First books of the year

I'll try listing down my fifty films. I just finished "Ocean's Twelve" and maybe I'll start with that. Well, that and "Nanny McPhee". Oh, and also "Hellboy," watched it just before Ocean.

My first books are a lively bunch.

(1) After the Quake by Haruki Murakami - Four stories and I think I see why he is such a DECL favorite. The traces of Carver and Kafka are unmistakable. I will probably read more of his work.

(2) Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman - This piece seems to me like it's trying to do with time what Calvino's Invisible Cities did with space. So the same advice to readers of the Cities: do not read it at one go.

(3) Real Stuff by Dennis Eichhorn and various artists - Since I insist on annotating with intertexts, this work's much like Harvey Pekkar's American Splendor (still with me by the way, Jess!). It's less introspective and packs more sex and violence. Naturally, one go.

(4) The Killing Joke by Alan Moore, Brian Bollard, and Mark Higgins - The best Joker story ever put to paper. The best Joker story ever put to paper. The best Joker story ever put to paper.

(5) The Poems New and Collected by Wislawa Szymborska - Now this one's on a league all her own. None of my previous poetry reading prepared me for her voice. It's so open, the socratic "I don't know" but with no trace of condescension! Odd and refreshing especially for a poet. If any one of you can call to mind a poet that can pull off something like this, tell me. Someday, I want to write with such a spirit. I'll fail miserably. I'll know it's okay. She's Czeslaw Milosz's student. Also a Nobel Laureate.

What do I have in the bag? More Kafka (is there an end of him? High school and he's still with me!) and Pessoa. This ought to be interesting.