Shooflypie

I have not done a good job of talking about the books I've been reading, so here's a rundown of everything I've read since the last time I did so (which was back in the middle of March. Yikes!).... Unpossible and Other Stories by Daryl Gregory - When I read the titular story when it was first published in F&SF , I knew that Gregory was a writer worth reading. "Unpossible" is about a man who used to travel between worlds when he was a child and how he tries to do it now that he's middle-aged and it is utterly brilliant. Other stories are about a world of super-heroes and villains (for which I am a sucker), the rise of a new religion, a woman who spends most of her time thinking and needs others to watch her body, and so much more. All are well worth reading. Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records by John Cook with Mac McCaughn and Laura Ballance - Merge Records is one of, if not the best record label out there. This book came out a few years ago to cel...

I've managed to read 2 books so far this year, The Ecstasy of Influence by Jonathan Lethem and The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson. Before I talk about the books, I thought I'd talk about my book goals for 2012. I've joined the Books on the Nightstand 12 in '12 Challenge for the year; my 12 for the year will be books from 2011 that I didn't get around to reading last year. In addition, I've also set a goal of 52 books on the year, which works out to one a week. Obviously, I'm already behind that pace...but it's also early in the game. Lethem's The Ecstasy of Influence collects a wide variety of his work, mainly non-fiction in nature, though there are some scattered pieces of fiction throughout. He talks about his brief days at Bennington and short friendships with Donna Tartt and Bret Easton Ellis, an interview he did with Bob Dylan, his thoughts on the book critic James Wood, Philip K. Dick, book reviews, super-heroes, movies, and so m...