goodreads the book of form and emptiness

I’ve always been a commute reader-I have an hour long commute to campus, which is lots of time-and it looks like I’ll be doing some of that the next few days. There’s been a lot of unexpected work the last couple of days, and I have even more to do, but I’m getting the reading in every spare moment I can. It seems rather more fanciful than an account of actual events, but is very entertaining, if meandering and long-winded.

19 pages of The Memoirs of Vidocq, Principal Agent of the French Police Until 1827 by Eugène François Vidocq.

Notes: this one is also for school, but I enjoyed it considerably more.

43 pages of The Works of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe.

It’s been pretty hit or miss so far, but I have to read it for school, so I am. This one actually is creative non-fiction: a collection of short pieces, it includes writing by “celebrities and civilians” telling the story of various found objects, brought together by the editor of Found Magazine. This one gets a shockingly low overall rating from tons of folks.

Notes: I had the same problem with this as with Lutz’s book-the first couple of pieces seemed too pretentious for me, and a whole bunch of GoodReads readers and the reviewers from my local public library all agree.

44 pages of Requiem for a Paper Bag by Davy Rothbart.

It’s a bit tough to get through, honestly. While some of the language is lovely, the plot drags, and there are whole chapters that are asides: 3 pages on whale skeletons, followed by 4 on whale fossils, 13 pages about “cetology” (the study of whales and dolphins), 9 pages examining various cultures use of white to show sanctity, 10 pages-comprising 3 consecutive chapters-comparing the head shapes and sizes of two kinds of whales, and so on. It’s definitely the book that’s been on my currently reading list the longest. I’ll periodically pick it up, read a few chapters, and then put it back down for months. Notes: I have actually been reading this one for about 8 years.

9 pages of Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

8 pages of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.

173 pages of Faces at the Bottom of the Well by Derrick Bell.

108 pages of The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Shakur.

90 pages of Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke.

There have been a few chunks of what I think is excellent writing, or what my poetry teacher called “moments of pleasure”, and I’ve been quoting them on my tumblr, as well as on Twitter (length permitting, of course). And the pieces after the first two don’t feel as pretentious to me, so I’ve been back to reading this one again. Notes: I thought this was creative non-fiction, but it’s actually fiction.

24 pages of Partial List of People to Bleach by Gary Lutz.Classes are great so far, but there’s so much reading associated with them! I’m gonna start including that here.

Goodreads the book of form and emptiness