Monday, November 13, 2006

Wrapping and Unwrapping

On the subject of my current reading:

I am very close to finishing Roxana. She is being, to some degree, unwrapped now, undone by her incredible past, unable to fashion a future. It's a kind of tragedy or, at the very least, a judgement...which is often to my mind a greater tragedy than a straight-up kill-everybody-at-the-end tragedy.

I am obviously not listening to Defoe's judgement at some level for I am fashioning a future through two new blogs: la lectrice errante and (slightly more than) 50 walks. You're invited! I'm not sure if I should design new personalities for these two blogs. It's a possibility or perhaps even an opportunity...What would D&G think?

Other reading: Choice books picked up in Halifax and at the Hamilton Small Press Book fair. The favorite, I think, is What I would Buy if I had Money by Dan B. It's photocopies of grocery store ads (mostly) with some Future Shop ads thrown in occasionally. It is a pure expression of desire, a desiring. I don't think it's widely available. In fact, when I bought it for 4 bucks, the woman in the gallery where I bought it said that it wasn't a book that they normally carried. It was probably just dropped off by the guy/author, snuck onto the shelf. Who gets the 4 bucks then?? Applicant by Jesse Reklaw is disturbing/interesting and widely available (check it out) but not as disturbing as the book I bought last year at the book fair which was called All the Guns I've Ever Had which I thought was fiction. After I talked to the author, though, I realized it was non-fiction...still it is a very visually pleasing book...

And, finally, the most recent book I've purchased: The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. It was a necessity because the library copy kept getting recalled (ha ha). I like the chapter "The Parts of a Book". I suspect this will become very important to me as I wander...