![]() Nick read it too and this little summary: "Orringer writes about things that everyone writes about-youth, friendship, death, grief, etc.-but her narrative settings are fresh and wonderfully knotty. ![]() I recently wrote a review for Julie Orringer’s How to Breathe Underwater-a collection of short stories. (Oh forgive me Paul for prattling away and making everything all oogy ) And I really like that Nick Hornby likes to do it (heh) too. I am guilty of many of the aforementioned grumblings and I don’t care. How awesome is that? I know that GR gets a lot of flack, mainly from within… too many vote whores, too many silly reviews that have nothing to do with the book, too many pictures, too many cliques, yadda yadda yadda… As Steppenwolf once sang “Nothing is like it used to be.” So what? It is what it is (Lifehouse) and I like it. Okay, sometimes… but, this- this beautiful community has expanded my vistas… I have 409 books on my to-read shelf. ![]() (except, like, he gets paid for it) How many reviews have I read over my 3 ½ years here on GR? What did I do before GR? Scan the NYTBR? Not really. He writes about books that he’s purchased and books that he’s read each month. It sounds like a magazine or something, I don’t care. Nick used to write a column for something called The Believer. I am the Annie Wilkes to your Paul Sheldon. Maybe you should close your drapes in case someone is watching? You are oblivious that I am the one for you. You may sit in your flat in London listening to music and reading emails and such, drinking tea and watching your children play. Maybe there was something about a peculiar stepfather? Or was that This Boy’s Life? And I realized that, as this is true of just about every book I consumed between the ages of say fifteen and forty, I haven’t even read the books I think I’ve read. …But when I tried to recall anything about it other than its excellence, I failed. I don’t reread books very often I’m too conscious of both my ignorance and my mortality. “I reread Stop-Time because Frank Conroy is so eloquent and moving about books and their power at the end of Stone Reader. I ran out of space to write on it so I had to switch to a cleaner note pad piece of paper and yet it stuck with me because it knew that I would need it someday. It did a really good job holding my spot (twss) and it didn’t complain or get lost or anything. There are numbers written all over it, some circled, some underlined, some with exclamation points. It’s from March 14th and it’s for 3 iced coffees… and now it’s torn and there’s a gaping hole right over the total, it looks like it got wet at some point. So, I have this Dunkin Donuts receipt that I was using for a place-mark for this book. He does nicely provide an index at books end. The danger in a book such as this, are the number of books I have added to an already huge to read list. Other books and opinions will have to be read by yourselves. He also thinks highly of the works of Patrick Hamilton, whom I have yet to read. Dickens apparently created over 1300 characters in his books. He particularly loves Dickens, in this book he reads David Copperfield, and even prints out the part where David tries to sell his jacket. In between he tells us a little about his life, his family and the polysyllabic spree, which is what he calls those in charge of the magazine. He tells little tidbits about each book, taking us right along with his thoughts. His reading is varied and his opinions often amusing. Lol! These are essays he wrote for The Beloved magazine, and each month starts with the books he acquired and those read. Thank goodness I caught that one, there are many I haven't. Spell check wanted in the worst way to change Hornby to horny. ![]() I enjoy reading about the books others read, plus I enjoy Nick Hornby. ![]()
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