Just started this. I know we're both going to love it.
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In 1902, Jack London (Call of the Wild, White Fang etc) decided to live among the poor people of the East End of London for a time, to see what life was like for them there. Disguising himself as one of them and only arranging a safe haven where he could come and go occasionally if it all got too much, he spent months living in the slums, talking to the people there, learning about their lives through true experience. Then he wrote about it. Absorbing stuff already.

Here's an interesting quote right from the start of the book, almost:

"Presto! In the twinkling of an eye, so to speak, I had become one of them (the common folk). My frayed and out-at-elbows jacket was the badge and the advertisement of my class, which was their class. It made me of like kind, and in place of the fawning and too respectful attention I had received hitherto, I now shared with them a comradeship. The man in corduroy and dirty neckerchief no longer addressed me as "sir" or "governor". It was "mate" now."

Reading this again - mostly because of a recent project.

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Was considering tuning into the old Ray Bradbury Theater HBO series, but pulled an unread copy of Dandelion Wine off my Bradbury shelf to get a taste. Began with The Happiness Machine.

Needed a tissue. Darn you, Ray!

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Just finished reading Lincoln in the Bardo yesterday. I haven't read Saunders short stories but I'm looking forward to it because while this book tends to drag a bit, some of the chapters are just wonderful. He seems like a short story writer that bit more off than he could chew with a novel but I still enjoyed the book.

Next on the block...

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Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.

Someone, elsewhere, was looking for an interview that Art Lange did with John Cage
in Lange's periodical Brilliant Corners, so I decided to take some time to send it on to
this person as well as re-read this and some other issues of this nice bit of '70s history.

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Just finished this. Short book but I am committed to reading a lot so I finished it in two days. I liked it a lot. Negative reviews highlight the slowness of it but I found those portions atmospheric. The prose is a lot like my writing so I enjoyed it for just the writing style but the story itself is the kind of serious sci fi that I love. I can't get enough of stories grounded in reality but have some wort of sci fi twist to it that makes the situation unique. That's why I loved Arrival so much. Stuff like that could potentially happen or be found in the world we live in. Anyway, it's a quick read and the first of a three book series so you guys should check it out.

It's also going to be a movie directed by Alex Garland who made Ex Machina if that interests anybody.

Ginger Geezer: The Life of Vivian Stanshall

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So very excited about this latest arrival! Not approaching the text as a vain attempt at confirmation bias, but as a genuine exploration of this generational phenomena - a return to the tangible in a world which would seem to have rendered them obsolete.

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Loved Vivian Stanshall. Chula was listening to Tubular Bells the other day.

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Finally opened this badboy.. I got a long journey, and a whole other book if I make it through.

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As someone who doesn't read much 1000 pages is rather daunting.