“It’s very irritating to work with irritating people.”
And speaking of irritating – this book’s written in the first-person-plural… The Virgin Suicides is the only other book I can recall that’s written in this narrative style – and I almost gave up on it.
I’ve had the book since it came out last year, only I wanted to finish reading his earlier books first… If this book weren’t by DM the description alone would likely not have been enough to get my attention. We shall see.
Later: A really good book – interesting story and extremely well written. Mitchell uses a lot of trademark narrative techniques, though in a more subtle way than in his earlier books. I do love how he manages to weave the supernatural into his stories.
A few recent books – that I can recall and am willing to admin having read…
Clockwise from the top left: Hidden River by Adrian McKinty; Just Kids by Patti Smith; Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart; Fingersmiths by Sarah Waters; Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace; Lost Weekends and One Night Stands by Lawrence Block.
Tokyo Year Zero was the biggest disappointment – likely because it was the one I had most anticipated. Stylistically it’s James Ellroy meets William Burroughs – although that combination sounds more promising than the reality of TYZ.
I
A few of the many recent books I’ve read include:
Remainder by Tom McCarthy; Ghostwritten and Number9Dream by David Mitchell; Blasted by Kate Story; a couple Lew Archer by Ross MacDonald; and the non-fiction The Hilliker Curse by James Ellroy.
I listened to the audiobook version of The Hilliker Curse narrated by Ellroy – quite an experience that.
Currently Reading: Usability of iPad Apps and Websites
by Raluca Budiu and Jakob Nielsen
This is interesting in that it’s some early insight into iPad apps and website usabilty. It’s interesting where the best practices for the iPad differs to those for the iPhone – though it seems that they share a lot of the same issues.
It’s kindly offered up as a free download: Usability of iPad Apps and Websites
Currently Reading: Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior.
by Indi Young
This is a book from a series from Rosenfeld Media. The series includes Design is the Problem:The Future of Design must be Sustainable, Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide and Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks.
What I’m enjoying most about this book is the practical advice for integrating UCD into less formal design processes. I’m only part way through, and there’s a lot of “real” information.
Italian Folktales, Selected and Retold by Italo Calvino, Translated by George Martin
A highly enjoyable (and scholarly) collection of folktales retold by the inimitable Italo Calvino. As there are 200 tales – my strategy has been to read a few stories between reading other books. As with any collection of folktales – there are plenty of kings, princesses, beheadings and maiming – morbid but almost always with a happy ending. Each story is preceeded by a brief description of the story’s sources, influences and an explaination as to how Calvino decided to synthesize various regional versions in his transcription. Some note worthy titles: “Quack, Quack Stick to My Back”, “The Chicken Laundress” and “Three Tales by Three Sons of Three Merchants”.
You can read some excerpts on Google Books.
2666: A Novel
by Roberto Bolano, translated by Natasha Wimmer
The Cheese Monkeys & The Learners
by Chip Kidd
Fun reading – especially for anyone who has ever been to art school or worked in advertising. Not often you encounter a passage on time sheets, billable and non-billable hours, or a pitch in a novel…
The Informers
by Bret Easton Ellis
I originally read this book of interconnected stories a quite some time ago. I was surprised as I was rereading that I was able to recall some of the stories quite vividly – and others not at all. While I’m hesitant to recommend anything by B.E.E. simply on the grounds that it’s likely to offend – I found this book to be a very enjoyable reread.