

Thanks, I'll check him out.

+ one more Kudos to Alvarez's poker book.