Desperate Houseflies: The Magazine

Feel free to pull out your trusty fly swatter and comment on what is posted here, realizing that this odd collection of writers may prove as difficult to kill as houseflies and are presumably just as pesky. “Desperate Houseflies” is a magazine that intends to publish weekly articles on subjects such as politics, literature, history, sports, photography, religion, and no telling what else. We’ll see what happens.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

I'm Not a Closer

I don't have the best discipline when it comes to reading books. I seem to like buying books as much as reading them, which then creates a dilemma because I love starting new books as much as I like finishing ones I'm already reading. So, I have, at present, ten books started. I'm about half-way through each of them. Bad news is I'm expecting another book in the mail later today, so I'll not be making any progress on the books I've started.

So, I'll tease you with some upcoming posts. Don't even pretend you're not interested, as the books portion of this blog is the backbone, the air that fills the lungs and what-have-you and etc.

I didn't read much as a teenager, so I kind of missed out on all of the Fantasy Fiction that gets so many people interested in reading. For instance, I didn't read The Lord of the Rings until I was 25-ish. And a confession that I'll go talk more about next week (or, more likely, at some date later than next week) is that I don't like that book. Well, one qualifier: I loved the first part of the book, The Fellowship of the Ring. The last two installments were painful and predictable and, gasp, boring. At least for me. (Another qualifier is that I loved the first and third movies in the trilogy.) Then a couple of summers ago after a heated graduate-league softball game, one of my professors told me to read Dune. It blew me away. It made me want to read more Fantasy Fiction. So, at the moment, I have three different Fantasy Series going. The genre is starting to make more sense to me, and reading the other series (Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series; China Mielville's New Corbuzon (that's not what it's called, but I don't think the trilogy has an actual name -- the books just take place in a town called New Corbuzon [and I might be misspelling that, as I don't have it in front of me]); and George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series) has helped me understand more about the genre and also explain why I didn't connect with Tolkien.

I'm also reading some academic-y stuff, just to make myself feel smart. Namely David Hume (got to love the Scottish philosophers -- can I get a witness Coolhand?) and Margaret Himley's wonderful book: Shared Territory: Understanding Children's Writing as Works.

Another tease. About a month ago, as you all remember, I mentioned Dan Chaon's You Remind Me of Me. I'm close to finishing this one. It is so very good. If you all buy it, I won't feel the need to write a rushed review of it (our editor is very pushy when it comes to deadlines). And a brief aside for anyone thinking of giving me a present. A very dear friend of mine gave me this book while I was in the hospital a couple of years ago. She wrote a very sweet note to me in the front of the book. So now, everytime I pick the book up, it reminds me of her. That is how you give someone a gift.

And in the spirit of Spring Training, I picked up a copy of Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African-American Baseball. I devoured the first half and am hoping to finish it, well, whenever it is I decide to finish the books I've started.

17 Comments:

Blogger DeJon Redd said...

My initial thoughts:

1) I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or relieved. You see, before when you mentioned all the books you were reading, I felt like an inadequate reader ... a chump that only reads one book at a time. Yet I share your compulsion for book buying. I see at book on-line or at Costco and buy and then get home and remember my new purchase goes to the end of a line that is 20 books long!

I'm not sure if I'm relieved I'm not so different from a highly educated book reader or if I'm disappointed our book contributor isn't the super-human book reader I once believed him to be.

2)I've always wondered about this academic reading... Take my friend Duane -- A brilliant mind. Does he read the boring, dense academic stuff to feel smart? Or does he feel smart because he reads the books with the big words? Just a thought from ignorant curiosity.

-D-

9:38 AM  
Blogger Michael Lasley said...

My super-human powers most definitely lie in the purchasing of books department. I'm actually a slow reader -- I make no attempt to read quickly. I take my time with it. The upside of being half-way through 10 books is that in a month I'll be able to list a bunch of books I just finished and it'll make me look like I have super-human reading powers.

As for academic books -- I read them because I'm a nerd. I am a bit more disciplined in my academic reading. I only read one or two of those at a time, and I only read a few pages a day so as to digest it, and I take lots of notes and whatnot. I think nerds like Duane and I probably read those books because we are searching for something, even if we aren't sure what that is. And the upside is that we get to look really cool while walking around with big, thick books with really long titles that include semi-colons or colons and other such grammatical devices.

10:41 AM  
Blogger DeJon Redd said...

As an aside, I’ve really enjoyed the discussion on pacifism going on at kendalball.net.

And does anyone else find the "word verification" really tricky?! I'll confess ... sometimes it takes me three tries!

1:08 PM  
Blogger Michael Lasley said...

YES, Duane. I feel like a two year old when it comes to the verification process. Glad I'm not the only one. And, funnily enough, I read the long thread at kendalball this morning. A lot of it seems to be stuff we've discussed here quite a bit. I like his blog in general.

Joe, now that you bring it up, I may name my band Grammatical Devices. I mean, when I start one. Which will be shortly after I learn how to play the guitar I bought 4 years ago.

1:45 PM  
Blogger Al Sturgeon said...

No to "grammatical devices." Sounds kinky.

Yes to "word verification" challenges. Glad I'm not the only one.

Interested in the "pacifism" discussion, but not enough time right now to try my hand.

And as to reading books, I try to have two at a time going: (1) work-related (for now, "Eat This Book," the newest from Eugene Peterson), and (2) just-for-fun (for now, "The Sportswriter," by Richard Ford).

Just finished the first one (while waiting in Wal-Mart's automotive dept. for 3 hours for them to fix a flat tire), and just getting started on the latter...

1:48 PM  
Blogger Michael Lasley said...

Al, you've such a dirty mind, which is why I love you. I like it better now that you've added the "kinky" factor to it.

5:00 PM  
Blogger Michael Lasley said...

Oh, and one more thing, Al. Doesn't waiting 3 hours for a tire change make you miss being in Paragould and going out to Frank Gatlin's place and his fixing your tire, changing your oil, and lubing your car, all while you drink sodas from glass bottles so cold there is ice in them and, oddly enough, watching a soap opera while sitting on those big couches and then having him charge some embarrassingly low sum of money for all of the work he did? I'm just saying.

5:06 PM  
Blogger Al Sturgeon said...

Mikey, I never had the pleasure of Frank Gatlin's place of business. Can you believe that?

I have a had a couple of conversations with Bill Beasley (aka Andy Griffith) at his shop. Those were fun!

6:40 AM  
Blogger Terry Austin said...

Finally, a topic worth discussing: Frank's Auto Parts. :-)

He doesn't have soda in glass bottles any more, but the soaps still run. I prefer to stand out there with him while he works. My mechanical ignorance brings great delight to Mr. Frank. I shall never forget the time I told him my hood wouldn't stay up (keep thoughts pure, please), and he smiled and put the prop bar in its proper place.

I think I may have cussed at that point, and Mr. Frank enjoyed that, too.

8:49 AM  
Blogger Terry Austin said...

Word verification: ajziv.

First try.

8:50 AM  
Blogger susansinclair said...

I began to wonder today what word verification does to dyslexic bloggers. Like we've put yet another hurdle in the way of full literacy participation.

11:41 AM  
Blogger Al Sturgeon said...

I don't know what it does to lysdexic folks, but it sure bugs the me out of stew.

Terry's a showoff.

1:05 PM  
Blogger Terry Austin said...

Yeah, well you're a fjwrg!

(First try... again.)

2:01 PM  
Blogger Terry Austin said...

Straying back on-topic:

Current reads: "Dress Your Family in Denim and Corduroy" (D. Sedaris) and "Abraham" (B. Feiler).

Oh, and "Adobe GoLive CS2 Classroom in a Book" (Adobe Press).

Next hurdle for full literacy participation: a llop tax.

In closing, lfemdfrh.

2:05 PM  
Blogger Michael Lasley said...

No bottled cokes at Franks?! Glad I moved. As for Beasley's, Al, I've never had him do any work on my car, but he graciously used to let a few of us use his shop after hours to smoke cigars. And there are few things in this world as entertaining as hanging at the Beasley home. Terry and I have some classic memories from there. Or at least I can remember them (Terry is old and forgetful).

3:47 PM  
Blogger Michael Lasley said...

Hi Susan. I forgot to tell you that earlier. I'm glad you stopped by. Hope life is going well in the NE. The rest of you should check out her blog when you get a chance. She's smart and funny and quirky. And gives the best massages ever, although I don't think that necessarily comes through on her blog.

5:05 PM  
Blogger Duane said...

I'm not sure how many times my name has been used in vain on this blog, but thanks, DeJon, for starting it!

Anyway, I read such books, which are not boring by the way, because I'm interested in the subject matter. Michael is probably right to call me a nerd in that respect. It is the same reason I have a microfilm reader in my house (that's for those of you who know me). I'm just a weird person who is interested in complex things like ancient biblical manuscripts and studies that discuss the minutiae of how to understand the development of our Bible and other such historical things.

There are many of the books I read where even the title is difficult to understand for some. Yet that is not the extent of what I read. For example, here are a few books that I'm reading:

The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazzero--more for personal development as it deals with the emotional health of leaders.

An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts by Matthew Black - this is a classic in the biblical language world dealing with discovering some of the ways in which the language Jesus spoke, Aramaic, can be seen in the Greek text.

Old Testament Theology by Bernhard Andersen. Pretty self-explanatory, but it is probably somewhat difficult for someone whose not thought about "big-picture" type ideas in the Old Testament.

Preparing for Adolescence by James Dobson. This is a book I'm reading with my adolescent daughter as a way to discuss some important issues in her life.

I'll just stop there for now.

7:27 AM  

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