Speaking of books, look what I just finished! It was fantastic, of course, I can’t wait to read the next one.

Too bad about the perfectly square-shaped rip in the cover, but I wasn’t going to sell it anyway. I still wish I hadn’t sold my paperback Hitchhiker books and bought the big heavy anthology instead.

"

Richard went out and looked up the stairs and then came back in.

“A horse?” he said again.

“Yes, it is,” said the Professor. “Wait—” he motioned to Richard, who was about to go out again and investigate— “let it be. It won’t be long.”

Richard stared in disbelief. “You say there’s a horse in your bathroom, and all you can do is stand there naming Beatles songs?”

The Professor looked blankly at him.

“Listen,” he said, “I’m sorry if I…alarmed you earlier, it was just a slight turn. These things happen, my dear fellow, don’t upset yourself about it. Dear me, I’ve known odder things in my time. Many of them. Far odder. She’s only a horse, for heaven’s sake. I’ll go and let her out later. Please don’t concern yourself. Let us revive our spirits with some port.”

“But…how did it get in there?”

“Well, the bathroom window’s open. I expect she came in through that.”

"

—

Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

I really can’t believe I let myself forget how much I love Douglas Adams.

"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room."

—

Farewell My Lovely

Rousseau said Robinson Crusoe was “the one book that teaches all that books can teach,” and as such should be applied directly to (male) children’s brains in order to develop strong character. We have a difference of opinion.

Philip Marlowe will teach you:

• how to keep your humanity even when it’s costly
• how to smack someone in the face with their own gun, and when
• what kind of liquor to keep in your desk drawer
• how to survive with a soft heart
• how to be lonely
• how to be funny even when you’re beaten to a pulp and shot full of drugs
• how to mock brainless macho pricks even when they’re beating you to a pulp and shooting you full of drugs
• which part of a California house you can’t put your foot through
• how to love a rotting city
• that worms are of both sexes and that any worm can love any other worm
• how to lose a tail
• how to make a gimlet

(via novazembla)

(via inmymimeseye)

Thanks to Tumblr (coughrelatedworldscough) I’ve been rediscovering one of my favorite fantasy series from childhood. There is a lot more going on here than I remembered. Expect a dream cast post in the near future.

I was so happy to find out that two more books in the series had been published since I read these as a child, but so sad to realize there won’t be any more. :(

I knew those things would come in useful someday!

I hadn’t planned on getting one, but there was no way I was going to actually carry around Lonesome Dove or any of the Song of Ice and Fire books for any length of time. Paper books are great, but not when they weigh 8 pounds and won’t fit in a carry-on.

I made this playlist while I was reading American Gods, because I couldn’t get the book out of my head even when I wasn’t actively devouring it. Some of the songs are actually mentioned or the lyrics quoted in the book, while some just seemed particularly appropriate for certain scenes or characters. It goes in more or less chronological order, so if you’re especially canny you can follow the narrative of the book from beginning to end in these 15 songs. You can download a .zip of the whole mix here.

1. Patsy Cline - “Walkin’ After Midnight”
2. The Velvet Underground - “Who Loves the Sun”
3. Spoon - “Goodnight Laura”
4. Bob Dylan - “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”
5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - “Red Right Hand”
6. Wilco - “Bull Black Nova”
7. Louis Armstrong with Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra - “Winter Wonderland”
8. Traffic - “No Face, No Name, No Number”
9. Tom Waits - “Tango Till They’re Sore”
10. Ryan Adams - “The Shadowlands”
11. Daniel Goyone, Trilok Gurtu, Marc Bertaux, Jean-Marc Phillips & François Du Bois - “Balkis”
12. Josh Ritter - “Folk Bloodbath”
13. The Animals - “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
14. Indigo Girls - “Closer to Fine”
15. Paul Simon - “America”

I knew about halfway through reading American Gods that I was going to do a dream cast post for it. I didn’t find out until later that, just like A Visit From the Goon Squad, another of my favorite books I “casted,” it’s going to be made into an HBO miniseries. So, they could OBVIOUSLY use my help!

Read More

So, I’m not sure how they’re going to adapt A Visit From the Goon Squad (which has become one of my top five favorite books ever) into an HBO series. However, I DO have opinions about how they should cast it, and since making up dream casts is one of my favorite time-wasters, I thought I’d give it a go.

Read More

Quite simply the most amazing book I have read in a long, long time.

For Ian and anyone else who was curious about my thoughts on Bright’s Passage, here’s the review I wrote on Goodreads (4/5 stars):

Do I know what it all means? No, and I think everyone who reads this lovely novel is going to have a different idea about its significance and meaning. The story is exactly what a fan of Ritter’s music would expect: written like a fable or a folk tale, a heartbreaking story told by a stoic and impartial narrator. Think “The Curse” or “Another New World.” But what you can’t be prepared for just from listening to his music is his skill with language in prose. The imagery here is just breathtaking, and that’s what I enjoyed most. I am usually a quick reader, but I found myself going back to paragraphs I’d skimmed too quickly to make sure I was getting the full impact of the language. Even when the plot seemed to be getting away from me, it was still a pleasure to just let the descriptions wash over me. 

I think this will benefit a lot from a second reading. Maybe after that I’ll be able to tell you what it all means.