Newly read books

In the Shadow of No Towers, Art Spiegelman. Finished this book last Thursday afternoon, just before typhoon Yoyong hit. It was the calm before the storm. Everyone was trying to go home. The sky was dark gray and portentous, but hey quite a number of people stopped by POwerbooks Live and browsed. Art Spiegelman, known for Maus, tries to make sense of what has happened to him and his world post 9/11.

There was also a bit of comic book history, starting with the war for supremacy between the Hearst and Pulitzer headed papers at the turn of the last century. Spiegelman asserts that the reaction to 9/11 was more or less the same as it was early 20th century. There were also precursors of what would happen to the Lower Manhattan area: towers and building felled by huge kids playing hide-and-seek with a bearded guy. Anything different or strange was looked upon with suspicion and deep-seated hate.

In Cold Blood. Truman Capote is my current favorite author, said to be one of the starters of New Journalism and what we now know as Creative Nonfiction. It all started with a piece of news about the puzzling massacre of the Herb Clutter family in far out Kansas in November 1959. More of my reactions to the book here.

American Splendor, written by Harvey Pekar, art by R. Crumb et al. Found my copy in a Booksale bin for Php350, which Astrid insists is a good buy. American Splendor is concerned with “the life and times of Harvey Pekar.” The book reminds me of Richard LInklater’s films, which is mostly people talking. But Linklater’s characters are still somehow loveable even after they’ve mentally jacked off about the meaning of life for three hours and you’ve fallen asleep, but oh dear god, Ethan Hawke is still nice to look at. Pekar as depicted in the novel is someone you’d probably not emphatize with in a movie. He’s got a crappy government job. He’s a self-publishing and yet frustrated author. He’s insecure, perpetually jealous, buys 50 cent shoes, and thinks the world owes him something grand. There’s really not much happening. But at the same time, a lot of things are going on.

There’s still a bunch of books I’m reading but have not yet finished. Am halfway done with this fiction anthology about Elvis. A fun read, pero naiwan ko kasi sa bag sa Dungeon and I miss it sorely. Also thumbing through Siglo, a Japan book, and an essay collection about Pinoy rock. So far, walang as gripping as In Cold Blood. I bumped into a friend recently, and she’s urging me to read—guess what?—the freaking Da Vinci Code. I must be the only person left on the planet not to have read it. Mostly, I read my assortment of books so I could avoid reading my CL 350 required reading stuff. While I must say the history of capitalism and its consequences are interesting and would definitely get you railing against those damn colonising bastards, I doubt it if that’s really what you’d want to read when it’s cold and you’re lazy, or if you just want to pass some time on the train to school. Pass me the Elvis anthology, dammit.

Panawagan: Baka meron sa inyong may Truman Capote stuff aside from In Cold Blood. Would want to read those. Saka baka may James Ellroy kayo dyan na hindi L.A. Confidential. Perhaps the Black Dahlia o kaya My Dark Places. Pahiram naman po.