xyzzzz__
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Below are the 2 most recent journal entries recorded in the "xyzzzz__" journal:
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12:49 pm
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Reading Update: I went home from work to die on a couch...with a book
Still nearly dead from being all fluey/feverish. If you ever find yourself in this position have a copy of Rilke's The Notebooks of Malte Laudris Brigge and Mishima's 'delightful' short story Patriotism with you and it will all be ok.
On the days spent only on couch I saw that Countdown improved (the new lady that does the letters is waaay better than Carol, and Jeff Stelling is an inspired choice). Murder She Wrote and Sherlock Holmes adaptations were reliable.
( Updated list: October )
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10:05 pm
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The Literature Machine: Reading Update for Aug
AARGH SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP! In January (when this list was first drawn up) I think I said something like I would 'end fiction' this year. Of course I was kidding: 'Literature Machine' is borrowed from a non-fiction essay collection by Italo Calvino, who is actually way down the league of Italian authors. In the last month or so I've been discovering authors from that country: Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante (Moravia and Morante were married for a time), Ignazio Silone (a contemporary of Gramsci's who may have spied for the other side) and Leonardo Sciascia's Mafia tales. The latter are like no crime books ever, they seem to be extremely concise riffs on the impossibility of justice.
But I've added about 15 books, deleted about five which I really may never find. Read much of what I added. More Austrians - Arthur Schnitzler's Dream Story, which Kubrick used for his last film Eyes Wide Shut (its 10 billion times better than the film, btw, although it has made me want to re-watch), a couple of books by Stefan Zweig (Beware of Pity has a bit too much dissection of characters where it does not seem to be needed, no wonder he was more of a short story/novella man) and the excellent Joseph Roth.
Other additions: Burroughs fave Denton Welch (read about him on I Love Books, which is the ILX board which I'm posting to the most, unsurprisingly), Hjalmar Soderbergh (this list reaches Scandinavia at last!) and Henry De Montherlant, who was a fascist...I'm exploring how the erm...'negative energy' in guys like Celine is bought through onto their writing (best explanation I can manage). In a similar vein I may add some Ernst Junger.
And who knows what else. But I want to start Proust: hopefully in 2-3 weeks.
I NEED A HOBBY!!!
( Updated list for August )
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