What I Am Reading: The Discomfort Zone

I enjoyed Jonathan Franzen's book The Corrections immensely and upon realizing that I would not be working at Borders much longer I promptly bought the other two books of his that we had in stock.

The Discomfort Zone is meant to be (as the cover says) a personal history; all of 20 pages in it appears to me to be a tamer telling of The Corrections with his real mother and father reflecting milder versions of their counterparts in the Corrections. Makes you wonder if he wrote this only to clear up any misconception that Alfred and Enid were fictional characterizations of his parent. Not all of us can be fooled.

Yet again Jonathan Franzen fails to disappoint in the cover department with this being my favorite book cover of any book I have read so far. My being a lover of maps it isn't hard to believe that a book with a very descriptive map of a man's heart would catch my fancy. Now after doing a little research stemming from reading the back cover, apparently the original map (published in a January 1960 edition of McCall's) came complete with a map of a Woman's heart as well. I have been unable to find a good quality version (here is a poor one) via the internets so I now have plans to look through Northeastern's collection of Magazine's and if I cannot find it there I will hunt it down at the library of congress. To be continued.....

What I Am Reading: Factotum

The funny thing is I have two more Bukowski books sitting on my shelf. In the latest installment of creepy old men I enjoy reading, we have yet another Charles Bukowski book, Factotum. After Women this is the most recomended book by Bukowski, so I expect great things.

Apparently this was a movie starring Matt Dillon. Now if I were to make a movie based on a Charles Bukowski book, I would not give the role of Henry Chinaski to Johnny Drama's brother. My top five actors would be:

5. Gene Hackman: Gene Hackman has been in just short of 10,000 films and has played every role under the sun AND is in my favorite always on TV movie, The Quick and The Dead. He can play Henry Chinaski better than Matt Dillon.

4. Jack Nicholson: We know he is creepy and we know he enjoys loose woman and booze so fitting into the role of Chinaski would not be too hard. The only problem is at this time in his career what we would get in this movie would be Jack Nicholson living the life of Henry Chinaski. Jack no longer acts, he just screams at Laker games and puts butts in seats.

3. Nicolas Cage: I despise all movie Nicolas Cage except Matchstick Men, which of course is what I am drawing off of. Cage can play a creepy eccentric man, that is the only role he can play besides Nick Cage. As long as he doesn't play Nick Cage in this movie we are ok.

While I'm on the topic George Clooney is the same way, except better looking and we like the role of George Clooney and his Leatherheads and O Brother Where Art Thou persona is not creepy.

2. Casey Affleck: No he isn't a creepy old man, though he has the potential, but if you are going to be making a movie of a young Henry Chinaski, Casey (Not Ben) Affleck is your man. May need a little uglying up and an attempt to tone down the Boston accent but other than that he is awkward enough to fit the bill.

1. John Malkovich: Though I know what Bukowski looks like but John Malkovich is who I picture when I'm reading. He has no problem playing creepy, eccentric, overbearing assholes, just watch Rounders.

As for the cover, like all covers Bukowski it is a good solid cover (and it's not the movie cover mind you) but I still prefer the new covers that have been being made recently and if it was not for the movie we would have had one redone for Factotum.

What I Am Reading: A Farewell to Arms

Eh it was ok, review here.

Not to be confused with Hemenway St. Ernest Hemingway is the author of small book we all know and claim as one of the best books we read in High School (judging by the size it's hard to see why that is) that book being The Old Man and the Sea.

Surprisingly that is not the only book Mr. Hemingway wrote, there appears to be countless others since and before then. One of which I happen to be reading now, A Farewell to Arms which takes place during World War I which was ironically known as "The War to end all Wars." You didn't really need to know that, I just thought you might enjoy it. If you didn't then you probably should not be reading this blog, it's full of useless things like that.

Before we get to the cover I would like to point out ways that Hemingway is connected to my life:

• He is Katy's favorite author (A Farewell to Arms is also her favorite book) which only perpetuates her fascination with creepy old men. I still don't quite understand why she likes me though.
• My cat is known as a Hemingway cat because of her extra toes, a type of cat that can only be found in Key West, New England and parts of Europe. All places Hemingway spent time drinking, enjoying the company of many women, writing and apparently breeding 6 toed cats.

There is not one Hemingway book in print that has a good cover. I implore you to find one, and if you can't I beg you to make one and break a few copyright laws in the process.

What I Am Reading: The Good Citizen

Book. Done. Read. Here.

As the end of the semester is fast approaching which means among other things I have come to my final Capstone book (hooray!) which goes by the name The Good Citizen by Russell J. Dalton. Now sadly I will have to retain some semblance of an argument from this book in order to right the 2 page review I have to write for one of the five books, which I conveniently left until the last book which also happens to be the shortest book weighing in at a scrawny 178 readable pages. It's supposed to tell me what my generation is doing to shape American politics, I'll be the judge of that, I mean where does an old man get off telling me about my generation?

The cover is a play on the famous World War II photo depicting women driving America, for that alone I don't like the cover. Create something don't just rip off a famous picture. That and I have a feeling that he is going to say that gimmicky buttons and writs bands (pictured on the cover) mean something; they don't. Everyone has them so therefor we have become resistant to them, they don't work and if this guy tries to tell me otherwise I'm going to stop reading or at least I will stop taking him seriously.

What I Am Reading: rabbit, run

This book has since been completed in full by the eyes of The Underling submitted here for your perusal is the review.

Calling an audible on this one, originally I was going to read Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel (which I actually started on the plane but stopped after 10 pages) but I have decided to go with John Updike's rabbit run instead.

As you may or may not know John Updike died recently and as the corollary goes, once you die your books become more readable. So it makes sense that I would have a sudden urge to read him.

My whole life I have heard of people talking of this Updike fellow, and besides thinking it funny that he had "Dike" in his name like all teenagers would I also thought only snobby people read him. I thought that because every time I overheard his name it was with an air of superiority and it sounded like to read Updike meant you were in a club of elite readers, a club of snobbery. Now it may come as a surprise but an elitist (your term not mine) such as myself hates elitists in a group setting (which makes me sort of an Über elitist) so I refused to read Updike for that reason.

Since then I know better, just because I bunch of literary assholes read an author it does not mean that they own him. So with his death and on a recommendation by my friend John I decided to pick up rabbit, run and give it a read. I am determined not to turn into an elitist literature spewing snob.

As for the cover; it is on the boring side when it comes to graphics but at the same time I like the simplicity of it. It as if they knew that they were going for a generic cover and decided not to make it more than that, good job Ballantine (which makes me really want some Ballantine Beer, I do believe I will be going to Bukowski's later today for one or two, oh hell I may just have to enjoy myself this afternoon).

Which makes me realize, one of my favorite authors has a bar named after him right down the street from my apartment. Though I knew this bar was down the street I did not connect my love for his works to the bar down the street until just now.

On that note I'm going to go drink, and if I get drunk I blame you the reader.

What I Am Reading: The Pearl

This book has since been learned, go here for thoughts on it.

I have never really enjoyed Steinbeck's writing, I say that having not read anything by him since High School. So in the name of retrying things I bought The Pearl, ta novella. I figure that if I am to try to read Steinbeck again a 89 page novella of critical acclaim is not a bad place to start.

I am still reading The Corrections, but because of it's rather large length and then the relatively short length of The Pearl I thought I should submit this post early because of the small period of time (an hour or so) it will take me to read this book.

As for the cover, being that I purchased a copy that is only printed in England, for more money than it is worth (in Egypt), when at Borders there are about 3 other copies of this book in stock (where I have a discount mind you) I believe that should tell you something about my opinion towards the cover. The spine and back cover, which can not be seen continue the theme of the front cover with Steinbeck's name being written in two different fonts on the spine as well.

I think in the future I am going to take my own pictures of the cover, spine and back covers and upload them, partially for quality as well as it is nearly impossible to find anything but the front cover online. We'll see how that goes in the future.

I hope to finish this (and The Corrections) before I fly back to Boston so I can leave it for Katy because she has never read any Steinbeck before.

What I Am Reading: The Corrections

This beast of a book has since been finished, for the review (if one could call my blathering a review) can be found here.

Well I'm reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen because Katy's friend Doug said that Katy had to read this before she went to Egypt. She did, but then the trip got postponed, and Katy thinks I should read it. So I am. On the plane to Egypt. 566 pages in 16 hours of travel time. I think it's doable (and then I will probably read either Ham on Rye or Homage to Catalonia for the remainder of the flight). So expect a What I Just Read as soon as I land


On to the cover!

First off, Burnt Orange is an under appreciated color when it comes to cover text (nice pairing with white and black btw), publishers take note. Second the fact that the title slants upward even though the authors name (which is two times the size of the title mind you!) does not is great, only proved greater because the "A Novel" text which is over the picture is also slanted. The sliced in half picture of Thanksgiving is very cool, mostly because it draws you to the quizzical look of the boy in the corner of the picture (who is well placed on the spine with the the same same slanted title).

Final Verdict: Though the cover would call for a face out by yours truly at Borders the equal beauty of the spine will leave it untouched for the time being.

What I Am Reading: The Hollow Hope

It appears as if The Hollow Hope by Gerald N. Rosenberg will have the privilege of traveling to Egypt with me I don't know if I feel the same way. It looks like it's going to be 431 pages of legal history, which happens to be one of the many reasons why I do not plan on going to Law School. Regardless it must be read so I can pass the very expansive and far reaching 10 question quiz to come in two weeks.

Also with this next book I would like to add something extra to the "before" post about each book, because in the end if I don't put much in either post I might as well just consolidate them into one.

With the explanation out of the way the new little tidbit in each post is going to pertain to what the book looks, feels and smells like. Here goes:

First of all, it is far too big; if The Underling can not palm the book then it is too big. Second with the glossy finish, sepia tone and highlighting this book feels like a textbook (which it is), the big second edition stamping doesn't help it's case either. All in all the book has a bad feel to it and looks like a fairly boring book.

Final Verdict: Would not by based on cover alone.

What I Am Reading: A More Perfect Constitution

I have since finished this wonderful piece of work (I kid) read the review here.

With the completion of that awful book comes the start of Larry Sabato’s - A More Perfect Constitution. Besides being the book that my group project is centered around I actually was looking forward to reading this because I love “What If?” situations and revising things (usually things that don’t really need revising). What I am no looking forward to is the class discussion about this, come to think of it I hate every class discussion in that class.

Funny story. So in my Capstone class we have to do a group project on a range of topics, and I chose to be in the American government group, for obvious reasons. Within my group we had to pick a concentration, I chose state and local government for obvious reasons. Slight problem; my professor has a doctorate in state and local government.

What I Am Reading: All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well

When I get down to just John Lennon you know it’s time for me to start another book. Next up is Tod Wodicka’s book (get ready) All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well. The name isn't long enough right? That combined with the cover and the Harvard Bookstore recommendation is the only reasons why this is getting read.

Quick Ponder: Is it wrong of me to go to the Harvard Bookstore, read the recommendations, take them seriously and then go buy the book at Borders because I have an employee discount? I just feel like I am stealing.

Anyway this book looks, writing wise, to be interesting (i mean the word “mead” is used in the first sentence of the description). But the best part is the actual cover, which looks like it's straight out of a Monty Python and the Holy Grail interlude, equipped with a long rambling text that makes no sense. Because I can not find a picture of the copy I have any where on the Internets I have attached a picture of me holding the book at the Harvard Bookstore. Yes that is my famous red jacket.

What I Am Reading: Women

I have since finished this book, for the review navigate here.

Next up on the never ending trail of books is Women by Charles Bukowski. When I was purchasing Post Office a couple weeks ago my coworker Steve voiced that Women was his favorite book by Bukowski, I vowed to make it my next Bukowski book. Well as it would happen someone else decided they wanted to read Women as well, so I had to wait a week to purchase it. Now I have it, and I'm reading it, even though I have a boring book to read as well.

As I have stated before Bukowski is the dirtiest of the dirtiest old men and he gets his dirtiest when it come to talking about females, so I can only imagine how dirty this book is going to be. Stay tuned for the review.

Oh I also have purchased Factotum (another Steve favorite) and Ham on Rye which Worth commented on when I was purchasing it. So it appears as if Bukowski may be going the way of Vonnegut, that meaning I will probably end up purchasing and reading ever piece of his published works when it is all said and done.

What I Just Read: The White Tiger

This book is, as my manager at Borders put it today, "sneaky good". You do not realize how well written and entertaining until you are 100+ pages in and your realize you are over 100 pages in and you hadn't realized it. For myself a quality of a good book is if I am not constantly looking at the page numbers counting down until I am done. Most books I read I read for what I want to call a "Conquest". I read them because I feel as if I need to read them, be it because I bought them with the intent of reading them for pleasure and now I just have to read the book because I own it or because I want to know whats in them (i.e. John Lennon) or because it appears to be a book everyone should read (any Shakespeare). The White Tiger may have started that way but it finished as an overall enjoyable book.

In more detail, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga was the perfect book to follow my reading of The Post-American World. It was a narrative on what India is like for the lower castes of society and how regardless of Globalization and the "Rise of the Rest" it takes a serious and dedicated individual to advance themselves in society. The White Tiger touches on everything in Indian society, from poverty to pollution to forced prostitution to government corruption to outsourcing to the emergence of a modern India. All of this through the lens of resourceful and determined young Indian named Balram in his writing to the Premier of China.

A thoroughly enjoyable and well written book.

Next up will be Women by Bukowski but I am forcing myself to read my Captone book before I read Women but it just does not look appetizing at all. We shall see. Expect a post on Women before weeks end.

What I Am Reading: Fixing Failed States

I have since finished this book, check out the review here.

New book here people. Not particularly interested in it but it's for class so I will have to at least try to read it. It's about just what the title implies Fixing Failed States. I'm sure it will have a bunch of great points about how and why we should fix these countries and then at the end it will have a point about how this is at the moment impossible because of the political environment in the west.

Ok now I'm going to go read White Tiger.

What I Am Reading: White Tiger

I have since finished this book, read the review here.



Rejoice my faithful readers! I have chosen White Tiger by Aravind Adiga! Chosen for no other reason that I could not get my hand on Women in time (actually if I hated waited on Women I would have been disappointed, there wasn't a copy at work today). Well that was part of it, I also read 30 pages so far, 30 pages of which I have so far enjoyed.

Winner of the Man Booker Prize the book is about an Indian national who tells his life story via letters to the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao which seems slightly prudent because of one o my recent reads dealt primarily with the futures of both India and China.

But that is not why I am reading White Tiger, to be honest I had no idea what hte Man Booker prize was until about an hour ago. I am reading White Tiger because I have caved to peer pressure, about 19568094540 people have recommend me the book so I must relent.

And yes I know there are not 19.5 billion people on the earth thank you very much. There are 6,756,267,658 as of this moment.

Mixed Rulings for The Underling

After a fervent, and at times almost violent, debate The Court of the Underling has ruled that The Underling is not required to continue reading Lord of The Flies because of the two previous times in his life that he has read said book, as well as his unyielding support for its character. Immediately after the ruling The Underling could be spotted removing the bookmark from the book in question and is expected to place it back on the shelf sometime later in the day.

This move came on the heels of a long planned trip by book comptroller Katy who could not be reached for comment. Many analysts believe that The Underling has been waiting for this trip to push the issue in order to limit any damage he may receive in the press.

In other news The Court of the Underling ruled that John Lennon: The Life by law must be finished by The Underling sometime in the future. A spokesman for The Underling who will remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak on such matters said "The Underling is interpreting this as a requirement before death and will continue to actively not finish this book for the time being."

Story by the AP

What I Just Read: The Post-American World

Another day, another book. On the heals of yesterdays triumphant finish of Post Office I have accomplished another such glorious feet by finishing The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria.

Now this book was not a choice for pleasure but rather a choice made by the illustrious Prof Portz the humble leader of my Senior Capstone class. The choice was made as a sort of wrap up of the International Relations portion of our Political Science studies. A good choice, if I were graduating a year ago.

In his book Mr. Zakaria breaks down the status of today's world and where he thinks it will go. His view of the future is nothing new; a world still dominated by the US but in a less and less unipolar world, with ascension of India and China to the world stage, the consolidation of Europe, and increasing power to energy rich states like Canada, Russia and The Middle East. All well and good and he even goes into great detail about why this is going to happen, fairly convincing when I channel my 20 year old self.

The problem is, we don't live in that world anymore. We no longer live in a world where China will continue financing US debt, where the US has decades to adapt to the new world order, where a booming first world economy is lifting the developing nations. This is a great book, well researched and well written but it is the wrong book for this class.

I guess that is the problem with most Political Science books, they exist in a world where policy and theory react to real world events on a daily basis, a world where not even this mornings New York Times is correct anymore. This is a digital world and I don't know if professors really get that yet.


As for what I will be reading next (in addition to Lennon and LOTF) I have been assigned Fixing Failed States by Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart for Capstone, which I will dive into Monday night (expect a blog post about it that evening). As for pleasure it's either going to be White Tiger or Women. The problem is I really want to start Women but in order to do so I need to wait until Sunday when I go to work to buy it. Where as White Tiger is within arms reach at the moment. I'm going to start White Tiger tonight I think but if it doesn't grab me by work Sunday I will forgo it for Women. Check back Sunday night for a post about one or the other.

What I Just Read: Post Office

Yeah I know, that was quick, but it is a testament to how much I really like a good book. I'm not saying that Lennon is a bad book but it could stand to lose a little wait. Anyway onward with the review!

Kurt Vonnegut with hang over, that is how Bukowski writes. Strip away the goofy foolish parts of Vonnegut's books and you are left with a dry and biting sarcasm, Bukowski has that but he also had 6 pack and half a handle of whiskey the night before writing it.

Post Office is a novel about a hard drinking, sleep deprived, gambling, low life womanizer who just seems to roll with what life throws at him. Bukowski, of poetic fame (which means the prose flows that much better), writes post office in six major parts broken down into chapters that range from 1/4 of a page to 4 full pages, with each chapter having a type of finality to it. The book took me know time to read because every time I finished a chapter I moved onto the next and then the next and then the next.

All in all I loved the book, as of right now one of my favorites just because it was very fun to read and was straight forward with its point, Charles Bukowski is a sleazy old man who loves alcohol and a nice pair of legs (and ass and boobs). This Sunday I plan on picking up Women because it's Steve's favorite Bukowski book and I can only imagine how it will read.

As for the next book added to the list, it might be White Tiger or I may simply wait until Sunday and start up with Women, regardless I plan on finishing Post American World for class before I start anything new.

What I am Reading: Post Office

Yes dear readers I did it again, I have cheated you, I started reading yet another book. I know I just posted two days ago about a book I was reading on top of the other two books I am reading, and yes the shame is getting to me. But not enough that I won't start another book! Armed with a $50 gift card from Borders (it only cost me $2300 on my credit card to get it) I went in to work determined to buy new books (even though I am reading three and have plenty I could read). I decided on White Tiger by Aravind Adiga because it has been recommended to me about 17 times now as well as Shakespeare's Julius Caeser because I am re-watching Rome with Katy. All good choices I think, but we'll see.

The third book I purchased, and the one I am reading now, is Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Now my logic for purchasing this book goes like this; there is a bar that I frequent down the street called Bukowski's which is dedicated, as the name indicates to Charles Bukowski. As well as the bar there is the fact that all his books have amazing covers, and me being a stickler for a good cover figure I should give one a try, so I pulled Post Office off the shelf (should be noted that Please Mr. Postman was playing all day at work, may or may not have factored into my decision). As I was making my decision on what three books to buy (I puled down like five other books which will go unnamed so no one can second guess my final choices, yeah I said it) Steve comes over and tells me "Charles Bukowski is one of my favorite authors." Why? "Because he is the dirtiest old man there is." That sold me and clearly means I have the right to start reading Post Office (and probably all his other books because so far it is a riot) before I finish my other three books.

Get over it, I'll read them eventually.

I have since finished this book, read the review here

What I Am Reading: The Post American World

Yes I know I have not finished reading this book or this book but since I have gone back to classes I have been assigned a few books to read by the end of the term. I debated blogging about the books I am going to read for class but then I realized that I am in fact going to read them and consequently digest them so then I should mention them. First up is The Post American world by Fareed Zakaria, which is, as the title suggests, about the world after America is no longer the preeminent power. I am about 60 pages in so far (which is more pages than I am in to Lennon) and find it to be a fairly enjoyable book that has got me to want to read into a few more subjects he talks about. That being said the financial crisis has left some of his points to be slightly outdated but none the less the main theme of the book appears to still be quite relevant. Expect a review of the book in the next week or so (that's a promise you can take to the bank, because I have a test on the book in a week.


Oh and I will finish Lennon it just might take a year or two.

I have since finished this book, read the review here.

A Not So Tragic Hero

I'm starting to not feel so bad for Piggy any more. Before I thought he was just that poor fat kid who everyone loved to make fun of, now I'm starting to think he brings it upon himself. First he gives up the name he hates most to the first person he sees and expects the kid not tell anyone. How stupid could he be? I myself was prone to the kidding of my peers at a young age and because of that I went to great lengths to avoid giving them anything to poke fun at.

Piggy should have laid back took on a much smaller role and gone about making his ideas known through back channels. You would have thought he would have learned thatby now being a fat four eyes with asthma.