Dictation, by Cynthia Ozick

The amanuenses of Joseph Conrad and Henry James meet by accident and one, unnervingly conniving as she is, convinces the other timid one to participate in a plot that she believes will make them immortal, in a certain sense (the literary sense). I was slightly enthralled by this piece of inventive historical fiction. But it was also disturbing. Anything that makes me believe in human nature a little less is disturbing.

I haven't read much further in this collection of novellas.

Music for Landing Planes By

I can't wait to read Music for Landing Planes By. In the meantime, I've been reading Eireann Lorsung's blog.

After a week of waiting for the book to arrive from Amazon, it still hasn't come. I finally broke down and ordered it online since none of the local independent bookstores seemed to carry the book, even Modern Times which seems to have a rather good selection of small publishers and poetry titles.

Books + The Extra Man by Jonathan Ames

I seemingly failed to keep this blog alive. But I've been reading. At the least, I was hoping to catalog my reading materials. Later, I could look back and find myself pleasantly surprised by the quantity of books I really have been reading.

So maybe it's time for a little catch-up.

I'm off to the library in a short while to attend the RADAR Reading Series, which is always wonderful. I might attempt to acquire some books at the same time. And after that, continuing on in the bookish theme of the evening, I might sit down and catalog the books I have read over the past few months. They are all sitting in stacks against my wall, as I have yet to acquire a bookshelf.

Right now I am reading The Extra Man, by Jonathan Ames. As most of his books are, this one is severely strange. There is something entertaining about it's perverse humor.