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November 15th, 2004
07:21 am - books, mostly
Yesterday morning I read Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, which is the Espresso Ulysses book club selection this month. Not exactly the cheeriest book to start one's morning off with - although I will say that reading the novel ended up making the video to the Metallica song "One" seem less creepy to me, since I could finally tell what was going on.
So, at that point in an empty house on a grey day, I decided I needed company.  grouchychris took pity on my plight, and we wandered down to Pioneer Square and Elliot Bay Books. Surely the best antidote to a depressing book is... more books!
It worked for me, anyway - I picked up Light by M. John Harrison, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and the Future Dictionary of America, which is one of the McSweeney's ensemble pieces. Then we prudently departed before I was ambushed by any more tomes, and wandered around a bit after putting the books in the car. We checked out the hours that the Russian submarine is open (9:30 to 5 daily, I think) and resolved to come back in the future, then went over to Magic Mouse toys for a bit, and then home. Because -- books! and other mundane considerations like lunch, and it being rather past bedtime for night-shift folks, and so forth.
I must protest that I did not buy Light just because there is a cat on the cover. Well, not entirely at least... really I bought it because in addition to it being a book club selection at the store and so forth, it came recommended by Iain Banks. Ok, and China Meiville (I'm giving the diacriticals a miss, sorry) and Neil Gaiman as well, and I figured that was pretty good triangulation. I read it yesterday afternoon and I wasn't disappointed - in fact I'm tempted to go back and read it again. Maybe if I'm feeling brave and social tomorrow (and I haven't forgotten some prior commitment) I'll try to show up at their SF book discussion group there at the store.
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Ha! I haven't heard that before!
I really like China Meiville, though I think he's utterly insane.
:) ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/18828797/211878) | | From: | deadrose |
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| Date: | November 15th, 2004 12:16 pm (UTC) |
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Yeah, I was a tad surprised when I heard "One" (or should I say when I listened to it enough to catch the lyrics.
I read it back in high school (extremely liberal English teacher, and hot on the heels of Vietnam. Pretty powerful book. ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/19908096/211878) | | From: | deadrose |
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| Date: | November 15th, 2004 12:18 pm (UTC) |
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Ah, well now I know what an oncoming migraine affects first: my punctuation. Please insert these in the above post: ) )
Now I shall go curl up in a dark room. May I borrow it, once I'm done with my current SF brick? |
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