fr_defenestrato | One year ago tomorrow... (Reply)

I was in Chicago and I bought a bunch of books at the Brown Elephant: Michael Chabon's Summerland, Napalm and Silly Putty by George Carlin, Baudolino by Umberto Eco, The Essential Kabbalah by Daniel C. Matt (with a Harold Bloom encomium on the back that made it hard to resist), Bushwhacked by the late, great Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose, and a very nice 2001 Chicago neighborhood-by-neighborhood guidebook, which I made use of the rest of the weekend.

So, wow, check it out: a year later, I've read the majority! I read Bushwacked first, then Baudolino, then started the Kabbalah book and got through all the prefatory and historical material... then got bogged down in the mysticism proper. Oh well. As to Carlin in writing, it just doesn't translate. One needs to hear Carlin. He's not at all a printed-page humorist. The Chicago guide was for reference, not reading; and the Chabon is seriously next on my list, when I'm done the Anthony Lane essays. Good on me! I don't buy books wantonly and wastefully!