Yesterday’s post was uncharacteristically somber, so I thought I would lighten things up here and simultaneously promote myself. So it’s a win-win for everyone! Especially me!
First up, over at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, I was inspired by all the books I will never get around to reading. What’s on your not-gonna-read list for 2020?
Maybe This Will Be the Year I Finally Get Around to Continuing Not to Read Ulysses
Today, I have a piece at Points in Case, inspired by the lack of innovation in the real estate agent portrait business. Don’t worry, I fixed it.
Hot Trends in Realtor Profile Poses
Please enjoy these bonus tracks. And like most bonus tracks, they are completely unnecessary.
Also, I apologize most sincerely for the title of this post.
Drinking Tips for Teens 
Well, I failed. I failed not to not read your Ulysses post. In fact I failed to not not read it so badly, I snorted weekly all over my phone screen… Bare chested, standing astride a flaming drain, of course. Fabulous, Ross
If that’s a reference from Ulysses, then you’ve already done more homework than I did research for this piece. Thanks, Lynn!
Ha! I think not. My knowledge of Ulysses extends to reading how difficult it is to read 😊
I just came over to your blog after reading lists on McSweeneys…and I have not been there in months.
Always quality stuff. Sharp political satire but I’m actually more of a fan of their off-the-wall stuff. I have another piece lined up for the end of the month to celebrate Chekhov’s birthday.
I few years ago I borrowed some old anthro textbooks, to not read, when I thought I’d found a place with a real fireplace, but that rental fell through, or technically, was condemned, and then it turns out you can’t put books in the blue bins – – they were still there the next day, and I received a really menacing note from the garbage collectors, probably they’re mostly English Lit and Anthro majors. I didn’t want to leave them in those neighborhood “Little Library” boxes, in case some kid picked one up, so I got a hot glue gun, and now have a pretty cool end table, that I’m not reading. “Argonauts of the Western Pacific” by Bronislaw Malinowski is the one I’m not reading the most I guess.
So it’s a coffee table book.
Yep. I know it’s been done before, not a novel idea.
Yes, I said yes, and um yes again and again! Ugh. But I am actually not not reading Ferrante right now
Are you loving it? Where you at?
Hello
I’m liking it a lot–two thirds of the way in. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I picked up the first one–am I going to be mocked and laughed out of literary venues if I stop after the first one? It is compelling, this story of a friendship, but so dark. The violence, so much of it casual, like “don’t tell my mother I was out in a boy’s car or she’ll bash my face in.” And we know it could really happen. And the violence that happens in households is how the whole neighborhood operates. (Probably my favorite parts, as someone who’s written some about Italy between the wars–though this book is set after–is when Ferrante extrapolates further–past the neighborhood to her country’s violent past–and the factions: Fascists, etc.) And crazed Rino–geez. It just all feels like a powder keg with the girls’ friendship–and the rest of their lives–at the dangerous fore. Did you give the book a go? Or was the hype enough to put you off?
No book-shaming here! If you don’t want to go on, don’t go on. But it’s really one long novel. You’ll see… I read the four over a month and a half. I’m a slow reader, but I was spending long evenings turning pages. I can’t quite explain it. The writing style is not… spectacular, but it just draws you in. The story, the emotions, the violence always on the verge.
If you read the McSweeney’s piece, there is some truth to it. Someone on Twitter was dissing Donna Tartt and said, “Read Ferrante instead.” I had never heard of her but made a note. Then “My Brilliant Friend” started showing up on best-of-decades lists. So in I dove. No regrets.
Have fun!
Thanks, I am having fun–especially when I stop by your blog. Keep it up!
and I am not reading my spam blogs.
I think when it comes time for it that I’ll sell my own house…. scratch and sniff indeed.
Ha! Tell me about it.
Read the McSweeney’s piece before I saw your post here…loved it. And scratch and sniff profile poses? If they could smell like their current listings, I could have avoided my current money pit. I like how your mind gears work.
Mind gears: making noises since 1965.