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How freaking brilliant.i wonder if those are all cookbooks……
nigella lawson’s library is absolute PERFECTION. so so pretty. It looks like something from a movie.
(via keremmermutlu)
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Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth - Xiaolu Guo
O, R
This really is a terrific book. Some of the writing in evidence in it is revolutionary and transcendent. There is also a ‘screenplay’ in the final third that ties the themes of alienation and renewal together brilliantly. If I were a director, I would kill for the rights to film this.
The copy I have has a better cover: a gorgeous girl (presumably the narrator, Fenfang), almost expressionless, drinking in a cafe. For form’s sake, I’ll now say that I didn’t originally just buy it because of the cover. Of course, for function’s sake, you won’t believe me…
Great new cover for this book. It’s a lot like catcher in the rye, except it’s set in Asia. Great stuff.
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Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems - Allen Ginsberg
O, R
Jess from Gilmore Girls was a big fan of Howl, to the extent that he graffitied comments in the margins of Rory’s copy. Yes, this book has prestigious origins in the realm of my experience. But though I read a lot of other books mentioned on the show (hey there, Dorothy Parker), I never made it to this one.
Actually, it was after reading Kerouac’s On the Road that I decided to finally get this book. It is worth it.
See, the beat writers were in love with language and freedom. They wrote the way they lived their lives, twisting it to their will, wringing it for every last drop of meaning and pounding their fists at the empty, painful parts. Like geniuses before them, they were fiery and more than a little crazy; the difference was that they did not push their writing into the acceptable moulds before releasing it. They let their nuttiness hang out there like so many straggly beards. Kerouac said it best: they were holy madmen with shining eyes.
Of course, the above says very little about the book. I say this: Lisa Simpson plagiarised one of the titular poems during a classic episode. This shows the measure of the work as nothing else could.
We cool now?
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Chamfort - Reflections on Life, Love and Society - Nicholas Chamfort
O, R
In fact, his name may not have been Nicholas. Not because his real name has been lost to history, but because I am in a cinema right now, waiting for a movie ( Tomorrow When the War Began Yayyyy! Finally!) to start and I can’t remember for the life of me. ‘Nicholas’ is nice, though; don’t rag on Nicholas.
Chamfort is the neglected, unappreciated, middle child in the Philosophe family. He’s completely overshadowed by the likes of Voltaire, but his aphorisms are no less cleverly barbed.
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The Tale of Genji - Lady Murasaki Shikubu.
O, U
I have actually read part of this book in an anthology of Japanese literature. It was the ‘Yugao’ story, which contains some beautiful imagery. (Then the titular Yugao gets pwned by the vengeful projection of Genji’s jealous wife.)
This is sometimes billed as the first modern novel ever written, predating both Richardson’s Pamela and Cervantes’ Don Quixote by hundreds of years.
Apparently, Lady Murasaki was in no wise an admirer of her brilliant contemporary, Sei Shonagon, the writer of one of my all-time favorite books, The Pillow Book . While my personal opinion is that Shonagon could kick Murasaki’s obi any day, I’ll forgive the slight, if only because of Yugao.
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Bonus points because this is a Doctor Who quote.
(via fallingtofly, veganlove)
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Amrita - Banana Yoshimoto
O, R
I’m actually still reading this one, but I love it. This book seems to iterate and articulate so many of my private reflections and passing notions on existence, self and self-awareness and perspective in looking out on the world. There are so many little throw away ideas that feel as though they were snatched from my consciousness during moments of reflection: thoughts about looking back at a younger self, memory and its characteristics and how one’s frame of reference alters over time. This is a very beautiful, engaging narrative which manages to be thoughtful without being unduly ponderous.
Initially, however, I bought this book because of the beautiful sky blue cover and the fact that the writer is called Banana - the latter of which alone makes owning the book irresistable.
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(via vacillatrix)
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Spiral - Koji Suzuki
O, U.
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Ring - Koji Suzuki
O, U.
