Sunday, February 28, 2010

Booknotes

I found my old Booknotes notebook (isn't that a cute name?) tonight. I'd been thinking of using it again, then forgot all about it. My wish list made me shudder a little at some of the items I'd included. When I turned to the books read section, I remembered vividly the month of November when I kept buying and reading books. I almost didn't go to class back then, because I hated my school and didn't know anyone in my new classes. Instead, I spent hours on my fold out couch, with a blanket around me because I was always cold then, which I believe was because of the almost-eating disorder I was suffering from. 

In November of 2006, I compulsively read: 
- The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis (Nov 4-5, 326p) 
- White Noise by Don DeLillo (Nov 5-9, 326 pages)
- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis (Nov 9-12, 195p)
- On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Nov 12-16, 443p)
- The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster (Nov 17-18, 304p)
- Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis (Bov 18-22, 400p)
- Goodbye, Colombus by Philip Roth (Nov 22-30, 276p)

and finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (finished Nov 2nd, 514 pages). I also started numerous books whose titles I crossed out when I started a different book. 

Now, people who know me well know that I can't read that fast in normal circumstances. I'm easily distracted. I can't read more than 10 pages at a time without checking something or other online, that the book I'm reading has reminded me of.

Why all the Bret Easton Ellis? I don't know. I'd never wanted to read any of his stuff. Then, I found The Rules of Attractions or Less Than Zero, I can't remember which I bought first, and I just enjoyed it. It portrayed emptiness. I liked that. It disgusted me too. Lunar Park was about as strange as I can go for in a book. 

I remember reading White Noise and wanting to write down every single sentence because they rang so true or they made me laugh so hard. I wrote down a couple in that notebook, but I think I jotted down many more somewhere else, though I can't quite remember where. 

One of my favorite quotes in that notebook is this. It made me laugh to no end -  
"Their bumper sticker read 
GUN CONTROL IS MIND CONTROL. 
In situations like this, 
you want to stick close 
to people in right-wing 
fringe groups. 
They've practiced staying alive."
Don DeLillo, White Noise


************
Listening to Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
Exact tracks I've listened to while writing this:  
- Fourth Time Around
- Absolutely Sweet Marie
- Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
- Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
- Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

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