Started reading Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen's autobiography.

Sounds like he had a pretty tough early life, which makes sense given his music. It's written in a way that makes me think of Bruce telling his story directly to you, the reader.

Seems like it's going to be a decent story.

^^ I will give this a read. Should have called it “The wild, the innocent and the E Street shuffle” tho’.

Does anyone in here have any experience with Conn Iggulden's historical fiction? I'm thinking of starting his book The Falcon of Sparta, a retelling of Xenophon's Anabasis adventures.

Funny thing about that Springsteen, I have a copy of that I've never opened. It's an absolutely brilliant cover though, an old photo of young Bruce leaning on a hot car. I also have an unread copy of the Bob Dylan memoir, and Elton John too hahaha. Classic book-buying problem with a varying attention span, plain to see.

Yeah, a late 60s Corvette. B & W photo, but it's a pretty hot car. Picture

I liked Dylan's book. I keep waiting for the next installment, but it never comes.

Late 50s.

Wow. OK. Didn't realize Corvettes went that far back.

Ditto;Read it also.....and there will not another installment- that’s his point.

Reading about Salinger. This review isn't complimentary, but I disagree.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...salerno-review

About two-thirds of his division that landed on Utah beach on D-Day got killed, but I'm not sure that Oona O'Neill marrying Charlie Chaplin didn't affect him more.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...38d_story.html

Louise Gluck wins the Nobel Prize in Lit.

Finished Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner.

This could have been the book of a generation if Lerner hadn't felt it necessary to include, as in authorial intrusion, several thinly disguised lectures telling readers what the book was about. I kept thinking, "Maybe he could re-edit this and have a contemporary masterpiece." Still worth reading for its post-post-modern take on things.

Just started Road Trip USA by Jamie Jensen.

It's details of 11 selected routes (mostly) across the continental US. Five north-south, 6 east-west.

Starts with the Pacific Coast, so far I've went from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington down through part of the Oregon coast.

Seems like my kind of thing so far. Gives some ideas about things to see along the route, without getting into mundane details.

If I ever feel safe about roadtripping again, will probably take this along as a guide.

I just hope the second largest ball of twine is mentioned when one of the routes goes across Kansas.

Finished Salinger. Meh. He ended up being a weirdo.

Started a book about time, but I'm not sure I'm going to like it much:

https://theartsdesk.com/books/joseph...histories-time

I thought his next two novels were much superior.

Didn't like Atocha Station.

Almost finished Tropic of Cancer by Miller. Definitely an interesting take on the scene/times of Paris, et al.

Not remotely pornographic by 21st century [or 1990s] standards.

...................

my favorite books:



light in august

go down Moses

crime and punishment

steppenwolf

invisible man

1984

the heart is a lonely hunter

a separate peace

rabbit run

the old man and the sea



my favorite short stories:


my old man - Hemingway - about a horse race that was fixed

fifty grand - Hemingway - about a boxing match that was fixed

ward number 6 - Chekhov - in Czarist Russia a psychiatrist is working with patients at a mental institution - his colleagues come to judge him to be mentally ill - he is then committed to the very institution where he was working


Hemingway was a truly great short story writer
all of them are available free at this link:

https://antilogicalism.com/wp-conten.../hemingway.pdf

Hemingway’s short story ‘A clean well-lighted place’ is genius

Finally finish Edward Gibbon's monumental work: The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I intersperse this read with other lighter books for spaces of relief. Never really boring, Gibbon's text can be dense and overwhelm the reader over a long period. Setting aside time off I think made me enjoy the work all the more.
It took Gibbon twenty years to finish his task which he finally concluded on June 27, 1787 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

I will leave you all with a tidbit from one of Gibbon's great footnotes, from near the end of his history, while expounding on some of the more rambunctious activities of Rome and its powerful families and rabid citizens.

*************

Hearing this, Cencio Frangipani, aforesaid enemy and disturber of the peace, hissing like a most monstrous dragon and drawing long sighs from the depths of his bosom, girding his sword behind him, rushed outrageously and smashed the doors. Full of rage, he entered the church, pushed the guard away, seized the pope [Gelasius II] by the throat, dragged him off, battered him with his fists and spurs and like a brute beast violently blooded the church with his spurs. And that freebooter dragged so great a lord by his hair and arms, while the good Lord Jesus slept, and led him as far as his own house, and there chained and imprisoned him.

*****************

Now that is something worth repeating.

I suggest we withhold judgement until we've heard both sides of the story.

Before diving in to Watchmen TV series I felt like I should finally read the graphic novel. I'm about 1/3 of the way through and loving it.

I've read all the Bernie Gunther (Philip Kerr, author) novels since the pandemic started.

I'm too burned out on them to fairly review them. I remember them starting as interesting both for the plot and the historical-cultural descriptions and illuminations. The writing is okay for pulp fiction, not as good as I expected from Kerr.

Yeah the latter books lack cohesion, that’s for sure.

I never knew if he was writing pulp or porn. His good stuff is really good and his bad stuff is really bad.

Been going through a ton of Larry McMurty books. The whole Lonesome Dove series. Read a few of his Thalia books. I even read his book of him driving the interstates. Currently on Anything For Billy, his take on Billy The Kid. Liking it more than his novella on Wyatt Earp.

Oh man I have these on the to read pile after being obsessed by the show Babylon Berlin and fairly entertained by the books (not sure id ever touch these if the show wasn't so good). I bought the first book and it ended up being the first 3 books in one. Im planning on getting to it soon. Possibly next. Now I may push it further back lol