america adrift

This week will be a small one. For Friday, I need to learn the basics of French Theory, and how to discuss it without applying it to anything but itself. So I am writing to you from the non-existent centre of Derrida’s ramblings, as of now, but starting this Friday at exactly 3pm I will be free. And, I will have a degree, so you’ll have to start taking me seriously. What this means is: I will be free to indulge all my book cravings, and I am therefore going to add a little something to this column, namely my musings and criticisms in regard to what I am reading that week. This will be new to me, and whatever I write won’t be reviews, since I am going to be very much biased in that regard. I don’t know yet what the first book will be, but I can tell you that I will be traveling in Portugal and Italy, and depending on whatever internet hookups I can find, the updates on my behalf may vary a day or two; so the update may fall on a Tuesday or Thursday the next couple of weeks.

As for this week, I have had to stretch it a little as for directly literary stuff, but I’ve found some small bits here and there.

David Rosenthal at the Baltimore Sun wonders about the alarming fact that only 20% of all novel readers are men, and concludes that Father’s Day should be used for giving men novels (I agree; I have been giving my father novels for the past ten years). Support an important cause, buy your dad a book next time.

The New York Times’ book section reviews William Gurstelle’s latest do-it-yourself guide to ballistics and explosives: Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously. The book is, apart from instructions on how to make things that can destroy other things, an exploration of the significance of risk-taking to our well-being. Do not buy this book for your dad. Buy it for yourself.

Finally, a link to the San Francisco Chronicle’s book section, which is not as engrossing and omni-encompassing as that of the NY Times, but which has some interesting items from time to time. There is a feature where different independent bookstores in the Bay area in turn provide recommendations in different areas of literature. Just wanted to throw it out there.

That’s it for now. When I get in touch w/ you next week, I will be a Bachelor in Arts, and I will be reading real literature again. Awesome.