testingdistance

just finished…

blood brothers by richard price. 

price wrote blood brothers when he was twenty-four. 

twenty-four.

i hate him.  

book was amazing though.

no brooklyn library.

Just finished Moneyball.  (Yeah i’m seven years late to the party but whatever.)

Very Gladwell-ish type writing.  Meaning, Lewis builds a non-fiction narrative that makes you want to keep reading.  But at the same time you have this feeling that the facts about Oakland, Billy Beane and the ‘winning’ statistics were being twisted to make the story more fantastical.   (yeah, fantastical.)

Also, I just now read online that everyone had debunked Moneyball.  

Damn it.

A moment for bragging:  I was actually in attendance for the record breaking game in 2002 discussed in the book (A’s win 20th consecutive game after blowing 11-0 ).  It was amazing.  Those are the games that make me love baseball more than my future children.

just finished: it feels so good when I stop by joe pernice.  
similar to: another bullshit night in suck city by nick flynn.
last saw joe pernice: perform at the mercury lounge in nyc
he laughed at something I said about: northern virginia
but in all fairness: what i said really didn’t make any sense; he was just being nice

via:

caterpillarcowboy:

infoneernet:

Closing the book on B. Dalton

B. Dalton Bookseller is about to turn its last page, nearly 44 years after throwing open the doors to its first store at Southdale Center in Edina.

With just 50 stores in the once-mighty chain still open, parent company Barnes & Noble Inc. will shut down all remaining stores by month’s end. Minnesota’s last two locations, in Edina and Bemidji, will close Jan. 16.

It’s another chapter in nearly two decades of upheaval in the book industry, as the rise of Amazon.com and national supercenters crowded out smaller chains and independents.

But back in its day, B. Dalton Bookseller was one of the nation’s top retailers and on the cutting edge of technology.

» via Star-Tribune

Them - Adventures with Extremist by Jon Ronson

it’s a little bit of this.

If you’re a reader and iphone user, indiebound.org offers one of the most helpful apps ever. It will tell you the location of the nearest independent bookstore, give various recommendation lists, and even let you search for titles and authors. Basically, it has helped me find a few things I never would have otherwise. Did I mention it’s free?

52books

Just completed Meloy “Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It”

It’s been awhile since I’ve completed a book. But it’s not for a lack of trying.

FAILED:

Capote ‘In Cold Blood’

Dostoevsky ‘Crime and Punishment’

Power “A Problem From Hell”

Lewis “What Went Wrong?”

Le “The Boat”

I may come back and read these books. They all deserve our attention.

On my bookshelf (and for a very long time now)…

Heston, whose politics are no secret, was invited by the People’s Republic during its most open period, prior to the confrontation in Tiananmen Square. He offers perceptive, intriguing comments on the difficulty of mounting a Chinese-language production and of interpreting a naturalistic drama for people steeped in a nonrealistic theater tradition. Not as substantive or well written as Arthur Miller’s “Salesman” in Beijing, the book is long on charm but short on details about China and the Chinese. Recommended for theater buffs and Heston fans.

-Amazon Review

So, an all Chinese speaking cast and an all Englishing speaking Heston.

I can’t remember who gave this to me, but I don’t think it was meant to be a satirical gift.

listen, i think we can all agree that vampires are ruining fiction.

also, i think jared diamond is a liar. and tom robbins is overrated.

there. who’s dangerous/cool now? a boy with pointy teeth or a man who brazenly criticizes noted literary figures?

markn:  booktumbling

26 and irresponsible.

You can’t blame the innocent, they are always guiltless…Innocence is a kind of insanity.

- Thomas Fowler in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American

Just finished:

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss (Read if you enjoy learning about punctuation)

Identity by Milan Kundera (Read if you enjoy being depressed)

Late summer reading keeps going.