11.30.2005
Selectively perusing the Times
One of the benefits of the TimesSelect membership (yeah, I got sucked in... free and virtually unlimited access to the complete archives, as well as Maureen Dowd and Tom Friedman? I was hooked) is finding out on Wednesday what will be in the Sunday Book Review and Magazine. Usually I'd get around to checking the web site the Tuesday or Wednesday after each came out, but sometimes not at all. With TimesSelect, I get an e-mail each Wednesday letting me know what will be in the upcoming sections, and letting me access that content.
This week, the NTYBR unveils its list of the 10 Best Books of 2005. I've read a grand total of one -- Ian McEwan's Saturday. Either I didn't fully appreciate this look at the quotidian aspects of the life of a decidedly un-average New Yorker, or the quality of so-called great books was a bit lacking this year. It's probably a bit of both, though the number of ambivalent or negative reviews for Saturday would seem to indicate the former more than the latter. I love lists, as much for the way they sometimes confirm my own opinions as much as for the ideas they offer, though this is the exception. Little here among the nine I haven't read piques my curiosity; only Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking holds much allure. Otherwise, seeing Haruki Murakami and Zadie Smith makes me wonder if they have automatic spots on such lists, and seeing Curtis Sittenfeld makes me wonder if the NYTBR is trying to appeal to a younger set. Remember: I write these things without having read a word of any of them, so I may be wrong.
Elsewhere, John Hodgman, whose podcasts for the Times' "Funny Pages" offerings try much too hard to be funny with little result, has a nice write-up about the daily comics pages. I'm a big fan of the comics (and have a growing fondness for Hodgman after seeing his side-splittingly funny spot on "The Daily Show" a couple of weeks back), and any time someone takes a critical look at strips without being condescending, I'm in. I had high hopes for The Comics Curmudgeon, but blogger Josh proves only that finding something interesting to say about the comics each day is nearly impossible.
Lastly, Michaelangelos Matos has a good piece in the Seattle Weekly about Continuum's 33 1/3 book series. The books, each slim volume about a different classic album, are great reads. Full disclosure: I just pitched them a book for the series (along with many others, it seems), but I'd sing its praises regardless.
UPDATE: Just noticed that my review of the Long Winters' new EP, Ultimatum, is the lead capsule review on Popmatters today. A long capsule about a short disc.
This week, the NTYBR unveils its list of the 10 Best Books of 2005. I've read a grand total of one -- Ian McEwan's Saturday. Either I didn't fully appreciate this look at the quotidian aspects of the life of a decidedly un-average New Yorker, or the quality of so-called great books was a bit lacking this year. It's probably a bit of both, though the number of ambivalent or negative reviews for Saturday would seem to indicate the former more than the latter. I love lists, as much for the way they sometimes confirm my own opinions as much as for the ideas they offer, though this is the exception. Little here among the nine I haven't read piques my curiosity; only Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking holds much allure. Otherwise, seeing Haruki Murakami and Zadie Smith makes me wonder if they have automatic spots on such lists, and seeing Curtis Sittenfeld makes me wonder if the NYTBR is trying to appeal to a younger set. Remember: I write these things without having read a word of any of them, so I may be wrong.
Elsewhere, John Hodgman, whose podcasts for the Times' "Funny Pages" offerings try much too hard to be funny with little result, has a nice write-up about the daily comics pages. I'm a big fan of the comics (and have a growing fondness for Hodgman after seeing his side-splittingly funny spot on "The Daily Show" a couple of weeks back), and any time someone takes a critical look at strips without being condescending, I'm in. I had high hopes for The Comics Curmudgeon, but blogger Josh proves only that finding something interesting to say about the comics each day is nearly impossible.
Lastly, Michaelangelos Matos has a good piece in the Seattle Weekly about Continuum's 33 1/3 book series. The books, each slim volume about a different classic album, are great reads. Full disclosure: I just pitched them a book for the series (along with many others, it seems), but I'd sing its praises regardless.
UPDATE: Just noticed that my review of the Long Winters' new EP, Ultimatum, is the lead capsule review on Popmatters today. A long capsule about a short disc.
