when prose is as beautiful and lyrical as this, you can only wonder how much better it is in its original language. to be fair, i didn’t actually finish this book — i gave it to my brother to take home and read, but what i did read was fantastic.
this was a bizarre book, but it was also really good. to talk about it much more might spoil it. i’m glad lea recommended it to me, and now i’m passing on the favor by recommending it to you.
the yearly christmas card is currently winding its way through the various capillaries of the u.s. postal system. if you don’t get yours sometime within the next week, and you think you should be getting one, drop me a line. i don’t have all that many friends, and overlooking any of them is not a crime i would consciously commit.
you can see a tracklisting over on the mix list. it’s always a toss-up on what will get included and what won’t, and i’m sure that with another month (or with one month less) to puzzle and ponder that the likes of okkervil river’s “for real” and andrew bird’s “nervous tic motion” and goldrush’s “let you down” and some countless others would have gotten some well earned play time. ah well. there will always be more mixes.
in case anybody’s interested about which national parks the photos are from: the cover picture is taken from the top of one of the mesas at mesa verde, and the disc picture is from mesa verde as well. the lizard in the tray is at petrified forest. the booklet’s inside is at grand canyon, and i believe is a picture of the hermit’s trail. the tray back was taken at black canyon of the gunnison.
good, but not great. i can’t say it blew me away the same way the lord of the rings movies did, which, apparently, is what i was expecting.
this was lea’s choice for me to read for this year’s xmas book trade (i’m having her read stephenson’s diamond age). i was never required to read this for school (as were many), which is a good thing, since i doubt i would have enjoyed it in high school. going to see the movie halfway through only picked up my reading pace.
you’ll be seeing another post with the same title very soon. not being acquainted with the story (other than in a cursory knowledge of the resolution), it was fun to watch it unfold. the movie was also beautifully shot, and the backdrop throughout threatened to draw away attention from the main goings-on.
i was behind a mini cooper in traffic today with the license plate ITLN JOB. this may not be as funny a license plate as BJ TAHOE, but it’s certainly more nauseating.
in related news, a google search for “BJ TAHOE” now turns up my site as the first hit, which i suppose is not very surprising, given that it’s not a very common topic.