John Irving on John Updike

I always love reading what authors have to say about other authors.  Sometimes the pieces are critical and deeming, while at other times they can be full of praise and grace.  My favorite thing about reading what authors have to say about each other is the insightfulness that exists in the understanding of how one writes.  While without doubt we all write in our own personal style and voice, I believe there is a similarity in all writing.  It has something to do with the thread of language, and the purpose of writing in and of itself, which is to communicate ideas to others.  Very often (though not all the time) people who have made a profession out of writing have a profound understanding of the art and what goes into the process of good writing.  As such they can often relate to other writers and the process they got through.

All that being said, I direct you to a piece written by John Irving on the late John Updike, appearing on Slate.com.  It is wonderful, insightful, and moving and strikes of that understanding that I think exists between people of letters.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I have never read a full John Updike novel.  The same is not true of John Irving, who ranks as one of my favorite authors (The World According to Garpbeing high in my favorite books list).  I think Mr. Irving is a great writer.  And while his stories may definitely not be for everybody, I think he deserves credit for his skill with language.  Read what he wrote about John Updike.  It is really beautiful in my opinion.  And interesting, very very interesting.

RIP John Updike

Perhaps one of the greatest American authors of the past century, John Updike, passed away from lung cancer yesterday.  Mr. Updike was 76 years old.

I am a bit ashamed to admit, that while familiar with many of his major works, I have never read a full John Updike novel.  I have however read a number of articles and other pieces by him, the most recent being an article about Mars that appeared in the December 2008 edition of National Geographic, it was a lovely and enlightening piece.  I feel that it is worth reading the New York Times obituary for Mr. Updike, as it does a better job than I could at summing up the man’s great life. You may also want to check out this article and this slideshow.

I can say, with honest belief, that Mr. Updike wil be greatly missed, but that in all likelyhood his works will continue to persevere and promote discussion and contemplation.  He was truly a gift to American Letters, a rare breed that finds their place, and excels at it in all ways.

The Curious Creatures and The Blood they Drink; Bill Schutt’s “Dark Banquet”

At the same time that I have been reading Charlie Huston’s vampire detective novels (just finished the second one No Dominion the other day) I have also been reading another book about vamprism, albeit a completely different kind.  The book is titled Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures and written by Bill Schutt.  Truth be told I actually picked up Dark Banquet before I had even heard of Charlie Huston, so it is pretty much mere coincidence that I have been reading two things about blood suckers recently.

People who know me pretty well are probably familiar with the fact that I have a pretty big interest in all the sciences (see my blog “I Wish I Was a Scientist“) and as such, when I saw Dark Banquet on the new book shelf at work a few weeks ago I thought it sounded pretty fascinating.  I will tell you that it is.  Currently I am only a little over a hundred pages into it, having just finished a lengthy section on vampire bats (Schutt’s personal specialty).  While I love reading things of science (high up on my list of favorite books is Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time) I usually take a bit more time in reading them, just reading a few pages here or there, as such the reading of Dark Banquet is going a little slower than other books I generally pick up.

Still, I really enjoy what I have read so far.  Schutt writes in a very accessibly manner that demonstrates his understanding of the topics but also a quick wit and sense of fun in regards to a subject matter that might not be something everyone can stomach.  And if anything, what Schutt seems to be doing in Dark Banquet, is show the utter amazingness in the the existence of these blood feeding creatures.  Take for example the vampire bats (of which there are three living species) which are the only known mammals to have evolved a specialized diet that consists solely of blood.  What is even more surprising about them is the fact that there is something like 1200 species of bats in the world (bats make up approximately 20% of all living mammal species on Earth, the only group tha makes up a bigger chunk are the rodents) and yet still only three feed on blood.  Schutt has done a lot of research on vampire bats and so has a really acute understanding of the animals.  The thing that I thought was most interesting is how one species, which feeds primarily on the blood of birds, had developed a habit of mimicking chicken chicks so as to feed on hens unmolested.  Just absolutely amazing.

So a really good book.  The chapter I am currently on is giving a brief history of human understanding of blood throughout history, which, until more modern times, was very minimal (hence the centuries of blood lettings).  If you are interested in science, especially biology, and are not too squeamish, then I would say Dark Banquet is a pretty good read to check out.

Books Brought Back

Before leaving Vermont I grabbed a number of books that I wanted to have back in South Carolina.  Over the course of the years I spent living in Vermont (and New Hampshire partially while I was in college) I accumulated a vast number of books.  I hope to someday have a house where I can set up a giant bookcase and then get all the books that I have to fill it (I love books!) but I don’t know when that will be, so for the time being I am just slowly collecting books that I want around.  This time the two books that I am really excited to have brought back were Jonathan Safran Foer’s novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.  I’ve read both novels before, junior and senior year of college respectively, and loved them both.  I have really wanted to reread Everything is Illuminated for some time now because I feel like there is a lot that I missed the first time through.  I’ll probably pick it up after I finish Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I also brought back a book of science fiction short stories, a collection of Philip K. Dick writings entitle Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings (the man was an absolute genius by the way), Charlie Papazian’s vital The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing, and a number of cookbooks.  All great things to place on my small bookshelf that I keep in my room (it really is very tiny, but for now, as a renter, it is appropriate).  I am excited to have these various reads available to me at my whim now.  I plan on doing some major room cleaning an organizing on my days off on Thursday and Friday, and I will probably devout a good amount of time on the bookshelf.

New Read: Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”

Well I am back from Vermont and back from the land of non-reading.  Up in VT I picked up my brother’s copy of Hunter S. Thompson’s very popular, semi-autobiographic work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  I had originally read the first three or four chapters of the book several years ago but forgot to take it with me when I left for wherever I left to (I distinctly remember leaving somewhere to go elsewhere) and thus did not finish it.  It is cool to pick it up agian and has been providing me with a pretty entertaining read.

The thing about Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is that it really reads like some kind of bad drug trip, which, if you believe even half of it’s contents, it likely was.  Now I don’t feel like disclosing my personal acts of deviance here (beyond admitting to a particular fondness for any alcoholic beverage) but it seems to me that heavy drug use is not always really the best process for the creation of good writing.  I don’t want to knock Thompson or Fear and Loathing too much, especially considering that I enjoy both the book and the author’s other works, but I question the degree to which the story should really be catagorized as “good” writing.  I guess it all falls into the realm of subjective value of writing but I feel that to a certain degree Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has been highly driven by popular culture more so than actual literary worth.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a fascinating book, but feel like a lot more of the interest lies in the subject matter rather than the writing style and literary aspiration (of which often strike me as a bit too chaotic and somewhat conveluted).

All and all a pretty good read, which should keep me well occupied over the next week or so.  My brother doesn’t have to worry about missing it too much condsidering that I bough himtwo other Hunter S. Thompson books for Christmas; The Rum Diary and Fear and Loathing in America.

Time’s 10 Best of 2008

Time Magazine has compiled a vast and comprehensive list of the Top 10 of Everything from 2008.  Of course you can’t have a category of “everything” and leave out books . . . so here, according to Time, are the top fiction books of 2008.

1. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
2. Lush Life by Richard Price
3. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
4. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
5. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
6. Personal Days by Ed Park
7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
8. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
9. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
10. The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike

If you are curious of reading the Time quick reviews of each you can find them starting here.

Time also offer the Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of 2008.

And, in similar fashion, check out the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2008.

I have found several books on all these lists that I would really like to check out.  Personally really want to get a 8hold of Neal Stephenson’s Anathem because I have read a number of glowingly positive reviews of the novel (also, I am slightly ashamed, as a self avowed SciFi fan, of never having read any of Stephenson’s works).  Bolaño’s 2666 intrigues me also, it seems to have gotten a lot of attention since its publication and I would like to pick it up for no other reason just to see what the heck it is all about.

Well if I get any gift cards to Barnes & Noble or Borders for Christmas I will definitely make sure to grab some good reading material.