Just a Little Update

I just began reading this book. I am like 175 pages into the 326 pages. This book is amazing. If you remember I loved the other Richard Powers book I reviewed for this blog, Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, and I like this one even more. Powers is amazing at weaving several different stories together so fluidly. He and Paul Auster are the most interesting authors writing today. They are both very good and taking several stories and arranging them so that they intersect.

In this work, Powers is investigating the nature of memory. This book is seemingly autobiographical with the protagonist being a fictional "Richard Powers." However, it is less than straight forward, and at one point he even mentions that in Three Farmers (I am paraphrasing here because I don't have the copy of the book at hand) that "it was important for a reader to separate the "real story" from the simulated stories."

In this work the fictional powers and a researcher at U., a fictional university that the fictional Powers attended (I would guess the University of Illinois at Urbana because that is where he attended college in real life but we all know the dangers of making assumptions about works of fiction based on the author's "Real" life) are trying to replicate memory in a computer system. Actually they are trying to teach it "the canon" so it could pass the same master's comprehensive exam that Powers passed years ago. However, interwoven throughout the story are Powers own memories, and through these memories Powers investigates the nature of memory, and how memory helps shape who we are.

I cannot adequately put into words how much I like this book. I have been dragging my feet and rereading pages because it is so interesting and well done. To be honest I don't want to finish reading it because it is so good. I truly think this book is one of the most interesting and best written books I have ever read, and that Richard Powers is one of the best young novelists America has produced in a long time.

Still Bored...

Since I am quickly approaching "gamer's thumb" from playing so much Mecenaries: Playground of Destruction, I am taking a moment to make a request to the readers of this blog.

Please post your ideas for a book I should read over the break in my free time.

Difficulty: I should be able to find said book at Half Price.

Even More Difficulty: NO Sci Fi, Fantasy, or Children's Literature (Goose and Brendan I am looking directly at you two on this one).

Most Difficulty: Preferreably nothing over 300 pages.

I will consider any book seriously ventured. Note, I said seriously ventured.

Also, I really like this band. You should check them out. They are called "The Cold War Kids." They are pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK-0WcWpiUY

PS: I am rapidly tiring of Blogger/Blogspot. The fucking HTML is kicking my ass. Everytime I post something it has a fucking HTML error, and I don't know how to fix it. I never had these problems with the old version of Blogger, or even with MySpace. That's why I blogger/blogspot because I am a fucking HTML idiot and I don't want to deal with the shit. I want the freaking computer to do it for me. BRING BACK THE OLD BLOGGER BECAUSE THE NEW BETA IS SHITE!!!

A Lazy Wednesday...

Well it has been all of two days off of work and it's official: I am bored as shit. Not that I want to teaching/taking classes again so soon but I always would rather be doing something productive as opposed to sitting around hanging out all day playing video games. What makes Fort Worth so fucking hard to take is that all my friends are like 100 miles away, and I don't really hang out/like/deal with my hometown friends. All my hometown buddies are married with kids, or hooked on drugs and each comes complete with its own baggage/bull shit I don't want to even begin to try to deal with.

I will say this, though. I have lost ten pounds on C-Dog and T's patented "drink yourself to death" diet. I think it was all brain wieght though so I am not sure how much good it really did to lose that ten pounds because I definitely do not believe it came off my waist. This is a list of Things to do in the next few days to alleviate boredom:

• Play with Lilly Bloom. She is my minature daschund puppy. She is by far the cutest and best dog ever. Please do not post with an argument about how cute/cool/better your dog is. I am really not interested in a discussion because honestly: Your Dog Sucks. It is no contest. I mean it is always a contest with me, but really, it is never really a contest.
• Look for a bookshelf. Difficulty: I am broke. Even More Difficulty: Like $20 to my name broke. However, I really really need a book shelf to take with me to Indiana so I have find one, and the cheaper the better. I really do not want to have to resort to the "bricks and particle board" book case. I will, and I am not hating on the "bricks and particle board" book case, but I do not want to have to resort to this. It will be hard enough convincing Indiana intellectuals that I am not white trash without the particle board bookshelf.
• Go see Goose's show tomorrow with J Rod. If you have not heard of
• Read another book. I am not sure what yet, but I am going to read something. I think I am finally going to start Gravity's Rainbow. BBBBAAAAHHHH! JUST KIDDING!!! That book breaks my patented "I don't read shit over 250 pages rule." This is a recent "grad school commandment" brought on by burn out but I have become a firm believer that every novel should be less than 250 pages. If you don't agree go ahead and submit a book you think should be allowed to subvert the 250 pages rule, and if I have read the book I will tell you a section that is shite, and why, and where they should have cut it down. Those of you in American Renaissance may remember this as the "Let's kick every author/book in the nuts this semester and see how that goes" game I played most of the semester. I think I actually turned my mentor against me with this game. It was fun, though. Especially when he looked at me like, "You are Dead to Me," when I said American fiction sucks before Frank Norris, and he responded to that by saying, "What about Mark Twain?" and I responded by saying, "I stand by my statement." Classic.
• All kidding aside I think I am going to either read "McTeague" again, or try to finish Second Hand Smoke for the upteenth million time. I wish I had remember to bring Dave Egger's What is the What or A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius home with me. That would make this whole reading dilemma much easier.

Anyway, that is it from here. If you have any ideas for summer fun stuff to kill boredom remember to send those ideas along. Remember that I am broke so it has to be "free fun." PS: Don't send me any of those "Begin working on your novel" ideas. I am on top of that. It needs not be stated.

A little Rage to start the day...

I love this song and this band. I have recently heard rumors of a reunion. That would be awesome! Don't get me wrong I like Audioslave just fine and I am not hating on them but Rage is in a class all of its own. Plus, I love protest music which outside of Rage Against the Machine is pretty much a dead genre. Anyway, check this video out. If you are a music company/record label/angry lars ulrich type musician please do not sue me.